“O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand! I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence!" (Psalm 139:1-7)
"If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night, but even in darkness, I cannot hide from you. To you, the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.” (Psalm 139:8-12)
“Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish.” (Isaiah 46:10)
Have we taken a moment to consider the implications of being All-knowing? Quite frankly, we haven't even scratched the surface of what it means to truly know EVERYTHING. Knowing everything means nothing is hidden.
“Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.” (Hebrews 4:13)
Knowing everything also means that everything that has transpired on this planet as well as in the entire universe was intentional.
“But the Lord’s plans stand firm forever; his intentions can never be shaken.” (Psalm 33:11)
Nothing was by accident, and nothing was unexpected. If anything were a surprise to God, He would not be God. God is incapable of learning because He is the source of all knowledge. But that is not even beginning to comprehend what it means to know everything.
The Bible tells us so much about this All-knowing God, but somehow, these clear details escape us. God loves us so much that even our ignorance is overlooked. But as time approaches nearer and nearer to the end, ignorance becomes less and less of an excuse.
“God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone, everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him.” (Acts 17:30)
The focus of this study is God’s All-knowing nature. To know everything implies so many things that we have yet to comprehend. God created us knowing we would be rebellious sinners rejecting His love. He created all the angels knowing that one-third of all of them would rebel against His government. He created Lucifer knowing the curse that would befall the entire universe just because of him. He created us all knowing that there will be so much we would not understand and that most of what we know was found in places He did not lead. He created us anyway, despite our shortcomings because He was in love with us way before we even existed. Everything God created was beautiful and perfect. How then can God create something so beautiful knowing it would be corrupted and cause so much pain, suffering, destruction, and death? This is where we need to zoom back, really far back, and look at the bigger picture.
This study is an attempt to help us understand that nothing that exists is by chance or some sort of mistake. Was it then God’s plan that we experience the ugliness of sin and evil? Before we answer that, let’s read the following.
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” (Revelation 21:1-4)
When we see where everything finally ends up, we can maybe understand why God made the things He did. His infinite wisdom is way too vast for us to fathom.
Imagine we are God. We know everything. We know the end from the beginning. (“I declare the end from the beginning…” Isaiah 46:10) How would we go about creating a perfect universe in perfect harmony? We could have made it kind of like the movie “The Matrix”. Everything is an illusion. Nothing is real except what goes on in the mind. Or we could have done it in an actual physical space where life is blissful and no imperfection whatsoever. But how do we create love outside of ourselves? How do we create genuine love and affection without the “first contact” effect where intimacy begins? Love is an experience that begins small and then grows and intensifies. If we create love universally, by default, it becomes automated. It is simply an automatic function of the brain, like breathing. There is no thought put into it. Love then becomes an instinct; an innate, typically fixed pattern of behavior in animals in response to certain stimuli. Birds, for example, have an instinct to build nests. Is this the kind of love we would create, instinctive love?
There is this movie called “Next” starring Nicolas Cage. He can see his own future within two minutes ahead of his current timeframe. It’s an interesting science fiction story. But imagine if we can see the entire history of the universe in a snapshot. We see every possible scenario. We play it over and over in our mind, every single possibility, every choice, every outcome, every imaginable synopsis of the infinite history of the universe. We’ve played this out over a quadrillion times in our minds and finally realize that there is only one way, only one out of an infinite number of possibilities that this will turn out the right way. After we’ve spent eternity thinking this out in our minds, we finally set our plan in motion.
This is a lot for a human to even imagine. The truth is, this is exactly what God did. He knows the end from the beginning. Since He knew which scenario was best, why would He intentionally choose to create a universe full of rebellion and a planet full of suffering, violence, and death? First, let’s get the terminology straight. God did not create evil, His handiwork did. God’s creation was perfect. But He gave His living, intelligent creation the ability to choose knowing how dangerous that gift would be. And sure enough, that danger played out. Was it necessary? Think about it, God knows the end from the beginning. He considered all the possible outcomes in His mind before He created anything, and what we see today is what He chose before the beginning of time. Remember, since God knows everything, His thoughts are way higher than our own. Since that is true, then yes, it was all necessary.
“For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)
It’s a little difficult to process these mysterious acts of God, but even though it seems mysterious, these things are revealed. If they are revealed, they are meant to be understood.
“He reveals deep and mysterious things and knows what lies hidden in darkness, though he is surrounded by light.” (Daniel 2:22)
God’s foreknowledge of what lies ahead in the future is beyond our comprehension. Suffice it to say, He does know all. The future is not a mystery to Him. This is the reason why He can so accurately tell us what will happen before it happens. This is the reason why He can always do the right thing at the right time. He can make something happen just in the right way because He already knows all the alternative scenarios and the way He chooses is the best and only way because He accepts no other outcome other than the perfect outcome for every one of us that follow His lead.
Let us consider for a moment the story of Joseph and his 12 brothers. We can read it in Chapters 37 through 50 of the book of Genesis. The story tells us that at a very young age, Joseph had two dreams. The dreams portrayed his family bowing down in homage to him. It was God who gave him these two dreams. But Joseph, in his innocence, was naive enough to think that relaying these dreams to his brothers as well as his parents, would evoke a positive response from them.
Can we picture in the mind of this innocent teenager how he would think his parents and brothers would be more than happy to prostrate themselves before him and congratulate him for being a godlike figure before them? But the opposite was true. His brothers already hated him for being Jacob’s favorite. Those dreams just made them hate him more. Didn’t God know that those dreams would make the situation worse for Joseph? His brothers hated him so much that they schemed to kill him. But they instead sold him to some slave traders in order to get rid of him.
Joseph was humiliated, betrayed, falsely accused, imprisoned, and totally forgotten. Did God not see the terrible things Joseph was going to endure? Not only did God see Joseph’s plight ahead of time, but He also contributed to it. How? He did so by giving him those two dreams which He knew were going to be relayed to his brothers and his parents. God knew his brothers were going to hate him even more and get rid of him at any cost.
We are now at the same crossroads Joseph was before he became ruler of Egypt. We are in that valley where we cannot see above the mountaintops. Our eyes are faint, and our gaze is shortsighted. We cannot focus on the true vision at the end of the story. Our eyes tell us our fate is hopeless. But God wants us to focus on Him. He knows the end from the beginning. We can only see our present “Now”. But if we focus on God, we focus on a future beyond our eyesight. Something so exceedingly wonderful is awaiting us. But that future is in the hands of someone who loves us more than imagination can conjure up. It is through trials that we are made like pure gold.
”These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.” (1 Peter 1:7)
Yes, Joseph endured the worst Satan can throw at him. But after the lowest point of his life, he then became the second-highest authority in the then-known world. It was because of him that thousands of lives were saved during the seven-year famine. His brothers were so sorrowful for what they had done that they begged Joseph to make them slaves so they can make amends.
”Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph. “Look, we are your slaves!” they said. But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.” (Genesis 50:18-20)
These stories are there for a reason. God can turn the worst of our experiences into the most magnificent victory story imaginable. How can He do that? He can do that because He knows the end from the beginning. Before our story even begins to unfold, He already staged our victory dance before it even started. Wouldn’t it make sense to be on God’s side?
Since God knows everything before it happens, does that mean He has predestined those who are going to be saved and those who are going to be lost? No, God did not choose who will be lost or saved. He knows who will be lost and who will be saved, but He does not choose who will accept Him and who will reject Him. On the contrary, before the beginning of time, God chose everyone to be saved by writing them all down in the Book of Life. Yes, everyone’s name was written into the Book of Life. Why do I say this? Consider the following.
“To the one you have punished, they add insult to injury; they add to the pain of those you have hurt. Pile their sins up high, and don’t let them go free. Erase their names from the Book of Life; don’t let them be counted among the righteous.” (Psalm 69:26-28)
This is King David speaking about his enemies. He asks for God’s justice and requests that they be erased from the Book of Life. Why?
“And if anyone removes any of the words from this book of prophecy, God will remove that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book.” (Revelation 22:19)
Here we see God “removing” a person’s share in the Tree of Life.
“All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine.” (Revelation 3:5)
How do you erase a name from a list or remove a person’s share of something? The only way you can remove or erase a person’s name from a list is that the name must be part of that list, to begin with. Every person from Adam to the last person born was written into the Book of Life. As each chose to reject God, their names were removed. If anything, God predestined everyone to be saved. But because of our power to choose for ourselves, God honored our choices. And due to our choices, the list was revised.
Dear friend, trust that our All-knowing God who created the vast universe has a place in His heart for us. He created us and knew us before anything ever existed. He made everything beautiful. He sees great potential in us. He planted in our hearts a desire to live forever. But the choice is ours to make. He already knows what choice we will make, but regardless of our choices, He gives us every opportunity to choose Him even if we reject Him.
“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
If we choose God, there is no power in this universe strong enough to snatch us out of His hand. If we choose to live for His glory, He will hold on to us like the most valuable jewel and will never ever let us go. Nothing and no one can undo the great things He has done for us and the great things He is yet to do.
“From eternity to eternity I am God. No one can snatch anyone out of my hand. No one can undo what I have done.” (Isaiah 43:13)
But remember, the choice is ours to make. We will always have a choice to make. Just because we choose Him one day does not mean we can’t reject Him the next day. We must die to ourselves daily so that our will is not the primary focus of our lives.
“For I swear, dear brothers and sisters, that I face death daily. This is as certain as my pride in what Christ Jesus our Lord has done in you.” (1 Corinthians 15:31)
But know this, living in the will of God is of greater enjoyment than living according to our own will. God created us and designed us and knows everything about us. He knows what makes us happy and what makes us sad. His greatest desire is for us to be happy. The joy He has in store for us is greater than anything we can imagine.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
Choosing God daily is like choosing happiness. God knows what we enjoy more than we do. Choosing Him ensures that our happiness will be complete and in abundance. Can our imagination ever conjure up anything close to what God has in store for us? Our imagination can’t possibly go that far.
“That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9)
If we choose God, we will never regret it.