NO ESCAPING—THE TRUTH!
- David recognized the omniscience of God.
- David had seen the omnipotence of God.
- David knew the omnipresence of God.
- David realized that Almighty God knew him even before he was fashioned; God did. It was God who created David and placed him inside his mother’s womb.
- God knew David’s words even before David formed the thought in his mind.
- David felt peace in knowing it was Almighty God who encircled him and protected him daily.
- David knew—HE COULD NOT EVER ESCAPE GOD!
We find each of these truths in David’s Psalm 139, and within this declaration, it was David who wrote:
“LORD, You have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I get up;
You understand my thought from far away.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.”
(Psalm 139: 1-3 NASB 2020)
We look behind us, and God is there, then we look up ahead, and God, He is there too. His reassuring presence continues. This is much too wonderful! Surely, we cannot take it all in!
WE carry inside us—The Salvation of God!
ALMIGHTY GOD is the “ONE” who resides within us!
GOD placed HIS HOLY SPIRIT within us at the moment of our salvation!
- NOTHING has the power to take the “JOY of the LORD” away from inside us!
- NOTHING has the power to alter or eliminate or delete “WHO” resides within us!
We are FOREVERMORE—GOD’S!
THE PROMISES of GOD ARE UN-CEASING—FOREVERMORE!
God’s promises are EVERLASTING & they TRANSCEND from this life into our eternity.
Just as David was, Jonah was too—God’s man!
In reading in the Bible about the demise of Israel, the wrath of God for the godless actions of the people is apparent. God allowed the Israelites to be taken into captivity because of their sin against Him.
And then in reading about the demise of the Assyrians who captured the Israelites, we see within God’s Word how God sent the man of God (Jonah) to preach repentance to them, and we see how Jonah did not wish for the Ninevites to receive God’s salvation. So in that bitterness toward the people to whom he was sent to witness, we see in Jonah 1: 2-3, the way Jonah ran away from Nineveh.
SIN is SIN is SIN is SIN! It’s so UGLY!
ALL SIN IS AGAINST ALMIGHTY GOD!
- If God did not love Jonah, HE would never have sent the storm.
- If God did not wish to save Jonah, HE would never have sent the great fish.
- A “correcting storm” is God-sent to us because God loves us.
- A “correcting storm” is God-sent to us because God wants to help get us back on track.
- If we are in a “correcting storm” then we need to stop running from that which God has given us to do and search for what God would have us do.
- If we are in a “correcting storm” then we need to pray, repent, return to God’s side, and be restored.
“Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish, and he said,
“I called out of my distress to the LORD,
And He answered me.”
(Jonah 2: 1-2a NASB 2020)
Just as David & Jonah—because Jesus is our Savior, we are—God’s children!
Once we belong to God—WE CANNOT EVER ESCAPE GOD!
It is TRUTH—We CANNOT Ever Run Far Enough Away to ESCAPE GOD!
WHY WOULD WE EVER WISH TO—ESCAPE the LOVE of GOD!
God is not to be trifled with; God is not some Sunday morning “thing” we do; God is not some quick “help-line” we call. NO! It would do us well to remember that GOD is GOD (and we are not). HE is GOD! The ALMIGHTY! The CREATOR of the universe!
As author Annie Dillard wrote: “We need our crash helmets.”
As the prophet Nahum wrote during the time of the Assyrians’ rule over the Israelites:
[GOD is] “A jealous and avenging God is the LORD;
The LORD is avenging and wrathful.
The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries,
And He reserves wrath for His enemies.
The LORD is slow to anger and great in power,
And the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.
In the gale and the storm is His way,
And clouds are the dust beneath His feet.
He rebukes the sea and dries it up;
He dries up all the rivers. . . .
Mountains quake because of Him,
And the hills come apart;
Indeed the earth is upheaved by His presence,
The world and all the inhabitants in it.
Who can stand before His indignation?
Who can endure the burning of His anger?
His wrath gushes forth like fire,
And the rocks are broken up by Him.
The LORD is good,
A stronghold in the day of trouble,
And He knows those who take refuge in Him.”
(Nahum 1: 2-7 NASB 2020)
So, like David, and like Jonah, there are times in our lives when God reveals the ugliness of our sin. We must remember that our sin is committed against ALMIGHTY GOD.
- It is at that moment, we should not run away, trying to escape God’s judgment.
- It is at that moment, we should not hide, trying to cover up our sin against God.
- It is in that moment, we must stop, we must turn back toward God & bow down as we repent & cry out:
“Search me, God, and know my heart;
Put me to the test and know my anxious thoughts;
And see if there is any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.”
(Psalm 139: 23-24 NASB 2020)