Leave us alone! We do not desire to know Your ways!

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(Edward Payson, 1783-1827)

Sinners do not like to retain God in their knowledge--because He is omniscient and omnipresent. In consequence of His possessing these attributes, He is a constant witness of their motives and conduct, and is perfectly acquainted with their hearts. This must render the thoughts of His holiness still more disagreeable to a sinner--for what can be more unpleasant to him, than the constant presence and inspection of a holy being . . .
  whom he cannot deceive,
  from whose keen, searching gaze he cannot for a moment hide,
  to whom darkness and light are alike open, and
  who views his conduct with the utmost displeasure and abhorrence?

Even the presence of our fellow creatures is disagreeable, when we wish to indulge any sinful propensity which they will disapprove. How exceedingly irksome, then, must the constant presence of a holy, heart-searching God be to a sinner! No wonder, then, that sinners banish a knowledge of Him from their minds, as the easiest method of freeing themselves from the restraint imposed by His presence.

"They say to God: Leave us alone! We do not desire to know Your ways!" Job 21:14

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