Understanding God: He is NOT Omnipresent Then the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of…
Understanding God: He is NOT Omnipresent
Then the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground… And the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.” – Genesis 18:1-2,20-21
God is not omnipresent. That sounds heretical, doesn’t it? Particularly as it also challenges thousands of years of theology and the long-held beliefs of an innumerable number of people, both dead and alive.
Omnipresence is a myth, one of the fictional attributes we ascribe to God in awe and worship. And He indeed deserves our awe and worship because of His gargantuan stature and the indispensable role He plays in our lives and our universe. However, there is no passage in the Bible where God describes Himself as omnipresent. Now, we need to draw a line between what God Himself says He is in a direct address and what the various writers of the books in the Bible describe Him to be. If you draw this line, you will realize that all the biblical passages that are being used to justify the omnipresence of God are not His own direct account of Himself. They are more of what the scribes, the prophets, the apostles and other writers of the books attribute to Him.
For context, this writer has also held and described God as omnipresent all his life. And it was not until recently that his attention was drawn to the myth that humanity has held for Aeon about the omnipresence of God. This piece will also be followed by several series drawn from and supported by scripture, to demonstrate that omniscience is a myth and does not accurately represent God.
The idea of omnipresence also highlights our ignorance of the sheer magnitude of God’s creations. The realms and the works of the LORD are so vast and humongous that they beat the wildest imaginations. We primarily focus our attention on the earth and use it to aid our understanding of God. But then this earth, as huge as it is to us, with billions of people living on it, is indeed a very tiny entity among the creations and the realms of God.
The planet Earth is part of the Milky Way galaxy. Now, in terms of size, the Earth is incredibly tiny in that galaxy. The Earth’s size is so small compared to the Milky Way that if the Milky Way were the size of a football field, Earth would be smaller than a tiny grain of sand! Even though the Earth seems huge to us, it is super, super tiny in the vast galaxy we live in! To drive that home, Earth’s size is about 0.00000000013% (1.3 trillionths of the total size) of the Milky Way!
Now, let’s take a closer look at the Milky Way itself, where the Earth and its billions of people are just like a grain of sand. There are estimated to be 100 billion to 200 billion galaxies in the universe. Some studies even suggest there might be more, possibly up to two trillion galaxies. The Milky Way is just one of these, and in terms of size, it is average-sized compared to the other galaxies in the universe of God’s creations. There are other galaxies, numbering in the billions, that are much larger than our Milky Way. Each galaxy has its own stars, its own planets (just like the Earth is one of the planets in the Milky Way), and its own structures. Let’s still not forget that the Earth, through which we understand and relate to God, is just like a tiny speck in its own parent galaxy.
Now, to our reference scripture today, the Bible tells us that God appeared to Abraham “by the terebinth trees of Mamre”. He was not there before that time. In fact, from Genesis 2, when God began relating to humans (we will still conduct a blow-by-blow analysis of biblical references from Genesis 3 onwards on the myth of omniscience), God was always either coming or appearing. He was not always present there either physically or spiritually.
Location-wise, God is in heaven (Psalm 11:4, Psalm 115:3, Ecclesiastes 5:2, Matthew 6:9, Matthew 7:11, Matthew 10:33, Matthew 16:17, Matthew 18:10, Matthew 18:14, Matthew 23:9). Positionally, He is seated on His throne in glory and majesty, and He is being fawned over and worshipped by an innumerable company of angels in the highest where He is (Isaiah 6, Revelation 4).
Inasmuch as God is not omnipresent or everywhere, He nonetheless has the ability to be wherever He wants to be at any time. He can also be in multiple places at the same time as He desires. But that does not mean that He is presently present everywhere at the same time as we have long believed Him to be. No, that is a myth.
God did not communicate Himself to us in this way. The only thing He claimed to be is the Almighty, or Omnipotent (Genesis 17:1). As for Him being omnipresent, that is a myth.
Understanding God: He is Omnipotent When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless….
Understanding God: He is Omnipotent
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. – Genesis 17:1
The attribute of God for our meditation today shall be His omnipotence. From our reference passage, we see God introducing Himself to Abraham by saying He is the Almighty God. Another word for almighty is omnipotent. In other words, the God of all might and power who has the ability to do and to undo.
It is pertinent for us to note this attribute of God, particularly as a grounded conviction in it would serve as a guardrail to help us successfully navigate the intricate terrains of life and living. God is the Almighty. He has all might, all power and all abilities. Nothing is beyond Him.
Knowing that one has an ally in God who has this facility should therefore make life’s issues more bearable for anyone who has a relationship with God. Knowing that God is on your side is one of the best antidotes for pressures of any kind, and life will throw all manner of pressure at you. However, those who know God are well-equipped to cope with whatever life may throw at them.
A passage in the Bible states, “The people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits” (Daniel 11:32). This illustrates the dual advantage of knowing God: it offers the benefit of strength, another manifestation of omnipotence, and exploits, yet another derivation from the omnipotent power of God, who devolves power and abilities to those He trusts.
Therefore, if you desire to make something of your life in a just and clean way, the God’s way, that is devoid of scheming or manipulation, then you need to have a good relationship with God, as that avails you the needed energy and facility to make it happen.
Understanding God: He is Agreeable Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I…
Understanding God: He is Agreeable
Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you… So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. – Genesis 12:1,4-5
Another endearing attribute of God that we shall meditate on today is His predilection for agreeing with human dreams and wishes, particularly those that are lofty, audacious and do not conflict with His will, a la the tower of Babel. He is an agreeable God.
There was no indication that God and Terah had any conversation about this journey before he embarked on it. However, his move must have impressed God enough that even after his death, God approached his son, Abraham, and invited him to continue the journey.
This is an eye-revealing insight into the character of God indeed. He knew Terah’s original intention and saw how he fell short of his target by dying enroute the journey in the land of Haran. God also saw how Abraham, the son of Terah, appeared to have settled where he was with no intention of continuing the expedition that his father had started.
One cannot blame Abraham for deciding to settle down in Haran. After all, the audacious 2,000-kilometer journey through rough and rocky terrains was not his own idea in the first place. It was his father who wanted to embark on the journey. He, Abraham, was only being a good son by going along with him.
God knew all this. But more impressive was the fact that God decided to help Abraham to complete the journey rather than just watch him settle down in Haran. So He approached Abraham and called him to proceed on the journey.
This gesture of God tells us that He is agreeable to our ambitions, aspirations and plans. He says ‘Yes’ to our dreams and is not all out to scuttle them as some portray Him to be. He is not a killjoy. Even when we max out and become weary along the way, as we see with Terah, who died on the way and Abraham, who wanted to settle for less, God is willing to step in and help us keep going.
We did not read that either Terah or Abraham prayed to God at any point in their endeavors. But God had become so vested in Terah’s ambitious expedition that He came to Abraham uninvited to discuss the stalled subject of continuing the journey. Some God, isn’t He?
Understanding God: He Incentivizes Obedience Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I…
Understanding God: He Incentivizes Obedience
Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. – Genesis 12:1-4
In continuation of our exploration of God’s personality and character, we shall consider today another of His traits: incentivization. He is a God who incentivizes or offers rewards to facilitate obedience.
Over the years, puritanicals have portrayed God as an ogre and killjoy. This is because they mostly see God from the standpoint of rules and instructions alone, with rewards or punishments only following obedience or disobedience. But God is much more than dos and don’ts. He is dynamic and personal enough to engage humans directly and encourage obedience. That is perhaps why most of His instructions usually have a catch to them, thus enabling His children to make intelligent choices and informed decisions about whether or not to comply.
As we can see from His conversation with Abraham, God did not just ask him to leave or step out. He also dangled promissory notes in Abraham’s face. He made enticing promises to Abraham of what he stood to gain by stepping out of his comfort zone to resume the journey that his father had started but could not complete.
God had read the room and observed Abraham’s willingness to settle rather than proceed. One cannot blame the poor man for not being interested in continuing the journey to Canaan at the advanced age of 75, as it was not his idea in the first place. It was his father, Terah, who embarked on the audacious 2,000-kilometer journey. However, Terah died only after covering halfway of the entire journey, and his son, Abraham, was content to settle at Haran, where they stopped.
God knew that Abraham would need motivation to continue this destiny-defining journey. So He came to him with the following promises:
“I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”- Genesis 12:2-3
Now, who would not want all these? Even though Abraham appeared to be complacent and laidback up to this point, the array of promises that God made him was enough to spark him awake and get him up and doing to continue, not minding his old age. Imagine if God had not promised him anything and only asked him to continue the long, arduous journey; Abraham arguably would not have moved an inch. But by incentivizing His invitation with promises of blessings, greatness and a tantalizing future, God made the decision easy for Abraham to make and his obedience a no-brainer. He Incentivizes and motvates.
Understanding God: He is Strategic Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a…
Understanding God: He is Strategic
Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. – Genesis 11:1-9
Another lesson we can learn from God is his strategic thinking and operations. God is the epitome of strategy. The Bible is replete with examples of his strategic mindset and mode of operation. Some of these we will cover in future series under similar or different headings. But today, let us consider the strategic nous that God demonstrated for our learning in the Tower of Babel saga.
Humans, being humans, began to run contrary to the plan of God for their occupation of planet Earth. Rather than spreading across the planet and subduing it in the course of doing so, as we have done to a large extent today, they only converged in a place and built towers up to the skies as opposed to gaining ground and spreading across. This ran contrary to God’s thinking.
Again, men presented God with yet another problem, a problem that must be solved without Him resorting to the drastic measures He earlier adopted with the flood, which wiped out all living beings except those housed in the ark of Noah. So, how did God solve this latest problem? He went about it in a rather tactical way.
A common but less intelligent approach would have been to focus on the gargantuan construction going on. That would have been a daunting task in itself, one that would be more stressful and time-consuming. Imagine how long the men working on the tower would have gone in their projects. They surely must have gained considerable traction. Even if they hadn’t, it must have been quite a sight scuttling the edifice they had put up in the tower at Babel. Besides, God may be a no-nonsense God, but He is not a vandal since He Himself is a maker and knows what it takes to build something.
However, in coming up with a solution to this problem, God centered on the motivation that led to the hairy construction in the first place: He saw that “the people are one and.” It was a problem of oneness. Much as unity is a desirable state, in this regard, it was driving humankind on an opposite course with God’s design. Having zeroed in on the real cause of the problem, God also identified the driver of the unity, the one thing He needed to fix to solve the problem: “one language and one speech.”
Thereafter, God merely changed the people’s language from one to multiple, and that was it. They could no longer come to an agreement again, as everyone now speaks different languages and have different speeches. That was the end of the project. No demolition was necessary. There was no need to go to any great lengths to mobilize resources and infrastructure to stop the project. The only thing needed was to introduce diversity to the communication and perspectives of the builders, and the project was abandoned while everyone pursued something else that more aligned with their interests and worldviews across different parts of the world. Thus, they inadvertently realign themselves to the original intent of God in the process.
Another lesson we can learn from God is His disposition to a balancing act. He is not a God of extremes. Even though some who profess to follow Him go to extremes in His name or make extreme claims on His behalf, extreme is not a label that one can pin on God. He balances the acts.
Understanding God: He is Not Moved by Sentiments
Another lesson we can learn from the personality of God is that sentiments do not move Him. Therefore, He cannot be deceived into making a wrong judgment or call, as humans tend to do.
Understanding God: He is A Creator
He is a Creator. This is not to be interpreted loosely, particularly in the light of our contemporary use of the word. God is the ultimate Creator, as He created all things, even the ends of the earth (Isaiah 40:28).
Understanding God: God of the Beginning
There is no better way to begin this journey of exploring the people and entities in the Bible than to start with God. He is not just the beginning but is the origin of all things.
Women in the Bible: A Paragon of Beauty
What made Sarah’s beauty so compelling that kings and nations took notice? Explore the deeper layers of grace, favour, and mystery surrounding one of Scripture’s most unforgettable women — and discover why her story still provokes wonder today.
Men in the Bible: A Man of Ambition and Adventure
Terah may not have reached Canaan, but his courage to start a life-changing journey laid the foundation for Abraham’s destiny. Discover how ambition and bold steps mark a life of significance.
Men in the Bible: An Impetuous and Impudent Man
A revealing glimpse into a man whose choices exposed deeper issues of character, showing how hastiness and entitlement can quietly shape a destiny, and why his story still speaks to us today.
Men in the Bible: A Man with Little Foresight
Sometimes what looks like a smart choice can hide the seed of a mistake. This reflection from Scripture invites us to think again about how foresight — or the lack of it — shapes a man’s story.
Men in the Bible: The First Man to Tithe
Before laws, temples, or traditions, one man honoured God with his substance. Abraham’s tithe was not commanded, demanded, or enforced. It flowed from reverence.
Fathers in the Bible: A Destiny-Shaping Father
What makes a man a truly aware father? Discover how one man’s prophetic foresight shaped his son’s destiny and changed generations forever.
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