God Isn’t Distant or Indifferent – He’s Immanuel

Over the years many people have labored to express their perceptions about God. One common view is that even if He did set the entire universe in motion, He’s now like an absentee landlord. That God is far-removed in the distant cosmos, either totally disinterested in what’s happening on earth or passively observing without any desire for getting directly involved.

 

That perception – or misconception, because that’s what it is – finds no support in the Bible, the Word of God. In one of the numerous Old Testament prophecies of the coming Messiah, we’re told, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). The meaning of this is clarified in one of the accounts of Jesus’ birth: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘…they will call Him Immanuel,’ which means, ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:23).

In the person of Jesus Christ, God took on human flesh to experience what we all experience, to teach and serve as an example of how to live, to die on the cross for our sins, and to rise from the dead to demonstrate victory over death so we can be assured of eternal life. But even after Jesus’ ascension, the Lord didn’t remove Himself from involvement in our everyday lives.

 

His last recorded words before ascending to heaven, He declared, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). How could this be possible? As Jesus explained to His disciples, He was giving them – and us – the Holy Spirit, whom theologians term the third Person of the Trinity.

 

He said, “And I will ask the Father and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth…He lives in you and will be with you” (John 14:16-17). Then Jesus added, “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26).

 

Among the many distinctions between Christianity and every other religion, one that stands out in particular is that God is not a far-off, uninvolved, detached deity. From the first book of the Bible to the last, we find the Lord very much engaged in the goings-on of His creation. 

 

He walked and talked with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden before their sin of disobedience. God instructed and guided Noah in the building of the ark. He assured childless Abram and Sarai that even in their old age they would have a son, fulfilling that promise after they had obeyed Him in leaving their former home. 

 

The Lord interacted directly with Jacob, renaming him Israel and making him the progenitor of the children of Israel. He gave the 10 commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai after delivering the enslaved Israelites from Egypt, and appointed Joshua to lead them into the Promised Land.

 

Scanning the Scriptures, there has never been a time when God has not been with us. As King David wrote so exquisitely, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there…. When I awake, I am still with You” (Psalm 139:7-18).

 

God spoke through prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea and Micah, and then came the glorious moment when the prophecy was fulfilled: “For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).

 

The human mind struggles to comprehend how an eternal, infinite God can also be omnipresent – everywhere. And yet by faith we can believe and know this is true. Someone once asked the eminent American astronomer Henry Norris Russell, “How is it possible for such a great and infinite God to have time for me?” Russell replied, “An infinite God can dispatch the affairs of this universe in the twinkling of an eye, thus giving Him plenty of time for you.”

 

The magnitude of God taking on human flesh, as a baby and then as a man, is greater than any of us can fully grasp. But knowing that it includes the assurance that God is with us – always has been and always will be – should fill us with joy during another season of celebrating Christ’s birth. 

Does God Always Beat You?

For a time, these signs were everywhere.

Right in the middle of a department store, the little boy said, “Mommy, don’t beat me when we get home.” Puzzled and perplexed, the mother looked at her son and asked, “Honey, I never beat you. Why do you say that?” “Yes you do, Mommy. All the time. You always beat me to the front door.”

I heard this story at a recent men’s breakfast and we all chuckled. Ah, from the mouths of babes.

Obviously the child wasn’t talking about being paddled or abused, although the casual bystander might have jumped to that conclusion. He just didn’t like the idea of his mom, a grownup, always beating him to wherever he was going.

There’s humor, but also some truth, to this little exchange. Most of the time, we enjoy being the first – unless we’re confronted with something unpleasant, like having to get a shot at the doctor’s office, taking some vile-tasting medicine, or going to the dentist. Then we’re perfectly fine with, “Please, by all means, after you!”

In a sense, that’s also true for us spiritually. There are the times when we’re dead-set on having things our own way and follow whatever path we’ve decided to take. When we get there, we find God has arrived there first – and often we don’t like it. Especially when we know our “destination” doesn’t meet with His approval. That’s when we feel guilt, or conviction, and conclude God is nothing but a divine spoilsport. “He doesn’t want me to have any fun.”

But that’s the problem we sometimes have in knowing God is “omnipresent” – He’s everywhere. In one of his psalms, King David wrote, “Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast” (Psalm 139:7-10).

When we’re in trouble, in distress, or confounded by life’s circumstances, it’s reassuring to know God is in every place, that wherever we go, He’s already “beat us” there. At times He may be silent or seem unresponsive to our complaints or pleas, but as Jesus promised His followers just before ascending to the heavenly realms, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

But when we’d rather be left alone to pursue our desires or plans without having to wonder what God thinks, it bugs us to know He beats us. And not just some of the time, but all of the time.

Recently billboards around my city of Chattanooga, Tenn. carried only one word: “UBIQUITOUS.” This word we rarely use in casual conversation is defined as “the property of being present everywhere…most commonly used in a religious context as an attribute of a deity or supreme being.” We’ve just learned these ads are part of a Coca-Cola marketing campaign to promote the idea that the soft drink can be found almost anywhere, even remote parts of the world.

But as God is described in the Bible, the term ubiquitous seems suitable – although the word “omnipresence” gives understanding of this divine attribute an even more universal scope. You might not find Coca-Cola atop Mount Everest or in the depths of the ocean, if you happen to go to such places, but you will find God there.

So, how does that work? How can someone be busy working at their desk in a place like Chattanooga and acknowledge God, then fly to a destination out of the country on business or for a vacation, maybe to China or South Africa, only to find He’s there, too?

Some of my most profound spiritual experiences have involved traveling to places like Brazil, Jamaica, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Mexico, El Salvador, and Venezuela, where I discovered that despite geography, language and cultural differences, the same God I serve is at work there as well.

Sometimes life seems to be moving smoothly, no bumps in the road, no significant problems to address. At times like that we can shift into cruise control and enjoy the ride, giving little or no thought to the Lord. Then there are times when difficulties confront us no matter where we turn. Those are the times when God’s omnipresence, His ubiquitous nature, means the most.

It might be in a hospital, where we or a loved one awaits surgery for a serious, even life-threatening malady. It might be sitting at the kitchen table confronted by a stack of bills and a checkbook lacking the funds needed to pay those bills. It might be in the boss’s office, about to receive bad news about our job. No matter the circumstances, isn’t it a source of comfort and reassurance to know that whatever we’ll have to face, God has already beat us there?

“’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11). In other words, God is saying, “Fear not, My child, I’ve beat you there. Now watch how I work things out for you.”

Where IS God?

As I’ve written in a previous post, in the midst of life’s tragedies – and there are many – it’s not unusual nor surprising to hear people wondering, or even ask ourselves, “Where was God?” It’s a very good and valid question to ask, not only for skeptics but also for people of faith.

This question was raised frequently after the events of 9/11. It was posed when hurricanes Katrina and Sandy wreaked havoc in different parts of the United States. Some asked this recently when another tornado barreled through already ravaged portions of Oklahoma. It's probably often heard on bloody battlefields. This question certainly was on the minds of family members and friends after learning that a co-pilot had intentionally steered a jet carrying their loved ones into the side of a mountain in the French Alps, killing everyone aboard.

This question defies easy answers. In our humanness, we’d like for God to intervene and prevent every calamity, whether it involves a single individual or masses of people, such as the Boston Marathon bombing or a school shooting. Such tragedies do occur, however, and sometimes we can’t help but wonder, “Where was God when this was happening? Why didn’t He act to stop it?”

A student took this photo
the evening after a tornado
struck an Oklahoma town.

We can’t possibly find an answer apart from what we can see only through the eyes of faith. The atheist or agnostic can point to such grievous occurrences and declare, “See, there’s no God! How could your ‘loving God’ permit such things to occur?” Even those of us who do believe are inclined to ask “Why?” or at least, as some have suggested, “What?” In other words, what are we to learn from this tragedy?

Occasionally we do see glimpses of God in very unexpected ways. An infant, still secured in her car seat, survives an accident that claimed the life of her mother. Emergency responders rush to the child’s aid after hearing an unexplained voice that simply called, “Help me.”

In the aftermath of 9/11, we viewed a cross that somehow became fashioned from steel girders during the destruction of the Twin Towers. And recently, a student took a photo of a utility pole in Oklahoma after an F-1 tornado had stormed through town. The bottom portion of the pole had been severed, and the cross tie of the pole was suspended by wires, creating the image again of…a cross.

Such images are interesting – and I don’t believe coincidental. But lest we read too much into what they mean, I think there’s a more important question we should be asking: “Where IS God?”

Thankfully, this isn’t a question that requires speculation or supposition. Because we find the answer in the Scriptures, most notably Psalm 139, where the psalmist writes:

“Where can I go from your Spirit? When can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the seas, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast…even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you” (Psalm 139:7-12).

So the answer to the question, “Where is God?” is simple – everywhere. The theological term for this is omnipresent. The Bible teaches there is nowhere we can go where God is not. He is with us during the good times (when we often don’t even care whether he’s there or not), and He’s there in the bad times, ready to comfort, console, strengthen and, when He determines it’s time, usher us to our eternal home.

If we are confident in this, that God is indeed everywhere, the question concerning where was God when some tragedy occurred might be more easily resolved. As the student commented after taking the photo of the utility pole cross, "Just found this after the tornado. God is with us."