Can A Man Hide Himself?
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Can A Man Hide Himself?
Jeremiah 23:23-24 Don’t deceive yourself into believing that God doesn’t see your sin.
““Am I a God who is near,” declares the Lord, “And not a God far off? Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?” declares the Lord. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord.”
Jeremiah 23:23-24 NASB1995
We humans are masters at deceiving ourselves. We often think that we are more handsome or beautiful than we really are, smarter than everyone else, and even that we’re better Christians than all those other people we go to church with.
The fact is, we’re only deceiving ourselves, not God. In today’s verse, God — through the prophet Jeremiah — asked the nation of Judah rhetorical questions to remind them that He was (and is) very near. He is so close that it’s no use to try to hide from Him after sinning.
Do we fool ourselves into believing that God is too busy watching other sinners and won’t see that one “little” sin we just committed? 17th-century Bible commentator John Trapp once used today’s verse to call out the foolishness of atheists, saying (of God) “Atheists are apt to think that because they see none, therefore none see them.” It’s somewhat akin to holding your hands over your eyes and thinking nobody sees you!
God made and permeates our universe; He definitely sees what we do or fail to do. Who forgets this? The false prophets (in Jeremiah’s time as well as ours) and those who go uncorrected because of those prophets. In our time, those false prophets include those who try to tell us it’s OK to sin through the media.
We also forget that God is all-seeing and all-knowing. Pray that the Holy Spirit convicts you of your sins at the time you commit them, and then act on confessing for them and changing your life so you never repeat that same sin in the future!
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear God, forgive me for the times that I forget that You are always with me, and always aware of what I am doing and thinking. If I sin when I think You’re not looking, I am deceiving myself, not You. Convict me of my sin immediately so that I may confess and repent, in Jesus’ name I pray, AMEN.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org.
Trapp, John "A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments" Volume 3 (Proverbs to Daniel) (Eureka, California: Tanski Publications, 1997)