El Deah - The God Who Knows

1 Samuel 2:3 “Talk no more so very proudly; let no arrogance come from your mouth, for the LORD is the God of knowledge (El De’ah); and by Him actions are weighed.”

As we’ve already seen when we learned about God’s omnisciece, God knows it all. It is impossible for Him to learn anything, because He already knows! But this name - El De’ah - takes it a step further than what God knows. When we speak of the God of Knowledge, we’re speaking of the treasures of knowledge and understanding that can be found in Him.

What Kind Of Knowledge Are We Talking About?

The Hebrew word de’ah means more than simply knowledge about a thing. It’s not the kind of knowledge that comes from reading a book or listening to a message. This term actually carries the meaning of a first-hand knowledge of something. It’s root word (de’a) means “to form an opinion based on first-hand knowledge of a thing.”

So the name El De’ah is actually referring to God’s intimate understanding of things that happen in the world. He knows all about what caused any given situation, what the mindset was of the people involved, how it actually occured, and how it is going to affect people. If you look again at 1 Samuel 2:3, you can see this concept stated. This God of knowledge weighs people’s actions and understands first-hand why they do the things that they do.

Have you ever asked someone, “What’s your opinion about this?” Usually, that question is directed at someone who is older or who has more experience in a matter than we do. Why? Because that’s what an opinion is, a conclusion based on your knowledge of a matter. When we lack the necessary knowledge to trust our own opinion, we’ll ask someone who is more familiar with the subject for theirs.

Human opinions, no matter how informed they may be, are often flawed. Why? Because of our lack of complete knowledge. How many times have you formed an opinion about something based on your current knowledge of it, only to have your opinion changed as more information comes to light? This happens all the time with us, even with the most knowledgeable and experienced people. We just don’t know enough to have an infallible opinion!

But there is someone Whose opinion can always be trusted! God has perfect knowledge and infinite understanding on every topic - and His thoughts are always right. If we would take the time to consult Him, we would find that He’s also willing to make His knowledge known to us.

God Wants To Distribute This Knowledge

Proverbs 2:6 “For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.”

God never wanted to be the only one “in the know.” His desire has always been to distribute His knowledge to His people. God wants to show us what He knows!

When He called Abram out of his home country, it was to “a land that I will show you.” (Genesis 21:1) We often focus on the lack of knowledge that Abram had when he set out, and that’s fine. It’s good to emphasize the faith that he had when he followed God out of the familiar. However, don’t lose sight of the fact that God did show him where to go.

When Samuel was sent to anoint a new king for Israel, God guided him each step of the way. First, He told Samuel to go to the house of Jesse. Then He revealed His knowledge of Eliab’s true character to him. When it looked as if all of Jesse’s sons had passed by in front of Samuel, God revealed that there was still one more left - one that had not even been considered by his own father! And when David finally arrived, God showed Samuel that he was God’s choice for king, and even why he was chosen.

In 2 Kings chapter six, God constantly revealed the military plans of an enemy nation to His prophet Elisha. This happened so many times that the enemy king began to investigate his own officers, convinced that one of them was a spy! The officers response was this “Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.” Elisha was given access to God’s knowledge, and it protected his nation time after time.

My friend, God’s knowledge is still available to you and I!

To begin with, this knowledge is contained in His Word. When you keep a steady habit of reading the Bible every day, you begin to pick up on how God thinks. You will start to see things as they really are, the way God sees them. When you renew your mind in the pages of Scripture, you actually start to see your opinions begin to match up with God’s opinions!

To help us even further, God has appointed certain people to help us receive God's knowledge. These are the shepherds, or pastors, that God has set in our churches. We all have been given the gift of these teaching shepherds (whether one chooses to receive them or not, they're still given). Jeremiah 3:15 tells us that they feed us God's  knowledge in the same way that a shepherd feeds his sheep. “And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” If we’ll listen to them and receive them as the gift they are, then these pastors will become distributors of God's own knowledge to us!

So you see, God has demonstrated repeatedly that He wants to give us His very own knowledge! He's placed it in His Word for us. He's given men and women as gifts to the church to feed this knowledge to us. He wants us to have access to what He knows and what He thinks!

Available To All Believers

Matthew 13:11 Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven…

God has made it clear, you can know! You can access what He knows in any given situation. You can know secret things - mysteries! When other people are scratching their heads saying, “I wonder why that happened. I wonder what we're going to do now. I wonder what this means…” - you can know!

Just look at what the God of Knowledge says about you! 1 John 2:20 “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things!” God has anointed you to know! He has taken everything out of the way that kept you in the dark, and has made His knowledge plain to you!

Some may say, “But doesn't  the Bible say that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind can know? So doesn't that mean there must be some things that God just doesn't want us to know?" This incorrect idea comes from an often-misquoted verse in the Bible - 1 Corinthians 2:9. Let’s close this post by reading this verse in its context. Read this passage carefully:

But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ

“But God has revealed them to us...”

“...that we may know…”

“...the mind of Christ.”

You tell me: Doesn't it sound like the God of Knowledge wants us to know?