It is perhaps the most common, most haunting question we ever ask: “God, where are You?” We ask it in all kinds of situations: when our child is rebelling, when we’re in the emergency room, when we’re unemployed, when hope seems lost, when evil is winning, when death intrudes.
But in these moments, the prophet Ezekiel has a good answer for us. He was once gifted with a remarkable vision of the end of time. He saw a heavenly city, the new Jerusalem. And he heard God give the city the name Jehovah-Shammah, “THE LORD IS THERE.”
Technically, Jehovah-Shammah is less a title of God and more the name of a place. But since heaven and God are so closely connected, Shammah can be applied to God Himself: God is indeed there.
Ezekiel’s vision is not only a foreshadowing of how things will be but also a reminder of the way things began—the way things were meant to be. When God first created humans (Genesis 1–2), He walked with His human creatures in that paradise known as Eden.
Adam and Eve enjoyed free, unfettered access to God. But when they chose sin (Genesis 3), the human race lost that access. In the days of the Old Testament, God could only be approached with the help of a priest and through a sacrifice of blood.
On the cross, Jesus, our great high priest, offered Himself as the final sacrifice for sin. It is His perfect life, gruesome death, and glorious resurrection that make it possible for us to have access once again to God.
Jehovah-Shammah is the last new name the Old Testament gives for God. It’s no coincidence that one of the first names for God given in the New Testament is a “nickname” given to Christ—Immanuel, which means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23).
Momentary experiences of God’s presence should whet our appetites for the unending day when we will see Him face- to-face.
When is a time you have had a deep sense of God’s presence?
