When people hear that God is everywhere present,
people have a tendency
to think of God as a force than a Person, given the vastness of space. Omnipresence
carries the idea of not only is Yahweh everywhere present, but He is also all-there
everywhere! His bandwidth is infinite! We think of people as having bodies that
can only be in one place at any given time, yes? But whether we understand it
or not, we have to recognize the authority of Scripture that Yahweh is a Person
who has many perfections, one being omnipresence, and by the way, we don’t give
names to a force, right? Nor do we refer to it with personal pronouns?
God
the Father is Spirit (Jn 4:24); the Holy Spirit is obviously Spirit; Jesus is Spirit
(rarely to never mentioned) prior to the incarnation (literally, clothed in
flesh, ca. 6-4 B.C), He is the God-Man who has a glorified body. Jesus, as far
as we know, cannot be everywhere at once in His physical form, but in His
essence, as with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, Jesus is everywhere
present; that is my metaphysical theory.
It
reminds me of the natural argument made against the deity of Jesus (cf. Jn
10:30) based on the father preceding the son. It is common knowledge that a man
must have a son or daughter to become a father. In the case of Jesus, an
eternal Father requires that He has an eternal Son! There are three distinct
personalities in the Godhead: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit, but they share one essence which agrees with the idea of monotheism. Do
I understand what I just said? No. Since I accept the authority of the
Scriptures, my lack of understanding does not invalidate the truth of
Scripture. In the natural world, there are many things I do not understand; it
doesn’t negate their realities.
“Hear
O Israel, Yahweh our Elohim, Yahweh is one!” Deut 6:4
What
this ginormous universe reveals about Yahweh is just how astonishing His
perfection of omnipresence is, not to mention His power and wisdom; we should
never lose sight of the majesty and wonder of Yahweh! There is absolutely
nothing that can undo His Divine will and nothing in His creation escapes His sight.
What a powerful combo: omnipresence (all-present) and omniscience (all-knowing)
and omnipotent (all-powerful). And like all of His other perfections, they are
awesome beyond human comprehension! Infinite understands finite completely but
not the other way around, yes?
As
I have said before at other times, I will never be able to wrap my
understanding around Yahweh’s attributes of eternality (specifically, no
genesis) and love (agape) this side of eternity; I am hoping on the
other side of it will all make sense to me. Though I am a saved sinner, I am
still a sinner. I do not think there has been one day in my 45 years+ of
knowing Jesus that I hadn’t disobeyed Him in one form or another, a confession,
nothing more, no excuse, no defense. The more I understand His holiness the
greater is my awareness of my sinfulness, a saved sinner but still a sinner. How
God could love me knowing my sinfulness? He does, and what a relief that is! I
would have ditched me long ago as a lost cause if I was Yahweh!
So,
to be clear, I do not deny His love for me (cf. Jn 3:16; Rom 5:5; 8:38-39; 1 Jn
4:10). I just don’t understand why in the world He would love me in my struggles
and failures to love Him in return (cf. Jn 14:15)? Thank God He isn’t like me;
thank God when I am more like Him than me! He knows where we all are at any
given moment because He is in us and with us and for us. Nothing can shield us
from any of His attributes. Talk about security in Christ! Halleluyah!
From
everlasting to everlasting is the real deal on infinity. This gets mind-boggling
because there is no limitation to Yahweh’s existence. He is not limited by
origin or end. Dare we say that He has been around a while!? Time is the metric
that we use to see the change in things. Time started with the fall of Adam,
but Yahweh is not bound by such measurement; He is eternally unchanging,
unaffected by the dynamics of sin nor the passing of time. People come and go,
but He remains the same.
Sometimes,
you may find commentators referring from everlasting to everlasting to
vanishing points: from everlasting (vanishing point, no beginning, infinite,
eternal) to everlasting (vanishing point, no ending, infinite, eternal). Well,
we cannot speak of everlasting from any of our experiences, right; it is only theoretical
to us.
But
we can look to see what God says about Himself in the Scriptures and what is
coming down the pike for us; it’s all good. When we begin incorporating the
concept of E2E in how we look at things it changes us to be more like Him with
eternity in view rather than the temporal view of the world that is in
opposition to all people, places, and things related to God.
By
thinking, speaking, and acting in light of God’s eternality (E2E), Yahweh
enables His people to live a significant life worthy of Him (cf. Eccl 3:14). If
we don’t start living with eternity in mind, the temporal things of this world have
a tendency to fill the vacuum and lead us astray. Our minds become more preoccupied
with the temporal things of life than the eternal things of God. Life is way too
brief to allow the temporal things of life to take up more of our limited time
on earth. Moses gives us God’s perception of time.
Moses
wrote,
(Psa
90:4) For
a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like
a watch in the night.
Imagine
for a moment, if you will, “Ten centuries in Yahweh’s sight are like yesterday
when it is past, and as a watch in the night.” Is this not the perspective of
God and God alone – everlasting? After 365,000 days (based on 365 days = a
calendar year, leap years excluded) is like one (1) day to Yahweh when it is
passed! Mind-boggling, yes?
The
only man in human history that lived the closest to hitting the thousand-year
mark was Methuselah, the grandfather of Noah, reaching the age of 969 (Gn 5:27);
he was the 6th of only 7 members belonging to the 900 Club: Adam
(930), Seth (912), Enosh (905), Cainan (910), Jared (962), Methuselah (969),
and Noah (950). When Methuselah died, in the sight of Yahweh, it was like one
day from Yahweh’s perspective (Psa 90:4; cf. 2 Pet 3:8)! We are taken back by
those lifespan numbers in light of James 4:14b,
For
what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and
then vanishes away.
Even
Methuselah’s age was a vapor! So, how do we grapple with infinity? Nothing
compares with it, not even Methuselah’s numbers!
Moses
said in Psa 90:10,
The
days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they
are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it
is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Moses
took off from the runway of life into the realm of eternity at the age of 120
(Deut 34:7a), and by the way, he didn’t die of old age either,
His eyes
were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished (Deut
34:7b)!
My
Dad is 93 and will be 94 on 12.21.21, God willing. He is definitely pushing the
threshold! Now, we are talking about serious brevity here, not 969 years of age
like Methuselah! If Noah’s grandfather’s lifetime was like a watch in the night
to God, what about those agers that are 70-80 years old (Psa 90:10)? The
emphasis being made here is on the divine perspective of human life to eternality
and the importance of realizing just how brief it is in the overall scheme of
things; it is not a suggestion of divine insensitivity, far from it! Our linear
perspective of time is not the same as the Eternal One. Moments matter for us,
“finiters!”
Every
day during those 37.5 years of wandering in the wilderness, Moses witnessed the
frailty and brevity of a sinful people living in a sinful universe, wandering
2-3 million strong in the blazing hot desert sun pressing down on them in the barren
and dusty wilderness, pining away until all of those over the age of 19 at the
time of the rebellion at Kadesh Barnea were dead and buried in the wilderness. That
older generation was expected to die wandering in the wilderness before the
rest entered the Promised Land and that is just what they did (cf. Num 14:29,
30; Heb 9:27).
Moses
wrote,
So
teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom (Psa 90:12).
That’s
a great petition from Moses, yes? That’s a fantastic petition for us to make
before the throne of God! Have you ever asked that of Yahweh, truly? Should we
not be as wise as we can be for His glory given the brief time we have here in
light of eternity? We already know the answer to that question, yes?
Time is the most valuable thing we handle every day (cf. 1 Cor
10:31; Col 3:17, 23), and we often treat it like the value of a penny. We
should handle our time far more wisely, yes? TIME or “time is my
excuse” is not how we treat time; whenever we are too busy for God, we
are too busy according to Elizabeth Elliot.
Yahweh, teach us to seriously consider the brevity of life so
that we might live wisely for You. Amen.
We need to realize that life is way too short to waste on disobedience to Yahweh! Just yesterday, we were young; tomorrow we are old, or dead in my case! Imagine for a moment if we could go back in time and interview some of those still alive of the “older than nineteen” generation in the wilderness before their lives and wandering concluded. What would they say? Perhaps something like this, “It doesn’t pay to disobey!” Time in the way (Jn 14:6) is far better than time in the wilderness on any given day, yes? Are you in the wilderness of your own making right now, spinning your wheels?
There’s
no need for you or me to learn that lesson the hard way unless we’re downright
stupid (cf. Rom 15:4)! That older generation (20+) in Moses’ day never got a
second chance to set things right; it was too late for that. Eventually, they
all died off, everyone. When it comes to disobeying God, please consider that
none of us know if our last disagreement about His will for our lives (which is
sin) is when we crossed the Rubicon, the point of no return. The older
generation in Moses’ day crossed the Rubicon at Kadesh Barnea.
By
thinking, speaking, and acting in light of God’s eternality (E2E), we are
enabled by Yahweh to live a significant life worthy of Him in light of eternity
(cf. Eccl 3:14). If we don’t start living with eternity in mind, the temporal
things of this world will lead us astray as it did the older generation (20+)
in Moses’ day. It simply doesn’t pay to disobey Yahweh. <><
_______
P.S.: I went back to what I call “the forest” on my property to do some fall trimming this past Saturday afternoon. There were three lower limbs on this oak tree about 15 feet off the ground that I had been wanting to remove. After removing the branches, I hauled them down the slope along with some other branches. Getting a little winded because I am, frankly, out of shape, I got to thinking about God’s eternality and His immutability. I parked it on another rock between north rock and my house. I asked Yahweh, with all due respect,
“So,
is this the way it is going to be now? When I get tired or winded back here in
the woods, do You plan to remind me of my finiteness and Your everlasting nature?”
In
my spirit, I did not sense any response from Yahweh because I know that He
knows that I knew where He is going with all of this. I
needed to be reminded that I can do all things through Him who is strengthening me as I move forward toward eternity. I had a gut feeling that He was prepping me for something future, but I haven’t a clue at this juncture.
I
fully realize that without Him, I can do nothing. I am so grateful that I have
His everlasting arms to hold me up through my journey here on terra firma, and
you do, too, my friend. Do you remember the old hymn, “Leaning on the Everlasting
Arms?” I had to look it up to see who wrote the lyrics; it was written by
Elisha Hoffman (1887). Let me give you the first stanza and refrain.
What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
What a blessedness, what a
peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting
arms.
Chorus
Leaning, leaning
Safe and secure from all
alarms;
Leaning, leaning,
Leaning on the everlasting
arms.
(Psa 90:1) A Prayer of Moses the Man of God. Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
(Psa 90:2) Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
