19Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.”
The plight of the emperor penguins living and breeding in the bitter cold Antarctic region was chronicled in a documentary titled “The March of the Penguins.” The female lays a single egg. While the male incubates it for two months, the mother then waddles to the sea to feed, and then returns, covering up to seventy-five miles over ice, to their breeding colonies. These congregations of birds can number into the several thousands. All the penguin chicks look the same to our human eyes, but the female penguin knows the difference and can easily distinguish her own.
We may think we are just another face in the crowd, a number in God’s ledger of those who believe. But we are reminded here, “The Lord knows those who are His.” He knows us individually. Each believer is one who has come to faith in God’s provision for our sin, the Lord Jesus Christ, who said:
“I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me … My sheep hear My voice, and I know them . . .” (John 10:14, 27a).
God knows when we bleat like sheep. He leaves the ninety-nine when one of us goes astray. He knows when the least of us touches His garment. He hears the cry of the desperate one, “Lord, have mercy on me.” He who speaks with a still quiet voice, can He not hear the quiet groaning that can’t even be put into words?
When the Lord “knows those who are His,” what does He think? King David put it this way in Psalm 139:1–6:
O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it.
With David, we pray …
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand … (Psalm 139:17–18).
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