The Petitionary Prayer Process Part II: Is God Omniscient?

"Oh, the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!"
- Romans 11:33

My man J Truitt asks a solid question, which I will address in this post and the next. He says, "in your estimation, is your "1, 2, 3, 4" list (for lack of a better description) the way that petitionary prayer works, or a way?" In his comment, he references Exodus 32:7-14.

Exodus 32:7-14 presents an intriguing dilemna. If God wanted to obliterate the idolatrous Israelites, why did He heed Moses' prayer? And if God planned to show mercy on them, why did He say that He was going to destroy them?

I believe that in order to correctly understand the complexities of this passage, one must first understand the nature of God. Specifically, I want to focus on the extent of God's knowledge. It should provide a solid framework from which to base our interpretation of Exodus 32:7-14. If it can be established that God is omniscient, then it follows that God knew before He said that He would destroy the idolatrous Israelites that He would show mercy to them. If it can be proven that God is not omniscient, then it is a necessary possibility that God did not know the final outcome of this interaction with Moses until after the outcome occurred.

What does the Bible say about the knowledge of God? I believe that it describes God as all-knowledgeable. Here are the passages that I found (mainly through consulting the writings of various theologians) that are in favor of this viewpoint:

"For truly my words are not false;
One who is perfect in knowledge is with you."
- Job 36:4

"Do you know about the layers of the thick clouds,
The wonders of one perfect in knowledge,"
- Job 37:16

"Great is our LORD and abundant in strength;
His understanding is infinite."
- Psalm 147:5

"Remember the former things long past,
For I am God, and there is no other;
God, and there is no one like Me,
Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things which have not been done,
Saying, 'My purpose will be established,
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure';"
- Isaiah 46:9-10

(admittedly, this passage is less direct in reference to God's omniscience. However, I include it because I believe that if God did not know everything, then it is necessarily possible that an event could occur that could alter the end that God declared, or any of the events that He declared from ancient times).

"And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."
- Hebrews 4:13

And the clincher,

"Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things."
- 1 John 3:18-20

It could be argued here that since this passage references the human heart, then the phrase "knows all things" could be referring to oneness/intimate knowledge rather than a factual type of knowledge. But is it consistent to say that God is one with everything and every person? Is He in perfect harmony with an unrepentant sinner? Does God know a speck of dust like He knows His bride, the Church?

I say no. It is a better fit in the passage itself to interpret "knows all things" as "has infinite insight and understanding." Then, the passage makes sense. Here is my interpretation: the fruit of a Christian's faith is evidence of his/her saving relationship with God through Christ. Even if the flesh of the Christian accuses him/her (which is not a given at all times, according to verse 21), God has infinite knowledge and therefore knows better than his/her heart that he/she is reconciled to Him.