GOD’S WORD FOR AUGUST 9 ~ ~ Jeremiah 23:23-23 ~ ~ “ Am I a God who is near (Elohi Mikkarov), saith the Lord, and not a God afar off (Elohei Merachok)?

Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.”

From “The Power of the Names of God” by Dr. Tony Evans. More from this great teacher at www.tonyevans.org

PRAYER: Elohim, I praise You for the greatness of Your creative prowess and ingenuity. I adore you for the fullness of Your power, and I honor You for how You have made all things, even the minutiae, work together to populate Your great creation that we call earth.

Elohim transcends not only time but also space. In other words, He predates His creation. He comes before the things He has made…both the heavens and the earth. –that’s what we call a “merism”—two contrasting words that describe an entire thing. “Heaven and earth” stand for all creation.—–

Before God created mankind, He created a location—a space—in which mankind would exist. In order for God to create this space, He had to sit outside of it Himself.

You and I know and experience only the heavens and the earth. We don’t comprehend anything beyond the heavens and the earth because we exist in that space. Yet God existed when space did not. Therefore, God transcends not only time but also space and matter.

Everything that we see is tied to matter. Matter is the substance of everything we have. “Matter” refers to the physical components of the universe. In order for God to be outside of time, space and matter, he must exist in another dimension that isn’t tethered to time, space, and matter the way our is.

If God isn’t tethered to time, space and matter, then he operates in another realm. Which is precisely why you and I can’t figure Him out. We’re not from his realm, His dimension. We can’t conceive of all that dimension contains. We’re like a gear on a watch trying to comprehend the events that go on around it rather than simply measuring the time.

We’re looking at His dimension from the perspective of our dimension, which is challenging because we don’t have even the slightest clue about His dimension. Therefore, we can’t comprehend even a portion of God’s dimension….unless he explains it to us.

Some theologians refer to Elohim as the Holy Other, which can be defined as something we are not aware of. Yet a closer look at the names of God constructed from the root word Elohim reveals a God who also abides in the realm we know. The prophet Jeremiah offers us a glimpse into this delicate balance of God’s presence.

 Am I a God who is near (Elohi Mikkarov), saith the Lord, and not a God afar off (Elohei Merachok)?

Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.”

This passage reveals that God is both transcendent and immanent. He is here, there, and everywhere. Elohim created the heavens and the earth, existing outside of it. Yet Elohim also fills the heavens and the earth, existing in it. He is immanently everywhere. The theological word used to describe this is “omnipresent.” God is everywhere-present at the same time.

The best way to illustrate God’s omnipresence is with air. Air exists everywhere. Wherever you go, you will be in the atmosphere simply because the atmosphere encompasses all of our planet. God is like the atmosphere. His atmospheric presence exists everywhere in the earth.

Yet, because of His transcendence, He is not limited to the earth. That’s where the illustration between air and God breaks down because when you leave earth’s gravity, you leave the air. Yet when you leave God’s omnipresence on earth, He is also there in the transcendent existence outside of the earth. In fact, another name of God which we won’t have time to cover fully in this book tells us of this presence. It is JEHOVAH SHAMMAH— “THE LORD IS THERE.”

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