Does Jeremiah 23:24 pose problems for LDS theology?

Who can hide in secret places to that I cannot see them? says the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? Says the Lord. (Jer 23:24 NRSV)

This verse is often cited by critics of Latter-day Saint theology that holds that (1) God (the Father) is embodied and (2) that God is localized in one place at each moment.

There are a few counters to this claim, not the least is that the divine person speaking may be the premortal Jesus who, at that moment in the economy of salvation, did not gain a body, let alone a glorified, resurrection body, something which the Father received as we learn in the prophet Joseph Smith’s King Follett Discourse. Be that as it may be, a “spirit body” is still localised in one place at a time.

The point of Jeremiah’s statement in the above verse is not the physiological nature of God, but instead, a statement that God’s influence, glory, and power fill the universe and, as we learn in Psa 139:7-12, where God is continually aware of everything in the universe and can communicate with, and travel to, any spot instantaneously:

Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. If I say "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night," even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you. (NRSV)

Indeed, this fits the context about Yahweh having a close relationship with His covenantal people, as seen in the previous verse:

Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?

The Hebrew term translated as "fill" is מלא and in Jeremiah appears in the Qal form—according to lexicographers, the Qal form of this verb does not have the sense of a person/being filling creation with their own person/being, but instead, of one filling up a container with a liquid (i.e., filling up a container with something other than themselves). Notice the following under the Qal form in Holloday’s Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament:

fill onesf. w. Ex 15₉; — 4. 2 acc., container & material: fill up with 1K 18₂₄ ; — 5. var.: m¹l®°â ƒ®b¹°¹h her time of service is finished Is 40₂; m¹l¢° ±al-g®dôt¹yw (river) has over-flowed its banks Jos 3₁₅; m¹lê° š®l¹‰îm (fill =) seize the shields Je 51₁₁; m¹l¢° y¹dô l®yhwh = dedicate onesf. to the service of Y. Ex 32₂₉; m¹l¢° l¢b, w. l® & inf., pick up the courage to Ec 8₁₁ Est 7₅.

Brown-Drivers-Briggs connects Yahweh’s “filling” creation with His glory, not his person, and connects Jer 23:24 with related OT passages on this issue (emphasis added):

2. trans. fill, of populating sea and earth Gn 1:22, 1:28, 9:1 )all P(; consecrate מִלְאוּ יֶדְכֶם ליהוה; )lit. fill the hand( Ex 32:29 )cf. infr.(; esp. of glory of י׳ filling tabern. and temple; Ex 40:34, 40:35 )P( 1 K 8:10, 8:11, cf. Is 6:1; v. also Je 23:24, esp. lit. Ez 10:3, 43:5, 44:4, 2 Ch 5:14, 7:1, 7:2

Let us reproduce the texts BDB referenced alongside Jer 23:24 on this issue:

Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. (Exo 40:34-35)

And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord. (1 Kgs 8:10-11)

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train (LXX: glory) filled the temple. (Isa 6:1)

Now the cherubims stood on the right side of the house, when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court. (Ezek 10:3)

So the spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court; and, behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house. (Ezek 43:5)

then brought he me the way of the north gate before the house: and I looked, and, behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord: and I fell upon my face. (Ezek 44:4)

So that the priests could not stand up to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. (2 Chron 5:14)

Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the house. And the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house. (2 Chron 7:1-2)

Therefore, we can see that the theological meaning of Jer 23:24 is not about the physiological nature of God, but instead, an assertion of how the power, glory, and influence of God permeates the universe. Furthermore, critics who abuse this verse are forced to overlook the strong exegetical evidence for divine embodiment one finds elsewhere in the Bible, such as Heb 1:3.

Finally, Catholic Old Testament scholar Lawrence Boadt offered the following comment on this verse, affirming that, in Jeremiah’s theology, God is localised:

The question that opens in the first oracle in v. 23 are naturally rhetorical. God is not a deity near at hand; he is indeed far off. This may strike us strangely, for the search to find God nearby characterizes the modern religious mentality. Jeremiah, however, wants to remind his audience that God cannot be grabbed hold of, cannot be treated in human terms, cannot be restricted to this sphere of action or to that part of life. He dwells where the ancients believed all great gods had to dwell—in the far reaches of heaven from where he controlled and directed the universe. Yahweh is no local divinity, but master of creation. The proof for this is that no one can hide from his glance. He sees all things and knows the secrets of every heart. One of the most beautiful expressions of this thought develops in the story of Samuel’s choice of David to be king in 1 Sam 16:7. Samuel was sure that God wanted an older son of Jesse, but Yahweh speaks to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord sees not as humans see; humans look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” This sense of moral observations by God is found also in Ps 33:13-15: “The Lord looks down from heaven, he sees the entire human family; From where he sits enthroned he looks forth on all the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all, and observes all their deeds.” Similar beliefs occur throughout the ancient world about high gods. A hymn to Shamash, the sun god, comes from the library of the Assyrian king Asshurbanipal just before the days of Jeremiah. In one passage, the worshipper declares: “The people of the world, all of them, thou dost watch over  . . those endowed with life, thou dost tend; thou indeed art their shepherd both above and below” (ANET 387). Like the pagan gods, Yahweh always maintains his transcendent status. In the wonderful hymn of creation in Genesis 1, Yahweh looks down on what he makes and blesses it. (Lawrence Boadt, Jeremiah 1-25 [Old Testament Message vol. 9; Wilmington, Del.: Michael Glazier, Inc., 1982], 190-91; emphasis in bold added)

Suggested Reading

Anne Katherine Knafl, Forming God: Divine Anthropomorphism in the Pentateuch (Eisenbrauns, 2014)

Esther J. Hamori, "When Gods were Men": The Embodied God in Biblical and Near Eastern Literature (Walter de Gruyter, 2008)