IBS Application for Jeremiah 23:23-24

“Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.”

There is something comforting and humbling about this truth. God is a God who is always close. He is immanent in our lives, meaning He is everywhere. There are some other places in Scripture where the idea is expressed that the heavens cannot contain Him. He is never not present; there is no place in the universe where He is not.

As such, there is nothing we can do to escape from God. David, in Psalm 139, mentions this idea: “Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence?” God is everywhere. It logically follows that He is intimately aware of all that we are doing and what is happening to us.

I know that in this case God was addressing the faithlessness of Israel’s prophets, who were prophesying falsely in His name to gain things for themselves; however, the truth of the immanence of the Lord is still a comforting thing for someone like me, who has regularly struggled with doubt about whether He is close to me or not.

He sees my struggles and my plights. He sees the spiritual fights I’m forced into. He sees me when I’m hurting and depressed. And He sees all of this not far away, but up close and intimately, because God is everywhere. He doesn’t look down upon the plight of man with a bird’s eye view. He knows the horrors we experience, and the pain we feel because He is close to us always. No man could hope to escape this presence, either and He knows the sins we commit. Nothing is hidden from Him.

He knows when I fail, as much as He knows when anyone fails. He sees my stumbling up close and personal, much as I wish He wouldn’t sometimes. Again, this is a humbling truth as well, because it means that for all people, no evil we commit is ever not seen by God. He knows how ugly we are, because He has never not seen us up close.

But He does not recoil from our ugliness. He comes close, wishing to embrace us and hold us closely. He is not only an immanent God, but a loving God. The Lord desires to be close to me, despite my repulsiveness, and I certainly feel repulsive. Even today, I have done much that grieves His Spirit, yet He still wants to draw near to me. I do not understand this, nor have I let this truth be as real to me as I ought to let it.


As I think about what practical application I could make for this particular passage, I find that there is no fitting response to it other than to stop trying to run from God’s presence. I have tried to do so out of my guilt and shame over the way I have carried myself the past couple of days, but what can I do to escape Him? It will always be just as futile as it was for Adam the day that he fell into sin and tried to hide himself from God. What’s more, I don’t understand why I want to flee so badly, especially when He wants to be near to me and help me get out of this mess I’m in. So, I will try to just let Him draw close to me, and I will try to draw close to Him as well, because I am tired of feeling so defeated by my failures.

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