‘The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.’ I Sam 2:2. Glorious things are spoken of God; he transcends our thoughts, and the praises of angels. God’s glory lies chiefly in his attributes, which are the several beams by which the divine nature shines forth. Among other of his orient excellencies, this is not the least, The Lord is a God of knowledge; or as the Hebrew word is, ‘A God of knowledges.’ Through the bright mirror of his own essence, he has a full idea and cognisance of all things; the world is to him a transparent body. He makes a heartanatomy. Rev 2:23. ‘I am he which searcheth the reins and the heart.’ The clouds are no canopy, the night is no curtain to draw between us and his sight. Psa 139:12. ‘The darkness hideth not from thee.’ There is not a word we whisper but God hears it. Psa 139:9. ‘There is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.’ There is not the most subtle thought that comes into our mind, but God perceives it. Isa 66:18. ‘I know their thoughts.’ Thoughts speak as loud in God’s ears as words do in ours. All our actions, though never so subtly contrived, and secretly conveyed, are visible to the eye of Omniscience. Isa 66:18. ‘I know their works.’ Achan hid the Babylonish garment in the earth, but God brought it to light. Josh 7: 2I. Minerva was drawn in such curious colours, and so lively pencilled, that which way soever one turned, Minerva’s eyes were upon him; so, which way soever we turn ourselves God’s eye is upon us. Job 37:16. ‘Dost thou know the balancing of the clouds; the wondrous works of him that is perfect in knowledge?’ God knows whatever is knowable; he knows future contingencies. He foretold Israel’s coming out of Babylon, and the virgin’s conceiving. By this the Lord proves the truth of his Godhead against idol gods. Isa 41:13. ‘Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know ye are gods.’ The perfection of God’s knowledge is primary. He is the original, the pattern, and prototype of all knowledge; others borrow their knowledge of him; the angels light their lamps at this glorious sun. God’s knowledge is pure. It is not contaminated with the object. Though God knows sin, yet it is to hate and punish it. No evil can mix or incorporate with his knowledge, any more than the sun can be defiled with the vapours which arise from the earth. God’s knowledge is facile; it is without any difficulty. We study and search for knowledge. Prov 2:2. ‘If thou seekest for her as for silver.’ The lamp of God’s knowledge is so infinitely bright, that all things are intelligible to him.
God’s knowledge is infallible; there is no mistake in his knowledge. Human knowledge is subject to error. A physician may mistake the cause of a disease; but God’s knowledge is unerring; he can neither deceive, nor be deceived; he cannot deceive, because he is truth, nor be deceived, because he is wisdom. God’s knowledge is instantaneous. Our knowledge is successive, one thing after another. We argue from the effect to the cause. God knows things past, present, and to come, uno intuito, at once; they are all before him in one entire prospect.
God’s knowledge is retentive; he never loses any of his knowledge; he has reminiscentia, as well as intelligentia; he remembers as well as understands. Many things elapse out of our minds, but God’s knowledge is eternized. Things transacted a thousand years ago, are as fresh to him as if they were done but the last minute. Thus he is perfect in knowledge.
But is it not said, Gen 18:21, I will go down and see whether they have done according to the cry which is come up unto me, and I will know?
It could not be that God was ignorant; because there is mention made of a cry; but the Lord speaks there after the manner of a judge, who will first examine the cause before he passes the sentence. When he is upon a work of justice he is not in a riot, as if he did not care where he hits; but he goes straight against offenders. ‘He lays judgement to the line, and righteousness to the plummet.’ Isa 28:87.
Hos 13:12. The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up, his sin is hid.
Not that his sin is hid from God, but his sin is hid; that is, it is recorded, it is laid up against a day of reckoning. That this is the meaning, is clear by the foregoing words, his iniquity is bound up. As the clerk of the assizes binds up the indictments of malefactors in a bundle, and at the assizes brings out the indictments and reads them in court; so God binds up men’s sins in a bundle, and, at the day of judgement, this bundle shall be opened, and all their sins brought to light before men and angels. God is infinite in knowledge. He cannot but be so; for he who gives being to things must needs have a clear inspection of them. Psa 94:4. ‘He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?’ He who makes a watch or engine knows all the workmanship in it. God, that made the heart, knows all its movements. He is full of eyes, like Ezekiel’s wheels, and, as Austin says, Totus oculus, ‘All eye.’ It ought to be so; for he is to be ‘Judge of all the world.’ Gen 18:85. There are so many causes to be brought before him, and so many persons to be tried, that he must have a perfect knowledge, or he could not do justice. An ordinary judge cannot proceed without a jury, the jury must search the cause, and give in the verdict; but God can judge without a jury. He knows all things in and of himself, and needs no witnesses to inform him. A judge judges only matters of fact, but God judges the heart. He not only judges wicked actions, but wicked designs. He sees the treason of the heart and punishes it.