Our sense organs 45

Every person –
known to God?
Job said about his servants: “Did not he who
made me in the womb, make them? Did not the
same one form us both within our mothers?”
(Job 31:15). God knew Jeremiah even before his
conception: “Before I formed you in the womb,
I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations”
(Jer 1:5). Isaiah also asserts: “Listen to me, you
islands; hear this you distant nations: Before I
was born, the LORD called me; from my birth he
has made mention of my name” (Is 49:1).
when we are microscopically small, an unformed
zygote. My career, my place in life, my vocation –
God knows everything beforehand. This does not
mean that our destiny is fixed so that we cannot
do anything else. No, the Bible does not acknowledge
such fatalism, since “It is for freedom that
Christ has set us free” (Gal 5:1). The prodigal son
had the freedom to leave his father’s house, but
after he had come to his senses, he had the freedom
to return. In his omniscience God knows
beforehand what we will decide.
As early as the embryonic stage God already
knows our life history: “For you created my
inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s
womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and
wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,
I know that full well. My frame was not hidden
from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the
earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the
days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be” (Ps 139:13-16).
Paul asserts that God set him apart from birth,
and called him by His grace (Gal 1:15). Even stillborn
babies and miscarriages are mentioned in
the Bible:
“A man may have a hundred children and live
many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if
he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not
receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is
better off than he. It comes without meaning, it
departs in darkness, and in darkness its name is
shrouded. Though it never saw the sun or knew
anything, it has more rest than does that man”
(Eccl 6:3-5).
We should realise that God already knows our
life history from the moment of conception
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