In the divine omniscience we see set
forth against each other the terror and fascination of the Godhead. That God
knows each person through and through can be a cause of shaking fear to the man
that has something to hide - some unforsaken sin, some secret crime committed
against man or God. The unblessed soul may well tremble that God knows the
flimsiness of every pretext and never accepts the poor excuses given for sinful
conduct, since He knows perfectly the real reason for it. ”Thou hast set our
iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.” How
frightful a thing to see the sons of Adam seeking to hide among the trees of
another garden. But where shall they hide? ”Whither shall I go from thy spirit?
or whither shall I flee from thy presence?… If I say, Surely the darkness shall
cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not
from thee; but the night shineth as the day.”
And to us who have fled for refuge to
lay hold upon the hope that is set before us in the gospel, how unutterably
sweet is the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows us completely. No
talebearer can inform on us, no enemy can make an accusation stick; no
forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and
expose our past; no unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light to
turn God away from us, since He knew us utterly before we knew Him and called
us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us.
A.
W. Tozer
