How Tall Is God?

Many people want to know what God looks like. For some, they think if they could see God or imagine him, he would feel more accessible and maybe comprehendible. Whatever the motive, people ask questions about God’s appearance, actions, and even his size. Some people even want to know how tall God is.

God doesn’t have a measurable height like people do because he doesn’t have a physical body. God isn’t five feet, 25 feet, or 500 feet tall because the Bible teaches that God is spirit. God is omnipresent, meaning that he is everywhere. Therefore, the question of how tall God is can’t be answered.

Does the Bible teach that God is invisible? What does it mean that God is omnipresent? Did Jesus of Nazareth have a real human body? What does the Bible mean when it refers to God’s eyes, ears, face, and hands? Keep reading to learn the answers to these questions and others.

Also see What Color Is God? to learn more.

God Is Spirit, Not Flesh and Bone

The question “How tall is God?” assumes that he has a body as a person does, yet the Bible teaches the opposite. The Old and New Testaments reveal that God is spirit. He is also omnipresent, which means that he is everywhere, and as such, can’t be measured.

• God is spirit: Jesus taught, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24, emphasis added) This is one of the clearest statements about God’s nature in the Bible. John doesn’t merely say that God has a spirit, but that he is spirit. Like a spirit can’t be thought of in terms of weight, age, or race, a spirit can’t be thought of in terms of height. Asking how tall a spirit is isn’t an answerable question.

• God is uncontainable: “But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him? Who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to make offerings before him?” (2 Chronicles 2:6, emphasis added) In a straight-forward manner, this verse teaches that the highest heaven in the universe can’t contain God. As an omnipresent spirit, God is too big to be measured.

• God is invisible: The Bible is clear that God the Father is invisible. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” (Colossians 1:15, emphasis added) God doesn’t have a physical body like people do. As a spirit, he is invisible: “To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Tim. 1:17, emphasis added)

• God is unlike people: Isaiah 31:3 teaches that the Egyptians are human, whose nature is flesh, while God isn’t human, and whose nature is spirit: “The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all perish together.”

• God is omnipresent: The Bible teaches that God the Father is everywhere at all times. The Psalmist reflects: “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall 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 dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.” (Psa. 139:7-10)

Also see Is There Anything Too Hard for God? to learn more.

God Doesn’t Have a Physical Body

God the Father doesn’t have a physical body. He doesn’t have eyes and ears, arms and legs, or blood and bone.

• God the Father doesn’t have physical eyes: “Have you eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees? Are your days as the days of man, or your years as a man’s years, that you seek out my iniquity and search for my sin, although you know that I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of your hand? Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether.” (Job 10:4-8)

• God the Father doesn’t need physical sleep: “He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” (Psa. 121:3-4)

• Did Jesus have a body? Yes. Although God the Father doesn’t have a physical body, Jesus did. The second person of the Trinity became a human being in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. As a human being, Jesus had eyes and ears, arms and legs, and blood and bone.

• Jesus is God in human flesh: The second person of the Trinity has always existed: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) When the time came (Gal. 4:4), the second person of the Trinity took on real human flesh: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Sond from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

Also see How To Meditate On God to learn more.

Does the Bible teach that God has body parts?

Sometimes Bible writers describe God with body parts, which is a figure of speech called anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism is when human characteristics are ascribed to non-human entities like animals or objects.

For example, the phrase “the ocean is angry” as a description of a storm at sea is an anthropomorphism. These figures of speech in the Bible are creative and sometimes poetic ways to communicate truths about God.

• The finger of God: “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Luke 11:20)

• The arm of God: “Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.” (Exod. 6:6)

• The eyes of God: “If a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them, I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.” (Lev. 20:6)

• The feet of God: “Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?” (Isa. 66:1)

Also see Did God Create Dinosaurs? to learn more.