Episode #205 Experience the Kindness of Our All-Knowing God – Knowing God

Hey friends, it's Jen, and we're in a series looking at some of the incredible attributes of who God is and what he's like that are vastly different from us. And one of the reasons that we're doing this is to help us learn how to recognize God. by these attributes in how we talk with him and how he engages with us as we go about our daily lives.

Today we're talking about how God is omniscient. Now, omniscience is really just defined as having total knowledge, the quality of knowing everything, and God is omniscient. 1 John 3:20 says

“for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.” (1 John 3:20)

In Matthew 10:29-30 it talks about God's care for us and it says,

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.” (Matthew 10:29-30)

We could literally Pluck out a hair from our heads and God would know which numbered hair that is. But it's not just the hairs on our head that God is familiar with.

In Psalm 139:4, it says,

“Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.” (Psalm 139:4)

And in Matthew 6:8, Jesus is teaching his disciples how to pray in this passage. And he says, “your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matthew 6:8b)

Now, all three persons of the Trinity are omniscient. The father, the son, and the spirit are all, all knowing. And we see this on display in Jesus and his time in human ministry, even though there does seem to be some self-willed limits to his knowledge while he's living life as a human. A lot of scholars and theologians understand those moments in the Bible like this, to be examples of Christ's humility where God the Trinity has self-willed that some things would be kept out of Christ's knowledge.

One of the examples of this comes from Matthew 24 when Jesus is saying that this generation will not pass away until all the things take place, and in verse 36, it says, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” (Matthew 24:36)

But we also see in Jesus's earthly ministry so many times when he had knowledge beyond what we normally have as humans. He knew the thoughts of his audience. He knew about people's lives before he even met them. Think about the Samaritan woman at the well, and he knew details that she had had five husbands and that the man she was now with was not her husband.

So it's pretty well documented that God is all knowing. But he still engages with us in ways to draw us in to share things with him. He wants us to bring our needs and our questions to him.

Also, sometimes God invites us to share things with him help reveal to us and expose the things that are truly going on in our heart.

And so I want to share two times in Matthew chapter 10, when Jesus asks the same question to different people, and it leads to a different result.

In Matthew 10:36 Jesus is talking with the brothers, James and John, and he asks them, “what do you want me to do for you?” And they asked to sit at his right and at his left hands in heaven. And Jesus tells them, Hey, that's not for me to grant. And also he goes on to teach them that the kingdom of heaven is not about lording over those that you lead or ruling over others, but it's about serving.

And so this exchange opens up an opportunity for Jesus to teach James and John about something that they may have missed about what his ministry is like and how they can participate with him.

But just a few verses later, Jesus uses the same question, and this is in the story of blind Bartimaeus.

Jesus and his disciples are coming to Jericho and Bartimaeus is a blind beggar who's sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus who was coming, he began to call out in verse 47, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

And Jesus stopped and called him. And so his disciples came to the blind man and said, take heart, get up. He's calling you. And he sprung up, throwing off his cloak. And he came to Jesus and in verse 51,

“Jesus said to him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ And the blind man said to him, ‘Rabbi, let me recover my sight.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Go your way; your faith has made you well.’ And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

Now I could look at that story and think, Jesus, I'm guessing we all know what he's looking for. Why did you even ask the question?

He's a blind man. Sitting on the side of the road begging. And he's asking for you to have mercy on him. It seems pretty likely that he'd love to have his sight.

But it's also possible that Bartimaeus wanted money. Or he wanted help having some other need met. Also, by asking the question and inviting a conversation, Bartimaeus got to express his faith and his trust in Jesus.

He got to say out loud the words that were heavy in his heart and speak the need to our all-powerful, omniscient God, and see how God responded directly to what he asked for.

And so today we're taking a slightly different approach to our closing question. And I have two options for you. The first one is to ask God,

God, what question do you have for me today?

If that feels daunting to you in any way, or if you're not sure that you know what question God has for you, borrow this question from Mark chapter 10.

Respond to this question that Jesus asked to James and John and Bartimaeus: What would you have me do for you?

Communicate to God what you would ask him to do for you and ask for him to talk with you more about it. Then follow that conversation with him wherever he leads.

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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