In the Distance
As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us, Psalm 103:12 NASB
Removed – The word rahaq appears more than 50 times in the Old Testament. Its primary meaning is to indicate a physical distance between someone or something. In its ethical connotation it can be used to express God’s desire for His people to keep themselves far away from wicked and evil people and idols.
In this verse, the word is actually used twice; once for removing our sins and once for the distance that the East is from the West. The verse might be translated, “As far as the East is from the West, that’s the distance God has put between us and our transgressions.” Of course, East and West are infinitely far apart, so the image is that God has absolutely and completely separated us from our past sins. East and West also have spiritual implications in the ancient Near East. The East is associated with life, especially with new life as the sun rises in the East. And the West, of course, has the opposite association. So God has not only separated our sins at an infinite distance, He has also put them as far away as new life is to death.
There is great consolation for us in this picture. All of our lives we had to live within the presence of our sin. It was so much a part of us that we were never at any distance from our self-loathing. In fact, the power of sin is kept alive by the proximity of our guilt and shame. Since we could not remove ourselves from the self we had become, we were surely in the hell of self-recrimination. But God’s act of forgiveness puts so great a distance between who we are and what we have done that the gap is infinite. Our sins disappear over the horizon of God’s grace. They die in the West just as we are born in the East. If they are so far away that there is no way to measure how far He has removed us from them, then we are free to live without them. We can be new because we are separated from the old.
Next time you see the horizon, remember that God pushes all your sins right over the edge. They are forever out of His sight. When you look ahead, you will not see them. When you look behind, they are gone. Without them, you are free to live differently. No one can bring them back – except you. But why would you do so? As long as you don’t provide an avenue for their return, they are completely forgotten. The Accuser attempts to get you provide them a map for their return. But even he cannot bring them back without your permission. Don’t grant it to him. Send him over the hill too.
Topical Index: forgiveness, East-West, Psalm 103:12, rahaq
Skip,
Thank you for this teaching. We had a New Canaan Society speaker last week who focusd on the same passage (Dr. Bruce Bickel, who was quarterback at the Naval Academy, a Top Gun fighter pilot, a chaplain to a number of professional sports teams and is now a corporate executive who leads a Bible study group of 100 men every Friday morning in Sewickley, PA).
An interesting observation to add to your East-West explanation–Bickel said that it was on a cross-country flight in a fighter jet that he once focused on this passage and realized East and West never end, but North and South do. If you set a compass course due East (90 degrees) or due West (270 degrees) , a plane will fly forever on that course. If you fly North (0 degrees) or South (180 degrees), the plane will only fly to the nearest pole, when the compass will swing up or down because the North route has reached South or vice versa. Isn’t it great that God said East-West and not North-South.
Keep writing!
Great Inference!
To add another dimension, qedem – east – is also associated with the past, or “in front of”. The opposite is ‘aharon (from ‘ahar, to delay, to tarry or to defer) – meaning behind, following, coming after, latter or last – it refers to the future (a variant commonly used for the future is ‘achariyt (e.g. achariyt hayammiym – the “end of days”).
This brings us back to H.W. Wolff’s illustration of the man in the rowing boat which Skip has mentioned “miqedem” – in times past.
Thus it would be equally permissible to render the verse as, “as far as the past is from the future, so far has He removed our transgressions from us”.
What do I find encouraging about this? Back to the rowing boat. I fix our eyes at a point on the shore (in the past) and row away from it. The further I get from the shore, the more of it I can see (the picture gets bigger, but some detail is lost). I can see past mistakes, but I’ve left them behind. The further away I get, the more I can see how past actions have played out and brought me to the place I am now. I’ve learned from my mistakes (hopefully) and that learning has been part of my growing. I can’t see my future, but I’m trusting Him to keep me on the right course, as long as I row a straight line away from where I’ve been.
As far as the East is from the West. As far as my past is from my future. How long can I keep rowing away from the West until I reach the East? The same as rowing away from my past into the future.
Correction, “I fix MY eyes…”, not “I fix our eyes…”. I changed most of it from second to first person but missed that one.
Great comments added by Paul & Rodney! I’d like to add another dimension: deep and high (not to be confused w/ North and South).
Here is one of my favorite songs, “The Edge,” by Brad Reynolds, a relatively unknown musician from Nashville:
I dreamed I fell
And I landed on my soul and I cried
‘till I couldn’t cry no more
But my heart can’t break
Until I heard you say, “Come with me, come and see”
CHORUS: You said, “Let’s walk out to the edge tonight
Just to see how far you’d have to fall
Before My love could not make it right
Ten times the highest mountain is still too small.”
So I looked down
But all that I could see was my sin
Just starin’ up at me
But I looked a little deeper
And much to my surprise
I saw my Savior’s eyes
CHORUS: And He said, “Let’s walk out to the edge tonight
Just to see how far you’d have to fall
Before My love could not make it right
Ten times the highest mountain is still too small.”
No distance far below or above
Could separate us from His love
So don’t you cry
His hand is never far and you’re His child
No matter where you are
Love climbed the highest mountain
to meet your deepest need
But if you have to see
CHORUS: Let’s walk out to the edge tonight
Just to see how far you’d have to fall
Before God’s love could not make it right
Ten times the highest mountain is still too small
Is still too small
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bradreynolds (preview of “The Edge”)
We will never settle the sin question (what can wash away my sin?) until we settle the Son question:
Who (exactly) IS (not was!) Jesus (the) Christ?
~~ (Matthew 2.9) Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” He said to the paralytic,..`~~
If we notice the tense of today’s word maybe we wouldn’t be so tense.. It says “removed”. He has removed. Our sins are gone! Buried in the grave of G-d’s forgetfulness.
It is so hard (I don’t know why) for us to come to the realization,recognition, rejoicing and rest of this blessed condition: Having this relationship rightly restored, renewed, redeemed, regenerated “my sins are gone, I’ve been set free..- My G-d, my Savior has ransomed me- and like a flood.. His mercy reigns..- unending love.. amazing grace”
David knew the joy of this forgiveness: ~ Of David. A maskil. Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered ~ (Psalm 32.1)
~ Yes, what joy for those whose record the LORD has cleared of sin. ~ (Romans 4.8)
My great uncle who pastored the church I went to as a teenager would sing this song quite often. It was one of the churches favorite and mine too!
The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.
Refrain:
Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
When hoary time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call,
God’s love so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
Verse 3 was penciled on the wall of a narrow room in an insane asylum by a man said to have been demented. The profound lines were discovered when they laid him in his coffin.
http://library.timelesstruths.org/music/The_Love_of_God/
Very encouraging – Thank You Skip!
-MB