Genesis
11:5 ¶ And the LORD came down to see the
city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one,
and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will
be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound
their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence
upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. 9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel;
because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from
thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
There are a number
of verses that refer to God coming to earth and to watching what is happening
from a distance.
Genesis
18:21 I will go down now, and see
whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come
unto me; and if not, I will know.
Exodus
19:11 And be ready against the third
day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people
upon mount Sinai.
Psalm
11:4 ¶ The LORD is in his holy temple,
the LORD’S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children
of men.
Psalm
33:13 The LORD looketh from heaven; he
beholdeth all the sons of men.
Psalm
33:14 From the place of his habitation
he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
However, the
doctrine of the Lord’s immanence or presence everywhere is also a major
doctrine of the Bible.
Jeremiah
23:23 Am I a God at hand, saith the
LORD, and not a God afar off? 24 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.
This doctrine
applies even to seeing the inside of a person, his thoughts and intentions, as
the following examples know.
Genesis
6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his
heart was only evil continually.
Proverbs
20:27 The spirit of man is the candle of
the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.
Psalm
94:11 The LORD knoweth the thoughts of
man, that they are vanity.
Psalm
139:23 Search me, O God, and know my
heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
Matthew
9:4 And Jesus knowing their thoughts
said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?
Hebrews
4:12 For the word of God is quick, and
powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of
the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The common sense
application of verse 5 is for God to turn His attention to this activity just
as earlier in 8:1 to remember Noah did not mean that he had been forgotten but
that God’s attention was now turned to his plight.
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