We read in the book of Jeremiah: "Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord." Jer. 23:23, 24;
To the prophet Jeremiah, God was a living, palpable presence that inspired and sustained him in his attempt to reform the Jews after the long and idolatrous reign of King Manasseh. The inner voice of spiritual perception spoke to him as the voice of God and assured him of God's everywhere-present protection and love.
Centuries before, the awareness of spiritual reality must have dawned on Moses' thought as he spent long periods in solitude, tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law. Here in the vast stillness of the desert he probably spent long hours in deep, searching thought, reaching out mentally for a clearer understanding of the God of his fathers. Finally he reached the understanding of God as the great I am that neither comes nor goes but is always at hand in every place and under every circumstance. At a difficult period in the Israelites' sojourn in the wilderness his thought was so uplifted that God's Word came to him as conscious sound. It is recorded: "And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.... And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." Ex. 33:11, 14;
