How Much Does God Know?

Does anything surprise God? Are there things that even He doesn't know?

These are some of the questions raised in a book published some years back, which came up in a discussion this week. I have never read the book, but the one telling me about it summarized the thesis as something like this: If God has allowed humans free will, then there must be a time when He does not know what we will do. If you create something that can think for itself, how can you know what it will think or do?

I strongly believe you cannot hold the Bible as the inerrant Word of God and also consider this to be true. Why? Because the Bible consistently contradicts this view.

Over and over, the writers of Scripture declare that God knows their thoughts...

Before a word is on my tongue You know it completely, O Yahweh. ~Psalm 139:4

You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men ~1Kings 8:39c

Yahweh knows the thoughts of man; He knows that they are futile. ~Psalm 94:11

You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. ~Psalm 139:2

Then the Spirit of the Yahweh came upon me, and he told me to say: "This is what the Yahweh says: That is what you are saying, O house of Israel, but I know what is going through your mind." ~Ezekiel 11:5

If He did not know all the details of a person's heart, actions, thoughts, and will, He certainly could never determine how long they would live. Yet the Psalmist states that God knew the exact day of his death before he was even born.

All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be. ~Psalm 139:16b

Not only does He know the day of our death, but at creation He already had written in His book of life all who would be saved.

The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come. ~Revelation 17:8

Yahweh determined exactly what it would take and how long for Nebuchadnezzar to humble himself before Him.

Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone He wishes. ~Daniel 4:25

Similarly, He planned Pharaoh's part in the Israelite's exodus from Egypt, long before he was born.

It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ~Romans 9:16-17

He knew which of Jesse's sons would not only serve as king, but be the man of God that He desired.

"Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Yahweh looks at the heart." ~1 Samuel 16:7c

Even Jesus, God and perfect man, though limited in His human capacity to know the times set by His Father for His return, knew what those around Him were thinking, what the state of their hearts were, and exactly what they would do to Him.

Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? ~Matthew 9:4

"Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why do you seek to kill Me?"  ~John 7:19

I know you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are ready to kill Me, because you have no room for My word. ~John 8:37  

The author (of the book mentioned at the start) could argue that many of these are just Yahweh examining people's thoughts and actions as they happened. But there is hardly a book in the Old Testament where Yahweh does not predict how a person or a nation will act. 

As early as Genesis 3, God foretold of the actions of mankind and their need for a Messiah. In chapter 15, He told Abraham about the slavery that his children would be under for four hundred years.  

This does not even scratch the surface of His messages through the prophets. For example, His prediction that a specific ruler, Cyrus, would be the one to free His people from foreign lands and allow them to return home. 

If you believe the older dating of Isaiah, this was written over two hundred years before Cyrus' birth. Even if you date the latter part of Isaiah during the lifetime of Cyrus, He still was describing Cyrus actions to people who would never have looked to him for salvation. 

Yet Yahweh is the One—

Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, 'My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure' ~Isaiah 46:10

The purposes of Yahweh will not be thwarted. He knew before creation all that would take place.

I'm so thankful for a King and Father who cannot be taken by surprise by our lives or by the world.

Wearied for What...or Whom?

What excites you? For what are you willing to exhaust yourself? Sports? Entertainment? Shopping? Work? Vacation? Family? Friends?

Lately I've been reading the book of Isaiah. Every time I read chapter 43, I'm struck by verses 20 through 25.

In this passage, God points out that the wild animals praise Him because He provides for them. He contrasts this with His people, who He also provides for their daily needs, yet they ignore Him.

I have not burdened you with grain offerings

nor wearied you with demands for incense. (v. 23b)

But you have burdened Me with your sins
and wearied Me with your offenses.(v. 24b)

This passage is one of many in the Old Testament in which Yahweh "wears His heart on His sleeve." Can't you see it?

It's like a wife's question of "how do I look?" when she really means, "do you still find me attractive?" or, more to the point, "do you still love me best?"

Yahweh's heart has never been in laws or demanding obedience. He longs for us to obey out of love (which is true love).

One of the scariest things about Christianity is that it isn't based on a list of dos and don'ts (as we have previously looked at), but it is built on Christ.

If His Spirit lives inside of you, you will want to spend time with Him. As you spend time with Him, you will love Him with a greater fervor. As your love increases, you will do and delight in doing what you know brings a smile to His face. And, as you obey, your character looks increasingly like its Creator.

Spiritual life, like all other aspects of life and leadership, requires a rigorous commitment to learning and growing. When we stop growing, our momentum quickly fades, and we start the process of atrophy. . . . Soaking up sustenance never stops, and even in times of drought, we find sources of strength if we've gone deep enough. ~Zig Ziglar (The One Year Daily Insights with Zig Ziglar and Dr. Ike Reighard)

When I read of the lives of personal heroes such as Oswald Chambers, read how his life burnt out like a firecracker, whose glow is seen long after it is dead, I look in shame at my own lack of passionate pursuit of God.

I'm not there. Are you?

I wrote this poem 30 August 2002. Sadly, it is still applicable.

Father,

I know what it’s like

   to thirst for a voice,

   to hunger for a face,

   to ache for a touch.

I want to feel it for You.

I thirst for the desire,

   hunger for the passion,

   ache for the knowledge

   of You for whom I so often

      am not stirred.

Far from desiring to leave you with a despairing note, I want to leave you with a praise for God's grace and a renewed goal of seeking Him passionately.

One thing I've learned in my relationship with God is how good it feels to confess my lack of passion. When I tell God of my deficiency of feeling, yet my longing to love Him as I should, I am set free from guilt and filled with love for my Father, who is so gracious with His foolish child.

Let's begin again today, this moment, to not only pursue Him passionately, but to egg one another on towards the same goal.

Look Around

In case you didn't know, this week is Thanksgiving holiday in the States. I suppose it's sadly predictable then that I would mull over this season.

One question this topic brings to mind is—where am I on the gratitude scale? Where are you?

I went through a particularly hard time the end of last year and beginning of 2010. A friend also felt weighed down in this wonderful-world-of-woe-is-me. We recognized our need to focus on our blessings instead of our problems, so we began to e-mail each other each weekday sharing praises. Sometimes we wrote paragraphs; sometimes only a couple of words. Somehow those praise began to lift us out of the slough of despondency, freeing us to look around at all the wonders from God.

Cultivating a thankful heart takes work, but there is little joy that rivals it. 

With gratitude comes clear vision to see, truly see, a sunrise or sunset and whisper, "Thank You, Father!" With it comes the thrill of longing for someone you love who is close enough to touch or a phone call away, realizing that it is a blessing today and not a guarantee for tomorrow. 

Your sense of touch, of smell is heightened to the peak of appreciation. Distant laughter brings a smile to your face. You notice the small answers to prayer that shows just how intimately God's cares for you.

Thanksgiving isn't a time of year. Yet, if you celebrate it as special holiday, may it be the start of a new attitude of gratitude. Wherever we are on the scale, let's concentrate on becoming more thankful people.

And true gratitude is sharing. So, what are you thankful for? 

(If you are now in the mood, you can go to Cyber Hymnal and sing along to "Count Your Blessings.")

Freedom's Foundation

Have you ever considered that rules come naturally to humans? Each person consciously or subconsciously constructs rules for themselves. The most savage nations have rules. Rules provide security.

A man may have the rule to give in to his lusts wherever they lead. A woman may have the rule to spend on whatever she sees.

Rules basically are a pattern on which our life is run. We have a code of acceptability. When someone else breaks the code that we keep, he or she is beneath us.

Non-Christians often scoff at religion because of the rules which it enforces, little realizing they have rules which they strictly follow.

The term addiction may be more accurate. When you think you are free from rules, you are most often bound by addictions, habits, compulsions. Self-gratification becomes your driving force.

In the book of Isaiah chapters 27-28, God contrasts two types of peace and security. The first is found in Him.

...let them come to Me for refuge;
let them make peace with Me,
yes, let them make peace with Me. (27:5)

But Israel neither fully rejected Him nor sought Him as their refuge and peace. Instead, they mocked the prophet. They said the same as people today, "God only binds us with rules."

But God reminds them that He had said to them, "'This is the resting place, let the weary rest'; and 'this is the place of repose'—but they would not listen." 

Because they would not find their rest in Him, God promised He would say, "Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule" (v. 13). Resting in God would have freed them from disobedience. Seeking their own way, bound them in sin.

Instead of seeking God as their refuge, they created their own.

Therefore hear the word of 
Yahweh, you scoffers . . .
You boast, "We have entered into a 
covenant with death,
with the grave we have made an agreement.
When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by,
it cannot touch us,
for we have made a lie our refuge
and falsehood our hiding 
place. (28:12)

In contrast to the lie in which they seek security, God promises a Cornerstone, tested and precious, that will make a solid foundation. Those who build on this foundation will "never be dismayed." Those who trust in the lie, "hail will sweep away."

The apostles (1 Peter 2:6) recognized Jesus as the promised Cornerstone. He did not change from old covenant rules to only grace and love in the new covenant. He loves us enough to tell us how our life should should be lived.

Jesus said, 

If anyone loves Me, he will obey my teaching. (John 14:23a)

Drudgery comes in obeying rules, God's or those of the flesh, in our own strength and understanding. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we are free to obey.

The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:26)

As a manufacturer clearly states the car only runs on gasoline, so our lives will not prosper on disobedience.

As a game has no beginning or end without rules, so our life must be guided by something. Only following the right rules will win you the game.

As an eagle is not bound in flight, so obedience gives wings to live the life God created for us.

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. (Galatians 5:13)

A Ringbearer

Frodo: I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.

Gandolf: So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. 

There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil.

Bilbo was meant to find the ring. In which case you also were meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.

Have you ever felt like Frodo? You've been dealt a hand of circumstances, and you'd rather fold than play the game.

I believe we all enter this cave of Moria at least once in our lives. Sometime it's God's own words that meet us in that dark place; sometimes they come through a friend.

We all need to be reminded. Our sovereign God has a purpose for the mission He's given you. There is a reason you are here at this time in history, in the country you are living, in the family you were born into, in the state of health or sickness with which you live.

Unlike Frodo, however, you don't depend on a wizard who can be hindered or killed nor a creature, once like yourself, who now is both your guide and threat. No. You have a High Priest that is risen and sitting at the right hand of Yahweh of Hosts interceding for you, if you belong to Him. If you are His child, you have His Spirit inside of you directing you on the path that is good to take and pleading with the Father for all your needs (needs of which you yourself may not be aware).

This doesn't mean the path is any easier than the path Tolkien imagined for Frodo. It doesn't mean you won't have friends desert you, disappoint you, try to discourage you. It doesn't mean you won't lose your life or the life of one you hold dear.

It does mean, you will never walk alone. And everything that happens to you is in the control of your Creator, who has a bigger plan than just for your life or mine, but who loves us more than we can comprehend.

The world may look dark. We may see grief and defeat all around us, and may wish to return to "the good old days" of our imagined world. That is not for us to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

Be faithful to the mission in which God had you embark. He is the Author of the story, so it will end well.

Here's the church, here's the steeple, open the doors and...

One definition of community is a gathering of people who have a common goal and a sense of belonging.

Why is it in a church that sense of belonging doesn't seem to last or to meet the real issues people have? Do we need more programs, more teachers, more counselors, more activism?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer analyzes some of these aspects in Life Together. What was true in the 30s and 40s is no less true today.

Many persons seek community because they are afraid of loneliness...Christians, too, who cannot cope on their own, and who in their own lives have had some bad experiences, hope to experience help with this in the company of other people. More often than not, they are disappointed. They then blame the community for what is really their own fault. The Christian community is not a spiritual sanatorium. Those who take refuge in community while fleeing from themselves are misusing it to indulge in empty talk and distraction, no matter how spiritual this idle talk and distraction may appear. In reality they are not seeking community at all, but only a thrill that will allow them to forget their isolation for a short time. It is precisely such misuse of community that creates the deadly isolation of human beings.

I've heard it said that if a person enters marriage in order to avoid being lonely, they will be a lonely married person. Another person may be the ingredient for fellowship, but not a cure for loneliness. 

Bonhoeffer views this, and I think rightly so, as trying to avoid coming face-to-face with who one is before God. Until we are willing to sit in isolation and have the reality of ourselves fully revealed over time, we will never allow God to cleanse us of our sins. 

Our sins can never be realized to their full extent at conversion. I don't believe we would be able to bear the weight of the knowledge of them in detail. That is something only the sinless Son of God could bear (and it took Him to death). Our sins, such as pride, wear so many disguises and so often appear so pious in their Sunday best.

Daily digging into the Word, daily seeking the heart of God in conversation with Him, daily and consciously humbling ourselves before God and acknowledging His wisdom when our own understanding would rise up against it. . . this is the solitude, the preparation that must be ongoing in order for one to be a healthy part of community.

What does that mean? Do we lock ourselves away from church until we are fit to enter? If we did that, every church door would close till the end of time.

In case this emphasis on solitude confirms any one's desire to pull out of church, Bonhoeffer continues with the other side of the coin:

Whoever cannot stand being in community should beware of being alone. You are called into the community of faith; the call was not meant for you alone. You carry your cross, you struggle, and you pray in the community of faith, the community of those who are called. You are not alone even when you die, and on the day of judgment you will be only one member of the great community of faith in Jesus Christ. If you neglect the community of other Christians, you reject the call of Jesus Christ, and thus your being alone can only become harmful for you.

There is an equal call in Biblical Christianity to individuals and to people. 

Individually, if you have been born again, God called you. No one else could have made that decision for you. It didn't matter whether you were in the "right church," had a good education. . . nothing else mattered. God's grace bent down and breathed life in your heart and you opened your eyes and believed.

Collectively, your new birth is not a matter just between you and God. When God lifted you from the spiritually dead, He placed you as part of His Body comprised of Christians like and unlike you from around the world. When a part of the Body is hurt, the whole Body is impacted. You cannot sin and not affect the Church. You are a part of a whole.

Why is this important to keep this balanced? 

On the one hand, we are responsible for our spiritual walk. Just as a heart is responsible for pumping blood and can't rely on the hand to help it, so we cannot rely on another person to make us strong spiritually. Another can use their gifts to encourage us, but it is up to us to make it real. That is where our solitude before God is crucial. 

On the other hand, if we lock ourselves away, if we begin to notice every weakness in our brothers and sisters at church and pull away, we are being led astray by pride. This pride is able to make our quiet time with God nothing but our own imagined piety patting us on the back. Instead of realizing we are one of many and are responsible in aiding the other parts of the body, we think of ourselves as essential to God and a unit unto ourselves.

Bonhoeffer summarizes:

Those who want community without solitude plunge into the void of words and feelings, and those who seek solitude without community perish in the bottomless pit of vanity, self-infatuation, and despair.

When we are listening regularly to God, we are more sensitive to our own failings and can humbly accept God's tools of change. We also receive of God's fullness and can therefore reach out in love to those in community. 

Thus, God provides our sense of belonging, whether or not others treat us as they should, and towards others we can share love unreservedly, strengthening their sense of belonging too.

This Week

I rarely get sick. This past week, however, I've been run over with a flu/cold bug that's been going around. I'm postponing my usual post to avoid the necessity for you to decode my ramblings. I'll either write later this week or next weekend. Thank you for your patience.