We live in a world of constant surveillance, where governments and companies constantly monitor our communications. They use this information in many ways; for example, knowing what we purchase can help with tailored advertising. Other information can help governments know who we will vote for (even though we in God’s Church should not vote in governmental elections). This is usually with the aim of knowing our future actions and possibly influencing them for some purpose, whether political or commercial. As an example, this information can be used in “Nudge Technology”, a system where people are nudged to vote a certain way or purchase a certain product, or even partake of a medical procedure like a vaccine, and believe that they are making a free will choice, because there may be no mandate or coercion, but the desired aim of the government or company is still achieved.
But does God “figure out” what we will do by knowing what we have done in the past and assuming we will continue doing likewise in the future? Or is there much more involved?
For a start, what does God know? He reveals much about Himself in His Word, the Bible. But He does not reveal everything He knows to us. Deuteronomy 29:29 does inform us that there is a limit, for some reason: “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” But even so, there is a great amount revealed about God in His Word. Following is a short list of examples of God explaining His abilities and knowledge to give us some understanding of who and what God is.
God knows the names of all the stars; He knows all of them by name. Psalm 147:4 states: “He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name.” We, as humans, are very limited; we can count and name only a few stars. Even with the most powerful telescopes, the stars are uncountable, but since God, through Jesus Christ, created them all, for Him it takes no effort whatsoever to name them all. He does not have human limitations like we do. God compared the number of stars with the descendants of Abram in Genesis 15:5, “Then He brought him outside and said, ‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’” In other words, a very great number. A number none of us can even comprehend. It could be approaching a billion people.
We read in Psalm 147:5: “Great is our Lord and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.” We humans have a very finite understanding, especially compared with God’s. In a similar expression in Psalm 145:3 and Isaiah 40:28, God’s understanding is translated from another Hebrew word as “unsearchable”. But basically, it means “beyond our understanding” or “without limit”. God’s understanding and knowledge are even greater than that of the angels. 1 Peter 1:12 informs us that there are things that angels want to look into: “To them [the prophets of old] it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into.”
And how is God affected by time? This is described in Isaiah 57:15: “For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.’” We inhabit the present time and do not know what the future will bring precisely, although biblical prophecy does give us an indication of events that will occur in the future. As for what happened in the past before we were born, we only know what others have told us. However God, inhabiting eternity, is not limited in any way by time. He knows everything that has happened. We will discuss later whether He also knows everything that will happen.
God, of course, has the ability to cause future events to occur, as is stated in Isaiah 46:9-11, “Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me. Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’ Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man who executes My counsel, from a far country. Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it.”
This man is understood to be king Cyrus of Persia, and in Isaiah 44:28, he was prophesied to rebuild Jerusalem and lay the foundation of the temple: “…Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, And he shall perform all My pleasure, Saying to Jerusalem, “You shall be built,” And to the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.”’” This prophecy was written long before Cyrus was even born, and God still used his future name. It was written about 150 – 200 years before it was fulfilled. So this example shows God knows or directs future events; in this case, it was God’s purpose to use king Cyrus to fulfill one aspect of His Will, so this is a matter of declaring a future event from an earlier time.
Another prophecy in which God gave the name of a future king is in 1 Kings 13:1-2: “And behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, ‘O altar, altar! Thus says the LORD: “Behold, a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men’s bones shall be burned on you.”’” This prophecy was spoken between 270 and 290 years before the event prophesied occurred. Again, this shows God can declare future events that will fulfill His purpose, from the time many years earlier.
God also compares our way of thinking with His way. This is stated in Isaiah 55:8-9: “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ says the LORD. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.’” No matter how much we think we know, God knows so much more, and He uses this example comparing the height of the heavens with our life on the earth. The actual extent of the heavens is limitless if we want to believe astronomers, but there is a physical limit as to how far we can see into the universe, due to its supposed age and the speed of light. We have no idea what is outside of that limit.
If we ask, “How old is God?”, we find the answer in Job 36:26, “Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him; Nor can the number of His years be discovered.” At some time in the past, as we understand time, God created time for us to live in as human beings. But God already existed before there was any time.
Another mention of God’s knowledge is in Job 37:16, “Do you know how the clouds are balanced, Those wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge?” Using the word “perfect” is a superlative. There is nothing better than perfect. God has so much knowledge that He even knows the hairs on the heads of all His servants (Matthew 10:30). To us, this appears impossible, but God, being a Spirit being, does not have any physical limitations like we have, and so He knows all that He wants to know. But, as we will see later, He is still learning when considering human conduct.
When did God choose whom He would call to be members of His Church and hence first fruits? This is answered in Ephesians 1:3-4, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love…” Commentaries generally state, and the Church of the Eternal God teaches, that the expression “chosen us” refers to individuals, not the Church as an entity. It includes Paul himself and Jews and Gentiles present at Ephesus at that time. It is the same Greek word used when Christ chose His disciples individually. It is used in the book of Acts when specific persons were chosen for specific tasks. Similarly, “before the foundation of the world” implies this choice was made before the world was made or before the work of creation.
Therefore, God knew before He created the world whom He would choose individually out of the population living at Ephesus at the time Paul preached there. This logically implies that God knew everyone He would call in the history of the world before He created the world. Many in the Church of God in the past have tried to minimize or generalize this fact, teaching that God would raise up a Church or that God would just call a number of some unidentified and unknown individuals at a given time, but as the commentaries point out and as many other Scriptures prove, the biblical meaning that God knew which individuals He would call before the world was created is the true meaning of this passage.
There are some passages indicating that God in some cases does not hear. This is stated in John 9:31, “Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him.” And also in Psalm 66:18, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.” This is not stating that God is unable to hear or is deaf, but the sense is that God will not listen and respond favorably to a person of iniquity when he or she prays. In actual fact, God hears everything, but only chooses to respond to things that are within His purpose.
This is explained again in Isaiah 59:1-2, “Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.” Most translations replace “hear” with “listen,” indicating God can hear the sounds we make as we pray, but He will refuse or choose not to listen to the substance of the prayer, and He will therefore not respond to our prayers if we are rebellious and full of sin which we are unwilling to overcome.
This issue of God hearing and not hearing is due to the fact that there are different ways a Greek or Hebrew word can be translated into English. The Hebrew for “hear” is translated in over twenty ways in the Old Testament depending on context. The Greek in the New Testament is translated in fewer ways but still with variations. This is explained effectively in “The New Analytical Greek Lexicon”, where we read “hear” can also be translated as: to hearken, listen to, to heed, to obey, to understand, to take in or admit to mental acceptance. So God will hear the words but may not accept and act on them.
So, the question needed to be answered is, what does God not know about us and what does He need to learn? This will explain to an extent whether God knows what we will do in the future.
God tests us to see if we will obey Him, an early example being Exodus 16:4-5, “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.’” Thus, God was finding whether the people would obey His instructions that He had given before the Ten Commandments were again formalized and given to the people.
The Ten Commandments had been given to mankind before, at the time of Adam and Eve’s creation, but the Israelites, being enslaved in Egypt, had forgotten most, if not all of them.
(To Be Continued)
Lead Writers: Paul Niehoff (Australia) and Norbert Link