7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
Psalm 139:7-12
A good reminder
On Sunday I gave a message about the expectation of Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus was promised by God to the nation of Israel and they were expecting and anticipating Jesus. Though, there were several periods of time where, to the Jews, it was so dark and grim that it did not seem as though the light of a messiah was even probable. Following the message on Sunday I was reminded of this scripture from Psalms 139 about how God is not governed by darkness, but instead as it says in verse 12 "for darkness is as light with you." Why is this possible? Because 1 John 1:5 is true when it says "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."
What does this mean for us who are in Christ? Well, I will answer that question with some questions.
Where can you go to get away from God?
Where can you flee from God's presence?
Jonah
While Jonah may not have received it as "good news" that he couldn't escape the presence of God by boarding a ship going as far away from where God wanted him to go. It was good news, because this means even when Jonah was dwelling "in the uttermost parts of the sea" and when Jonah seemed to be "making his bed in Sheol" (Sheol means "the grave" or "hell") Jonah could not escape God, neither can we!
In closing, Paul makes a great point of this in Romans 8
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What about you?
You cannot escape or deter God from coming after you. Just like when Israel disobeyed and rejected God over and over and God still when after them, so, God is always coming after us.
