Psalm 103:12 – “. . .as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”
When I was little my older brother and I didn’t always (or ever) get along very well. We were always getting on each other’s nerves and causing a ruckus. This meant that in situations when we needed to be calm and quiet–like church–my mom usually had to separate us by sitting between us, one on her right and one on her left.
For a long time that’s what I pictured when I read this verse. God put us on one side (east) and our sin on the other (west). “As far as the east from the west” sounded like “within reach to grab an ear and give it a twist.” I didn’t understand the image of this passage.
God doesn’t just separate us from our sins, he does so completely and irreversibly. Our sins are not within arms reach or accusation’s reach. East and west aren’t adjacent; they are infinitely opposite. When Christ paid for our sins on the cross he sent our sins completely and eternally in one direction and He is taking us eternally in the other.
I originally wrote this post for my church, Immanuel Nashville, in our Daily Pulse email. If you want encouragement from God’s word delivered Monday thru Friday to your inbox, I encourage you to subscribe.
