The Omniscient God

(Just some thoughts I wrote down after a class the other day...)

Nearly everyone who's been around Christianity for awhile has been taught the traditional Christian "omnis". God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. All-powerful, all-knowing/seeing, ever-present.

Sometimes I think these "omnis" may do more harm in our thinking than good. If God is really omnipotent, if he has the power to do anything, why didn't God prevent the fall? Why doesn't he simply wipe out sin? Why was it necessary to sacrifice Jesus? Why so much violence for our salvation?

But more often than this, I think the "omnis" serve to scare us into behaving. Especially "omniscient" - if God sees all and knows all, we humans better not do anything wrong. God will see it. God will know it. Do you really want God to know you said that? Thought that? Did that behind closed doors?

Or, maybe we understand God's omniscience like a superpower. Maybe God is a big cosmic superhero. He's got the ultimate x-ray vision. Move over Superman - check out Jesus. Not only can he see through walls, he can see through your words and stoic faces into your heart.

I don't think this is how Scripture shows us God's omniscience. Yes, God knows your heart and sees the things you do even in secret, and God grieves deeply over our sin, but that's not all God sees. In Genesis 16, we're told that Hagar, the servant of Abraham who bore him Ishmael. Hagar was running away, after Sarah (or, Sarai, at the time) treated her harshly. Imagine what she must've been feeling. She did her duty by bearing Abraham's son, but his wife, clearly, was not pleased. What would you do? But, in the midst of her running away, Hagar hears from God. God himself shows her mercy. And Hagar responds by calling God El-roi’, or the God who sees me.

I love that prayer. "You are the God who sees me." This woman - this woman who we can imagine felt rejected, afraid, guilty, trapped - knew God saw her. Not that he looked down on her in judgment, or noticed her but soon forgot her - but really saw her.

"You are the God who sees me."

God sees all things. God is omniscient. He knows us, he sees us, even when all others have forgotten who we truly are. He knows us deeply, loves us deeply, perhaps even more deeply that we will ever know ourselves.

Our God, the Triune God, Creator of the Universe, is the God who sees us. Not a superhero or a judgmental tyrant, but the one who cares enough to see and know all things.

I praise our God for his indescribable gift.