This is the final part of our series entitled: YHWH.

(Resources at the bottom)

(Exodus 03:4-8a, 10-11, 13-16) When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied. “Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground... I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God... "I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt... Go, for I am sending you...” But Moses protested to God, “...Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?” God answered, “I will be with you..." But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel... they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?” God replied to Moses, “I am Who I Am. Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you... Yahweh, the God of your ancestors... has sent me to you. This is my eternal name, my name to remember for all generations... I have been watching closely, and I see how the Egyptians are treating you.

YHWH. - Yahweh. - I AM.

Purpose of this series:
The purpose of this seven-part series is to remind us of God's attributes.

God is holy.
God is omnipotent.
God is omniscient.
God is omnibenevolent.
God is sovereign.
God is immutable.
God is omnipresent.

Why it matters:
The more we see God, the more we can see everything else.

Why should you care:
AW Tozer says, "What you think you about when you think of God is the most important thing about you."

Part Six: God is Omniscient.

What does it mean to be Omniscient?

This is another word that you have possibly never heard. The definition of God's Omniscience is that God fully knows Himself and all things actual and possible in one eternal act. In this defintions, we find three aspects of God's knowledge.

God fully knows Himself. This is already amazing because God is infinite. Therefore, His knowledge must be complete.
God fully knows all things actual and possible. God can know all things that happen and all things that could have happened. Nothing surprises the Lord.
God knows them all eternally. God does not have progressive knowledge. God's Word says He sees the end from the beginning. (Isaiah 46)

Here are just a few verses that discuss the omniscience of God:

Knowing Our Thoughts and Actions

Psalm 139:1–4: God knows our sitting, rising, thoughts from afar, and every word before we speak.
Proverbs 15:3: The eyes of the Lord stay in every place to watch both evil and good deeds.
Hebrews 4:13: Nothing in creation is hidden; everything is bare and open before God.

Infinite Understanding and Knowledge

1 John 3:20: God is greater than our hearts and has full knowledge of all things.
Psalm 147:5: Great is the Lord, and His power is mighty, with an understanding that has no limit.
Isaiah 40:28: The Creator's understanding cannot be searched out or measured.

Knowing the Past and Future

Isaiah 46:9–10: God declares the end from the beginning and ancient times from what has not yet been done.
Jeremiah 1:5: God knew and appointed the prophet Jeremiah even before forming him in the womb.

Three Great Reasons to Be Thankful for God's Omniscience.

God has foreknowledge.
- We see so many prophecies of Jesus coming, and then He did. We can use those alone to realize God is not unaware of the future.
God is fully just.
- God sees all aspects of every issue. Therefore, we can always be confident His justice is true justice.
God does not get lost.
- God never gets lost along the way. He does not need a GPS and does not get turned around.

Objection: If God knows all things, how do we have free will?

God’s knowledge of our choices does not mean that God causes those choices. Knowing what someone will do is different from forcing them to do it.

God knows every decision we will make because His knowledge is perfect and He is not limited by time as we are. From our perspective, we make real choices in the present. From God’s perspective, the past, present, and future are fully known. His knowledge makes our choices certain, but it does not make them coerced.

For example, if you rewatch a recorded football game, you already know which team will win. Your knowledge does not cause the players to make their decisions. In a far greater way, God knows our choices perfectly without being the one who forces us to choose them. The Bible teaches both truths:

God knows the future: “I make known the end from the beginning” (Isaiah 46:10).
Human beings make meaningful choices: “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15).
People remain responsible for their actions, even when those actions were foreknown by God: Jesus was delivered up according to God’s “deliberate plan and foreknowledge,” yet those who crucified Him were still accountable (Acts 2:23).

Here is another way to say this:

We do not make a choice because God knows it; God knows it because it is the choice we freely make.

God's Word speaks about the hope we can have because God truly knows us:

(Psalm 139) O Lord, you have examined my heart
    and know everything about me.
²You know when I sit down or stand up.
    You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
³You see me when I travel
    and when I rest at home.
    You know everything I do.
⁴You know what I am going to say
    even before I say it, Lord.
⁵You go before me and follow me.
    You place your hand of blessing on my head.
⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too great for me to understand!
⁷I can never escape from your Spirit!
    I can never get away from your presence!
⁸If I go up to heaven, you are there;
    if I go down to the grave, you are there.
⁹If I ride the wings of the morning,
    if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
¹⁰even there your hand will guide me,
    and your strength will support me.
¹¹I could ask the darkness to hide me
    and the light around me to become night—
¹²    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.
¹³You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
    and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
    Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
¹⁵You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
    as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
¹⁶You saw me before I was born.
    Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
    before a single day had passed.
¹⁷How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
    They cannot be numbered!
¹⁸I can’t even count them;
    they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up,
    you are still with me!
¹⁹O God, if only you would destroy the wicked!
    Get out of my life, you murderers!
²⁰They blaspheme you;
    your enemies misuse your name.
²¹O Lord, shouldn’t I hate those who hate you?
    Shouldn’t I despise those who oppose you?
²²Yes, I hate them with total hatred,
    for your enemies are my enemies.
²³Search me, O God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴Point out anything in me that offends you,
    and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

1- (1-6) God knows all things.

Verse 1- The song echoes the first verse and the last verse. The psalmist says that God is able and he desires for God to know His heart and motives.
Verse 2-5- The psalmist realizes that there is no movement that God misses. He sees all things and knows all things.
Verse 6- When thinking of this, David says it overwhelms his mind.

2- (7-12) God knows where we are.

Verse 7- Some looked at this section as though David is saying he wants to escape God. However, the original language and commentators say this is likely not what David is saying. He is saying that no matter where he goes, God does not get lost and cannot find him. It's more like if he were playing a game of hide-and-seek. God can always find him, and that is a good thing.
Verse 8- "grave" also known as Sheol. This was considered the place where all the dead went. In the Old Testament, it was thought that all the dead went down. Some went to a place of rest, and others went to a place of torment, but all went down. It was not until the Second Temple Jewish period that they began to discover through studying Scripture that Heaven is considered above.

3- (13-18) God knows who we are.

This second of Scripture is one of the main texts to support the pro-life stance.
Verse 14- David is saying the human body and the way we are able to think and move are a miracle.
Verse 16- Some Jewish commentaries say that God showed Adam a book of all the people who would be born and the pattern of how they would live. They later said this was the Torah. Obviously, this is not in the Bible. David is using an analogy to say that no one is a surprise to God. He knows us before we were ever born.

4- (19-24) God knows the pathway to healing.

This section shows that David hates these people because they stand in opposition to the things of God.
Verse 23- David knows that God knows all things and invites God to search him. There is an amazing level of trust in God. He is not saying that he will not find anything. David even calls his thoughts "anxious." His trusting that God will be able to do something about it.

(Jeremiah 9:24) Those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly KNOW ME and understand that I AM THE LORD who demonstrates unfailing love.