God Knows

A man leaves his wife and she weeps asking why. A child dies and devastated parents ask why. Buildings burn, accidents occur, war and famine and diseases cause great misery. Most often the only explanation of comfort is that God knows.

How do I know that God knows? It seems obvious that He knows what He is doing and why, but what about the horrors in time and history, or events that seem the prerogative of human beings? Does God know everything? Or is He is sometimes caught off guard and has to revert to Plan B? 

After a simple word search, the evidence in the New Testament is extensive. For example, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8). 

Not only that, He knows the human heart. Jesus said to (the Pharisees), “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15) and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile” (1 Corinthians 3:20).

God knows the future, including the very hour that Jesus will return. “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32).

He also knows who belongs to Him and who does not. “The Lord knows those who are his….” (2 Timothy 2:19) and He knows how to His own safe in trials. “The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment” (2 Peter 2:9).

When I fail, He knows the answer to my frustrated, “why did I do that?” As the apostle John wrote, “Whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:20).

Today’s devotional reading adds another. The prophet Ezekiel was led to a valley of bones that represented the deadness in the people of God. God asked him a question much like the questions I have about my own failures and inabilities to stand firm in the will of God. This prophet’s answer is my anchor also:

And (the Lord) said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And (Ezekiel) answered, “O Lord God, you know.” (Ezekiel 37:3)

Along with Ezekiel and every other person that has ever felt that there are no answers or explanations for human problems, my comfort is in this: that God knows. Because He knows, I can place everything that bothers me into His hands and trust Him to do what is right, even make dead bones alive.