“’Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ declares the Lord.”

The situation had gone way past being unacceptable.  Intolerable?  Beyond that.  Just plain evil?  Keep going.  How about abominable?  Or monstrous?  Now we’re getting closer.  The situation?  The idolatry in Judah’s later years.  The kingdom had seen its best days when David ruled.  After its division, Israel to the north first went into captivity in 722 BC.  After that only Judah remained.  You think they would have learned a few things — or something — from that horrific invasion and destruction.  But no, Judah went merrily on her way into idolatry, and eventually to captivity in Babylon for 70 years.  So how bad was it?  They worshiped the Queen of Heaven (7:18, 44:19) and burned their children to Molech and Baal (7:31, 19:5, 32:35).  Their prophets and religious leaders raised their dreams to the level of divine prophetic knowledge (23:21-22, 25-32).  I could go on, but you get the point.  It wasn’t pretty.

What also wasn’t pretty was their future, unknown to Judah’s religious hucksters.  Contrary to them, Jeremiah had heard from God, and judgment indeed was coming.  So when Jeremiah sounded the alarm, why, he sounded downright negative, so unpatriotic!  “After all, we are God’s people, the Jews!  We have Jerusalem,” the center of the world to the Jewish mind, “and the Temple to boot!  God would never let us go into captivity, not in a million years.”  Can you hear them?  Jeremiah suffered dearly for his courage to speak the truth to a generation that couldn’t — or more correctly, wouldn’t — listen.

In this context we find our description of the Lord.  As is usually the case, the context helps drive home God’s point of himself.  After nailing evil kings in chapter 22, Jeremiah sets his sights on false prophets in the next chapter.  In 23:22 he quotes God, “I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied.  But if they had stood in my council, they would have proclaimed my words to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds.”  So far, so good.  He continues: “‘Am I only a God nearby,’ declares the Lord, ‘and not a God far away?  Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the Lord.  ‘Do not I fill heaven and earth?’ declares the Lord” (v. 24).  It requires a ‘yes’ answer.

As in our day, truth was at a premium in Judah.  God’s character and their future hung in the balance, depending on whom you believed.  At least, that’s the way it seemed.  But no matter what someone says, it doesn’t change God’s character, nature or purposes.  They don’t change.  Likewise with their future.  God had already decreed their destiny.  Say whatever you want about that, it will not change the facts.  It will only deceive.  And that was the problem.

Prophets were prophesying falsely, and God raises the question, “Am I only a God nearby and not a God far away?”  In other words, can he see only what’s near but miss the big picture?  In reverse, can he only see from far away and miss the pertinent details up close?  Either question requires ‘no’ for an answer.  He sees from both vantage points and everything in between.  To confirm this conclusion, he asks, “Do not I fill heaven and earth?”  In a different context 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.  If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ 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).  The point is the same: God is inescapable.  You can run from man, but not from God.  You can hide from man, but not from God.  The truth will prevail because God sees all, knows all, and even fills all.  In fact, the Hebrew word carries with it the idea of fulfilling, confirming, satisfying and completing.  Reread 23:24 with those words: “Do not I fulfill/confirm/satisfy/ complete heaven and earth?”  Wow!  Now it’s really clear: truth wins out, God’s purposes rule, evil will not triumph, God will be vindicated entirely and his will shall prevail.  Sweet assurance, this.  Years ago philosophers began asking the critical question, why is there something rather than nothing?  Manifestly this is why.

In a world running amok, are you confident of him so filling heaven and earth and your life?