Originally posted 10/14/25
Learning is something I really enjoy. Anytime we go on a trip, there is golf, good food, and something educational. We enjoy visiting national parks and Civil War spots. Learning is a life-long process for me. We never stop learning. I always stressed to students the need to become life-long learners. I count it as a privilege to learn more about God each and every day.
While we learn new things, God does not. God is omniscient. Dictionary.com describes it as “having complete or unlimited knowledge, awareness, or understanding; perceiving all things.”
AW Pink states it this way in his book, Knowledge of the Holy, “ To say that God is omniscient is to say that He possesses perfect knowledge and therefore has no need to learn. But it is more: it is to say that God has never learned and cannot learn. The Scriptures teach that God has never learned from anyone. “Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to Him the way of understanding?” p. 84
Jen Wilkin in her book, None Like Him writes, “God is not merely knowledgeable; he is omniscient–limitless in his knowing. He know all things, not because he has learned them, but because he is their origin. God does not learn. Learning implies change…He has not learned one new thing ever”. P. 109
As we would expect Scripture speaks of God’s omniscience:
- Job 37:16: “Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge,”
- Psalm 94:9-11: “He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see? He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke? He who teaches man knowledge–the LORD–knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath.”
- Psalm 139:1-4: “To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.”
- Isaiah 40:27-28: “Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.”
Once we became adults and realized how much our parents knew, we often sought their advice. Their knowledge may have been limited but it was deeper than ours. They knew more because they had learned more. Our God knew it all from the beginning. Scripture tells us that God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
If God did not possess all knowledge, he would not be God. He would be incomplete. Our God is perfect in every way. If we think God might not know it yet, then he is not the source of everything. God is our source of everything and he is complete. If we do not believe that, then our faith falls apart.
AW Pink puts it well, ”For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor?” These rhetorical questions put by the prophet and the apostle Paul declare that God has never learned. From there it is only a step to the conclusion that God cannot learn. Could God at any time or in any manner receive into His mind knowledge that He did not possess and had not possessed from eternity, He would be imperfect and less than himself. To think of a God who must sit at the feet of a teacher, even though that teacher be an archangel or a seraph, is to think of someone other than the Most High God, maker of heaven and earth. P. 84
When children are small, they have a tendency to try to hide things. If something gets broken, a child might hide the evidence. We do not possess the same qualities as God, but as a mom we often know something is broken without actually seeing it. We often can tell if a child is not telling the truth. That comparison is a tiny sliver of God’s knowledge.
“God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit and all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven, and hell.” Pink p. 86
When we think about the capacity of the human brain, it is overwhelming to think that the capacity of the brain can hold up to 2.5 million gigabytes of information. The depth of God’s knowledge is immeasurable. God knows everything in full. Our sinful nature, much like that of a child, wants us to hide things from God. I can go to God with the full confidence that he knows the best for me. His will is perfect for me in my life at each and every moment of my life. Jen Wilkin put it in a way that was easy for me to understand.“When you trust God as omniscient, you recognize and relax into four beautiful truths:
- You cannot outsmart God.
- You cannot bargain with God.
- You cannot fool God.
- You cannot rely on God to forget.” Pp. 116-117
I find the list comforting and disturbing at the same time. My God knows each and every thought or desire I have. While sometimes I think I can hide things from God, I simply cannot. I need to be quicker to come to terms with that fact.
Prayer
Father God,
You are an omniscient God. My human brain has difficulty understanding the full extent of that meaning. You have possessed all knowledge from the beginning. I can find rest and security in knowing that there are no gaps in your knowledge. Thank you for being the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Amen
Link to other Attributes of God articles:
Image from AI