If God is everywhere, what's special about his presence?
God fills every place at every moment, yet the Bible still speaks of people coming into His presence, being brought near, fleeing from His face, and being shut out from it forever. So the question is not where God is, but on what terms a person stands before Him.
God Fills All Space
Scripture never treats God as confined to a location. One writer sets the doctrine out plainly, and warns against thinking of it in physical terms:
J. N. DarbyAs to omnipresence, God has no more to do with space than with time. He has created all things in a way we can grasp. In this creation nothing escapes Him. He is, morally speaking, omnipresent. He is not of it, or in it, but pervades it. He is "through all"! He upholds everything, as He creates everything.
Fleeing Was Never About Geography
Jonah "rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD" — yet he knew Psalm 139. A commentator resolves the tension:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThis cannot possibly mean that he fled from the presence of the One he knew to be everywhere present. The Psalm of David which speaks of this was already in Israel's possession, and Jonah must have known it… He did not flee from the presence of the Lord in the sense of escaping His knowledge and authority. It means that he left the land of Israel where Jehovah dwelt; he fled from the commission he had been given.
Nearness Is Not Naturally Welcome
Sinful man's instinct is to get away from God, not closer:
W. W. FeredayNo man naturally wishes to be brought face to face with God. The whole history of the human race proves this. Adam and his wife, as soon as they knew they had sinned, "hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden." Cain, after his terrible crime, "went away from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod." Jonah in his self-will fled to Tarshish "from the presence of the LORD." Scripture is full of instances of men brought into the divine presence and immediately filled with the deepest distress.
God Dwells Only Where Redemption Has Been Accomplished
His presence with people is a distinct thing from His filling the universe, and it has a condition:
J. N. DarbyIt is only on the basis of redemption that God dwells with man. He did not dwell with Adam innocent, though He came down to him. He did not dwell with Abraham, though He visited him and ate with him. But when Israel came out of Egypt, God said He brought them to Himself "that I may dwell in their midst." And at once the tabernacle was built, and there was God's presence in the middle of His people.
The Way In Was Opened by Christ
Under the old arrangement the innermost sanctuary — the holy of holies — was entered once a year, and only under cover of incense. The pattern explains the Christian's title to enter:
An Outline of Sound WordsWhen Aaron entered the holiest, once a year, on the day of atonement, he was commanded to take the golden censer full of burning coals from the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small… Man could not be in the presence of God apart from the fragrance of the Person of God's dear Son. It is because Christ is in the presence of God, and because His precious blood has met all the claims of God's throne, that we have boldness to enter the holiest.
Presence Enjoyed, Not Just Believed
Being everywhere present, God is with the unbeliever too. What marks the believer is enjoyment of Him:
J. N. DarbyCommunion with God is a real thing, in which He pours into the soul, in greater or lesser degree, the deep joy of His presence — of that favour and perfect love in which He communicates with the soul, revealing Himself… It is more than faith, though founded on it; it is other than the certainty of salvation, though it is the crown and seal and realisation of this.
The same distinction applies when Christians meet. The Lord's promise to be in the midst of two or three can be held as information and still change nothing:
Scripture QuarterlyBut if this is merely accepted as a dogmatic statement, it will not take us far. Without the soul's apprehension of the Lord's presence, His supper will be a formal matter.
The Alternative Is Being Cast Out
Jonah's cry from the fish — "I am driven away from your sight" — is read as a preview of a final loss:
G C WillisHe had got, so he believed, away from the presence of Jehovah at last; he had found the place he was looking for, but how terrible that place was!… It is a solemn thing to think that the day is coming when crowds around us will be forced to say truly, "I am cast out from before Your eyes." They do not want the Lord now, and the day is coming quickly when they will be cast out from His presence.
Summary
- Everywhere. God fills all space and nothing escapes Him — but that is His relation to creation, not a relationship with a person.
- Shut out. Since the garden, man's reflex has been to hide, and Scripture treats being driven from God's sight as the shape of final judgment.
- Opened. God dwells with man only on the ground of redemption; the blood of Jesus, not human worthiness, gives boldness to enter the holiest.
- Enjoyed. The special thing is communion — more than faith, more than assurance of salvation — God Himself pouring joy into the soul.
- Realised. A promise of His presence held only as doctrine leaves worship formal; the difference is a soul that actually apprehends Him.