God's knowledge.
I. THE APPARENT DIFFICULTY OF IT. It may not be asserted that God does not know all, and yet people act as though they could hide from God. In distress and loneliness it sometimes seems as though God could not know whet were the troubles of his children, or he would not permit them to be so grievously tried. The vastness of the universe raises the same difficulty. Many things are covered up, and it is not easy for us to believe that he can "judge through the thick cloud."
II. THE REAL TRUTH OF IT. If God is the infinite Being whom we know him to be, all difficulties will vanish before him. We may not be able to conceive of the method by which he comes to know all things; but this is not wonderful, for that method itself must have an infinity about it quite beyond our comprehension. On the other hand, God frequently gives startling evidence that he sees in secret and knows all things. He surprised Hagar by discovering her in the desert (Genesis 16:13). Achan's stolen booty could not be hidden (Joshua 7:16-21). Our own lives must bear witness to the searching knowledge of God. At first, perhaps, his treatment of us may have seemed to go on without any regard to our requirements, but that was only because we were short-sighted and superficial; for when we have been able to look back over a long stretch of life, have we not been surprised again and again at observing how wonderfully God has wrought just the very thing that was needed to bring out what was best in the end?
III. THE CONSEQUENCES DEPENDENT ON IT.
1. It is vain to try to hide from God He sees through the thickest cloud. Thus we only waste our efforts when we try to make a darkness that shall shut off the piercing gaze of God. He knows all now. He does not need to wait for the future revelation of the judgment-day. Already all hypocritical pretences are perfectly open and apparent to him.
2. It is foolish to distrust God's wisdom. We see a little corner of life; he has the whole field of it before him. Therefore he must have vastly greater materials for his judgment than we possess for ours. It is not to be wondered at that his decision often differs from ours. But if his ways are not as our ways and his thoughts not as our thoughts, the simple explanation is that his ways and thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah Iv. 8, 9).
3. It is well to seek God's guidance. When we follow his lead we are conducted by One who knows the end from the beginning. Our difficulties arise from partial lights and intercepted views. We see enough to lead us astray. But the perfect, all-penetrating knowledge of God invites us to renounce our prejudices and look up for the indications of God's guiding hand. These may be given to us
Browning says—
"Our times are in his hand
Who said, 'A whole I planned;'
Youth shows but half; trust God;
see all nor be afraid."
W.F.A.