Hagar called the name of the Lord, "Thou God seest me."
BAXTER L. HOWE
“The darkness hideth not from Thee; but the night shineth as the day.”
A FATHER and son went out into the darkness of night to steal corn. They climbed over the fence, and the father began to break the ears of corn and slide them into a bag. Jimmy had a bag, but he gathered no corn. “Hurry up there, Jimmy. The moon will soon be up. No one will see us.”
“Won’t God see us, papa?”
The father picked up his sack at the bottom and spilled out on the ground the ears he had broken. They climbed over the fence, and went home without any corn.
Hagar went out from the home of Abraham. The angel found her wandering in the wilderness and told her to return to her mistress. Hagar called the name of the Lord that talked with her, “Thou God seest me.” Hagar was not looking for God, but God saw her. “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” Proverbs 15:3.
“Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.” A generation of wicked men followed him. They tried to get away from God. “When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful.” God saw their wickedness that it was very great, yet they “knew not until the Flood came, and took them all away.”
GOD IS NOT LIMITED AS MAN IS
Man deceives himself and thinks, God is altogether such a one as I am. Yet God knew the way Balaam went, and He met him in the narrow path. When Ahab met the man of God in the vineyard of Naboth, he gave voice to the bitter wail, “Hast Thou found me, O mine enemy?”
Jonah was a prophet of God. A prophet is supposed to deliver the message God gives him. God gave Jonah a message for Nineveh, but Jonah did not want to deliver the message God gave him. So the story says, “Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.” Just why Jonah chose Tarshish as a place to escape from the presence of the Lord the record does not state; but incidentally the way is given that a man takes when he flees from the presence of the Lord. The road away from the presence of God is always down. Jonah went down to Joppa. He purchased a ticket and went down into the ship. In the ship he went down into the sides of the ship and went to sleep.
But Jonah was awakened from his sleep. The God from whose presence he was fleeing has “His way . . . in the storm.” Jonah was not yet at the end of the way he had chosen to reach Nineveh. The road leading down always has a bumper at the end. The bumper on this particular road was at the bottom of the mountain, at the bottom of the sea. When Jonah struck it, the shock seems to have brought him to his senses. He did the only thing anyone can do under like circumstances. He confessed his folly, and called on God for deliverance. After a short, swift ride he found himself on the seashore, face to face with the One from whose presence he had sought to flee. He seemed to be satisfied with his trip to Tarshish, and started on his mission to Nineveh. It is interesting to note that, for the four steps down in Jonah’s story, God made four preparations. First He prepared a fish; next He prepared a gourd; then He prepared a worm; and lastly, He prepared a vehement east wind. We are left to wonder just what lasting effect all this discipline had upon the prophet. The story leaves this part unrevealed. But we are left in no doubt as to the wonderful love of Him whose eyes run to and fro throughout the earth. Not only was His compassion stirred by the repentance of the Ninevites, but His heart was touched for the 120,000 persons who could not discern the right hand from the left.
PLEASURE IN GOD’S PRESENCE
France tried to put the presence of God away from the nation. She got a “Reign of Terror.” What will result to Russia if she puts through the same experiment? What will be the fate of the world if the atheists and evolutionists succeed in making the rising generation believe that there is no God? Soon all the great men of earth, with every bondman and every freeman, will see Him and know that He is present. See Revelation 6. From His presence the earth and heaven shall flee away (Revelation 20:11), and every one who denies Him will receive His assurance that God lives, by the punishment that is meted out to him in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. (Revelation 14:9-11.) Surely there is no “creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” Hebrews 4:13. Those who walk with God day by day and love His presence can say with the psalmist, “In Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11.
