The Hiddenness Of God
“Hide not your face from your servant…”
Throughout history, theologians and ordinary people alike grapple with the hiddenness of God. Why is God who is all-loving, good, and as we are told, desiring communion with people whom He has created, hides Himself? Mostly, God seems to be hidden, absent and silent.
If God only showed Himself, it would offer undeniable proof to the atheists of His existence. The raging debate over perhaps the most important question in life would cease. All the people of this world would know Him. Isn’t that what God wants?
Christians would find joy and delight in His presence. It would offer comfort and assurance to those walking through the dark valleys of life. But so often, saints find themselves struggling alone when experiencing the ‘dark night of the soul.’ God seems hidden and nowhere to be found.
Read the psalms. Loud cries of lament echo throughout the psalm book. You would find the psalmists in dire straits crying out desperately and inquiring God about His hiddenness and silence –“Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble” (Psalm 10:1);“How long God will you hide your face from me” (Psalm 13:1). In my ESV bible, Psalm 10 is given the title, “Why Do You Hide Yourself?” and Psalm 102, “Do Not Hide Your Face From Me.”
Our Lord, Jesus, Himself experienced the hiddenness of the Heavenly Fatheras He hanged on the cross. In His dying moments, He let out an excruciating cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)
The ambiguity of God’s dealing and elusiveness of His comforting presence are at the same time strange and frustrating. Why does God hide Himself?
Faith
Some people reason that God is transcendent. He is immaterial. He exists above and independent from His creation. So, He is unknowable and unsearchable. In as much as this is true, it can be argued that God is also immanent, meaning that He is near, and His presence is everywhere. From the bible and our own experiences, we know that God relates to us personally. He desires close communion and intimacy.
I believe the answer lies in the fact that God has chosen for us to relate to Him through faith because God is Spirit and He is invisible to our physical eyes. The verse in Hebrews 11:6 puts it succinctly: And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Sin
Another reason for God’s hiddenness is man’s sinfulness. Sin alienatesand breaks our fellowship with God.
We observe in the book of Judges repeated cycles of God’s long absence and presence. God hid Himself whenever the Israelites rejected Him and “whored after other gods” (Judges 2:17). When they were severely oppressed by their enemies, they would cry out to God for help, and God would mercifully deliver them. For three hundred years, this cycle kept repeating itself.
The psalmists were also aware that sin caused God to withdraw His presence – “How long, O LORD? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire?”(Psalm 89:46)
God Doing a Deeper Work
There is another reason for God’s hiddenness that serious Christians ought to be aware. You walk in faith and faithfulness. Your conscience is clear, and you know that you are not living in sin. However, you experience prolonged periods of God’s seeming absence. You cry out to Him only to be met with His deafening silence. God is nowhere to be found.
During those dark moments, we can identify with Naomi’s experience. For Naomi, God was not only far away, He seemed to be working against her. “The hand of God has gone out against me” (Ruth 1:13), she lamented to her daughters-in-law. Back in her hometown of Bethlehem, she continued her rage against God, “The Almighty has dealt bitterly with me… and brought calamity upon me” (Ruth 1:20-21).
Many of us are also familiar with the story of Job. Job experienced catastrophic disasters through no fault of his own. God had instigated and sanctioned Satan to destroy everything that Job possessed except for his life. All his children were killed, his health destroyed, and his wealth decimated. He reasoned with God and pleaded his innocence with God to no avail. God was silent.
Finally, God broke His silence. That is thirty-eight chapters later. Instead of giving Job the answers he so badly needed, God questioned Job’s audacity to argue with Him. God did not give Job any answer. However, in Job’s own words, he said, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6).
After that, God blessed Job and restored his fortune, doubling his wealth. Likewise, Naomi’s story also has a fairy-tale ending. God’s apparent indifference and forsakenness ended with her finding safe shelter and adequate provision. Her widowed daughter-in-law Ruth also found a godly and wealthy husband.
What is my point? That pain and bitterness will not last forever. There is a more important lesson. Fascinatingly, welearn and grow spiritually during those seasons of divine hiddenness more than at other times. Therefore, in His sovereign wisdom, God chooses to hide Himself. It does not mean that God is not present. He is present, but we cannot sense His presence.
Higher Purpose
I offer you a final reason for God’s hiddenness.
The biblical story of Esther is a high-stake drama. Enemies of the Jews plotted to annihilate her entire race throughout the Persian Empire. The king was duped into rendering his support for the holocaust. Esther and her cousin, Mordecai, worked feverishly to reverse the king’s decree.
Through a series of coincidences, immaculate timing and good fortune, Esther saved the Jews from an impending holocaust. The story ended with good triumphing over evil. God’s people emerged victorious by a whisker.
But where is God in this entire episode?
Here is the fascinating thing about the story. Throughout the whole story, it seems like God was uninvolved. He was not in the picture at all. Neither God nor His name was mentioned. Not even one time. This is the only book in the bible with that mysterious distinction.
God was hidden, but He was present. He was silent, but He was very much in control. Sovereignly, God was counter scheming against the enemies of His people and moving events toward His intended outcome.
The lesson here is God chooses to work His purposes through people – both good and evil – including us without our knowledge. He chooses to influence events through us even though His ways are sometimes imperceptible.
God used Naomi and her adverse circumstances to engineer the marriage of Ruth to Boaz, which has Messianic and eternal implications. They would become the human ancestors of the Messiah. Naomi was a significant player in this grand redemptive plan of God. However, she had no idea about it at all. All she knew was her sudden turn of fortune from a life of misery to joy when God decided to come out of His hiddenness.
God can use us in the same way just as He used Naomi and Esther to achieve a higher purpose – His purpose – which has absolutely nothing to do with us. That may explain some of our experiences with divine hiddenness. Who knows except God?
Pastors Leslie & Adeline Chua