Foreknowledge by Joel Hayes - Library of Theology

We have proof from God's word that there were some things that God did not foreknow. He did not
know, for instance, whether the Children of Israel would obey his commandments or not. In proof of this,
notice the following explicit statements of Scripture: "And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord
thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble three, and to prove thee, to know what was
in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no." (Deut. 8:2) "If there arise among you
a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come
to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and
let us serve them; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the
Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul." (Deut.13:1-3) "Now these are the nations which the Lord left, to prove Israel by them, even as many
of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan... And they were to prove Israel by them, to know whether
they would hearken unto the commandments of the Lord, which he commanded their fathers by the hand
of Moses." (Judges 3:1, 4.) "And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this
people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my
voice; I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he
died: that through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein, as
their fathers did keep it, or not." (Judges 2:20-22) "Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread
from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them,
whether they will walk in my law, or no." (Ex. 16:4.) "Howbeit, in the business of the ambassadors of the
princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to
try him, that he might know all that was in his heart." (2 Chron. 32:31.)
Now, if these statements were made in any other book than the Bible, or with reference to any other
being than the Lord Almighty, they would be thought to mean that that being could not without trial know
what was in the hearts of the Children of Israel; that his design was to find out by trial what he did not and
could not know before the trial. Were there not some things, then, which God did not foreknow? It has been
said, however, that God knew what the Children of Israel would do, but wished to know by trial. But
evidently, if he already knew whether they would keep his commandments or not, he could not know it by
trial; for certainly trial could not be a means of coming to a knowledge of something already known.
Mr. Benson gives the following exegesis of Deuteronomy 8:2: "To know what was in thy heart--That
thou mightest discover thyself, and manifest to others, the infidelity, inconstancy, hypocrisy, and
perverseness which lay hid in thy heart; the discovery and manifestation whereof God saw would be of
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peculiar use, both to them and to his Church in all succeeding ages." Also of Deuteronomy 13:3: "To
know--Or make known publicly and openly, namely, that both you and others may know and see it, in order
that the justice of his dispensations toward you, whether in judgment or mercy, may be evident and
glorious." 183
To this exegesis we have two objections: 1. The word in its Kal form is properly translated to
know; it means to make known only in the Hiphil form. There are more than seven hundred and ninety other
places in which the Kal form of this word is used, in all of which it is properly translated to know, and in all
but two or three of which to make known would not make sense; while to make known is evidently the proper
meaning of the Hiphil form in all the seventy places in which it occurs. It would be in order for Mr. Benson
to mention just one place in which the Kal form of this word certainly has the meaning which he here
attributes to it. The Spirit seems especially to guard against such an interpretation of Deuteronomy 8:2, by
using the Hiphil form of the verb in the very next verse, where, with its object, it is properly translated, "He
might make thee know." 2. Such an exegesis of Deuteronomy 13:1-3, if so understood by the Children of
Israel (and we cannot suppose that the Lord used a word which he intended them to misunderstand),
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Benson's Commentary, in loco.
183
Benson's Commentary, in loco.
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