הלוא את־השׁמים ואת־הארץ אני מלא נאם־יהוה
ho-lo ayth shaw-mah'-yim ayth eh'-rets an-ee' maw-lay' nah-oom' Yeh-ho-vaw'
is it not actually heaven actually earth I fill said Jehovah ?Transliteration
? Is it not the heavens and the earth that I myself actually fill?? is the utterance of Jehovah. ??Jeremiah 23:24 NWT
Is God omnipresent?
This seems to be the plain meaning of those solemn words which God speaks of himself: " Is it not the heavens and the earth that I myself actually fill? " Notice the context; ?Am I a God nearby, and not a God far away?? Demonstrating God's presence was in question and sufficiently proving his omnipresence. Which may be farther proved from this consideration:
Omnipresence definition; Present in all places at the same time; Put your intellect to the constituents of presence; The state of being within sight or call, or at hand;
? There is not a creation that is not manifest to [God's] sight? (Hebrews 4:13) ?The eyes of Jehovah are in every place? (Proverbs 15:3)
? For there is not a word on my tongue, But look! O Jehovah, you already know it all.? (Psalm 139:4)
? Behind and before, you have besieged me; And you place your hand upon me.? (Psalm 139:5) Were I to go to any conceivable or inconceivable place ?There, also, your own hand would lead me And your right hand would lay hold of me.? (Psalm 139:10)
God's presence (state of being within sight or call, or at hand) is manifest everywhere so God is everywhere present, all present, omnipresent. It is really as simple as that. Yes, ?Where can I go from your spirit, And where can I run away from your presence?? (Psalm 139:7). I know ?[Such] knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is so high up that I cannot attain to it.? (Psalm 139:6) But ?Is anything too extraordinary for Jehovah?? (Genesis 18:14)
Can there be in the whole compass of nature a more sublime subject? Can there be any more worthy the consideration of every rational creature? Is there any more necessary to be considered, and to be understood, so far as our poor faculties will admit? How many excellent purposes may it answer! What deep instruction may it convey to all the children of men! And more directly to the children of God.
Indeed, this subject is far too vast to be comprehended by the narrow limits of human understanding. We can only say, The great God, the eternal, the almighty Spirit, is as unbounded in his presence as in his duration and power. In condescension, indeed, to our weak understanding, he is said to dwell in heaven: but, strictly speaking, ?'The heavens, yes, the heavens of the heavens, themselves cannot contain [God]?--1 Kings 8:27; but he is in every part of his dominion. The universal God dwells universally; so that we may say,
Hail, Father! whose creating call
Unnumbered worlds attend!
Jehovah, comprehending all,
Who none can comprehend!
By sustaining all things, without which everything would in an instant sink into its primitive nothing; by governing all, every moment superintending everything that he has made; strongly and sweetly influencing all, and yet without destroying the liberty of his rational creatures. ?in fact, [Jehovah] is not far off from each one of us.? Paul told the Athenian philosophers, ?For by [God] we have life and move and exist, even as certain ones of the poets among YOU have said, 'For we are also [God's] progeny.'?--Acts 17:27,28. This truth was expressed repeatedly by the saints of old: ?In whose hand is the soul of everyone alive And the spirit of all flesh of man??--Job 12:10. The poets acknowledged that the great God governs the large and conspicuous parts of the universe;
Totam Mens agitans molem,
et magno se corpore miscens:
The all-informing soul,
That fills, pervades and actuates the whole.
Presiding over all that he has made, and governing atoms as well as worlds. This we could not have known unless it had pleased God to reveal it to us himself. Had he not himself told us so, we should not have dared to think that "not one [sparrow] will fall to the ground without our Father's [knowledge]." and much less affirm, that "even the hairs of our head are all numbered!" (Mt 10:29-31; Lu 12:6,7)
And where no creature is, still God is there. The presence or absence of any or all creatures makes no difference with regard to him. He is equally in all, or without all. Many have been the disputes whether there be any such thing as empty space in the universe; and it is now generally supposed that all space is full. Even if one could remove all the photons and charged particles from space; ?Even the darkness itself would not prove too dark for you, But the night itself would shine just as the day does; The darkness might just as well be the light.? (Psalm 139:12)
Your omnipresent sight,
Even to the pathless realms extends
Of uncreated night.
It is intriguing to contemplate Jehovah's omnipresence and interesting to consider the similarities of what modern science knows of dynamic energy and Jehovah. Jehovah is "the abundance of dynamic energy, [God] also being vigorous in power"--Isaiah 40:26. Modern science has proved energy has always existed and always will, can never be destroyed and is everywhere in the universe. Only Jehovah has claimed these qualities and rightly so.
Dynamic energy is know to reach beyond the material universe. Yes 'empty' space is filled with gravitational and magnetic energies. That which we cannot see except by there influence on matter and particles. For example a space craft has felt the disturbance of the earth's magnetic field four million miles away! And the binary pulsar PSR1913+16 has been shown to emit substantial gravitational waves, and one expects that these waves will carry away energy. So according to general relativity its orbital period should change. Einstein's derived quadrapole formula bore out the predictions within a few percent.
E=m*c^2 does indeed describe the inseparableness of the material universe and the God of dynamic energy. "For [God's] invisible [qualities] are clearly seen from the cosmos?s creation onward, because they are perceived by the things made, even his eternal power and Godship, so that they are inexcusable"--Romans 1:20.
Dialogue;
Wherever we suppose him not to be, there we suppose all his attributes to be in vain. He cannot exercise there either his justice or mercy, either his power or wisdom. In extra-mundane space, (so to speak) where we suppose God not to be present, we must, of course, suppose him to have no duration.
"Jehovah proceeded to go down to see the city" (Genesis 11:5). ?as for Jehovah, he was still standing before Abraham.? (look at Genesis 18) The fact of God's omnipresence precludes taking such biblical depictions of God's ascending and descending and comings and goings literally. When such language is employed (Isaiah 64:1,2), it must be recognized for what it is - metaphorical language indicating or invoking a special manifestation of God's working either in grace or judgment.
But to all that is or can be said of the omnipresence of God, the world has one grand objection: They cannot see him. And this is really at the root of all their other objections. But is it not easy to reply, "Can you see the wind?" You cannot. But do you therefore deny its existence, or its presence? You say, "No; for I can perceive it by my other senses." But by which of your senses do you perceive your spirit? Surely you do not deny either the existence or the presence of this! And yet it is not the object of your sight, or of any of your other senses. Suffice it then to consider that God is a Spirit. Consequently, "You are not able to see my presence, because no man may see me and yet live." (Exodus 33:20) How is it that angels are able to materialize such that we can see them? Jehovah is far more than an angel and to conclude that Jehovah could materialize all his being as if into one body is silly. We certainly would not live through the experience.