42. God is Not Unaware
It is inherent in the concept of God that He is perfect and has no defects. One must admit that ignorance is a deficiency, therefore God cannot be said to be ignorant of any matter. [III, 19] Nevertheless, there are people who have expressed the idea that God knows some things but not others. They do this to reconcile a problem in their own minds, brought about by a failure to see order in human affairs. These people see the wicked enjoying prosperity and tranquility and, in their ignorance, they conclude that God must not be aware of such things.
The prophets were also aware of such difficulties and they addressed them by telling us not to focus on the temporal comforts enjoyed by evil people but on their ultimate fate. This is explicitly detailed in Psalms 73:11-19. This passage begins, "They say, 'How does God know? Is there knowledge before the Most High?' Behold, how the wicked are - they are always at ease, increasing riches. Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocence...." But it soon turns around and it concludes, "When I pondered how I could understand this, it was exhausting in my eyes until I entered the sanctuary of God and considered their end. Surely You set them in slippery places. You hurl them down to utter ruin. They become desolate in a moment; they are wholly consumed by terrors."
This idea is also expressed in the Book of Malachi (3:14-18):
"You have said, 'It is vain to serve God. For what profit have we kept His charge and walked mournfully because of the Lord of Hosts? Now the proud are called happy and those who work evil are built up. Those who try God are delivered.' Then those who fear God spoke with one another. God listened and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and think upon His Name. 'They will be Mine,' says the Lord of Hosts, 'in the day that I do make, even My own treasure. I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. Then you will again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who serves Him not.'"
Again we see a sense of despair over the prosperity of the wicked, especially in the face of the adversity faced by the righteous. And once again we are told to look not on the passing joy of evil people. Rather, we should contemplate the end, when God will differentiate between those who serve Him and those who don't.
Still another passage addressing this concept is Psalms 94:5-9:
"They crush Your people, Hashem, and they afflict Your heritage. They slay the widow and the convert, and murder the orphan, saying 'The Lord will not see, nor will the God of Jacob pay attention.' Consider, you brutish people, you fools. When will you understand? Shall He Who made the ear not hear? Shall He Who formed the eye not see?"
The Rambam shares a way in which some of his contemporaries misunderstood this passage. Their logic goes as follows: "If the One Who made the ear must hear and the One Who made the eye must see, does it not follow that the One Who made the mouth must eat?" and similar such conclusions.
These people, the Rambam tells us, have completely missed David's point. What the Psalmist is saying is that one who creates a tool has an intended purpose for it. For example, the Wright brothers could not themselves fly but they knew why they were building an airplane. Similarly, for God to create the ear and the eye, He must necessarily possess the concepts of hearing and seeing. This is intended to counter the misimpression with which we started, that God is somehow unaware of what is happening on Earth. For Him to create the tools we use to observe, He must surely possess the concept of observing us. David calls the people who think otherwise brutes and fools. He then completely obliterates the idea in verse 11, saying that "Hashem knows the thoughts of man, that they are vanity."
We see throughout the Bible that the idea that God does not see our actions is considered ignorant. The prophet Tzefanya quotes God as saying, "...I will punish the men who ... say in their hearts, 'God will not do anything good or bad'" (Zephaniah 1:12).