Why doesn’t God manifest Himself more visibly if He is there? The premise behind the question is the same, regardless of whether it is posed in the triumphal language of unbelief (John 7:3-5) or as an agonized scream of faith (Psalms 10:1). This is because God’s seeming “hiddenness” is peculiar and almost uncomfortable for Him. If God exists, He has an obligation to reveal Himself to us more fully.
The view of the Bible
But the Bible takes a different stance. “You are a God Who hides Himself, O God and Savior of Israel,” declares Isaiah in Isaiah 45:15. Solomon concurs, saying that “it is the glory of God to conceal things” (Proverbs 25:2). Jesus also gives thanks to His Father in heaven for just this.
“I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children,” declared a joyful Jesus at that moment, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. Yes, Father, since you found this to be pleasing. (See Luke 10:21).
Although the Bible records moments in history when God’s presence was unmistakable (e.g. Exodus 14:21-31), for much of the Old Testament, God seemed far away from His chosen people, whether during the centuries of Egyptian slavery (Genesis 15:13; Acts 7:6), under the rule of the Judges (1 Samuel 3:1), during the Babylonian exile, or for 400 years after the prophet Malachi. Even in the New Testament, when God Himself came into the world as the man Jesus Christ (John 1:14), He remained hidden from many. His humble birth in a Bethlehem manger, rather than in a royal palace (Luke 2:7), and His early years in the obscure town of Nazareth (Matthew 2:23) confused those who expected the Messiah to come in grandeur (Matthew 2:1-2; John 1:45-46). During Jesus’ public ministry, many were blind to God’s presence among them, including not only Jesus’ religious opponents (John 7:24-27), but also the wider Jewish nation (John 1:10-11) and even His own disciples (John 14:8-10). Jesus’ identity, teaching and mission were all hidden in plain sight, in fulfillment of the only Old Testament prophecy quoted in all four Gospels, Acts and Romans:
“Always hear, but never comprehend; always see, but never perceive.” Make these people’s hearts calloused, their ears dull, and their eyes closed. If not, they could turn around and receive healing and be able to see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts. (Isaiah 6:9–10)
Alternatively, as Jesus stated in John 9:39, “I have come into this world for judgment, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
Dividing humanity into two different groups
Now we know why God appears so elusive so frequently. God’s “hiddenness” is a purposeful tactic to split people into two factions.
On the one hand, Jesus declares in Matthew 13:44–46 that everyone who seeks God will find Him (Luke 11:9–13; see also Jeremiah 29:13–14, Acts 17:27–28) and that the search will be fruitful! God’s “eternal power and divine nature” are publicly displayed in nature (Romans 1:20; Psalm 19:1-4) and, most clearly of all, in the Bible (Hebrews 1:1; Psalm 19:7-11), focused upon the good news about Jesus (Hebrews 1:2-3), even though God is invisible (John 4:24; 1 Timothy 1:17) and we cannot look directly upon His holiness (Exodus 33:18-23; Isaiah 6:1-3). We can see that Jesus’ prophecy has come true all around us today: despite severe persecution (Acts 5:38–39), the gospel has miraculously spread to every nation on earth (Matthew 24:14; Mark 14:9).
On the other hand, Jesus warns that whoever will not search for God, will have taken from them even what little they once had (Mark 4:24-25). Like unbelieving Israel, which silenced God’s prophets and eventually His Son (Mark 12:1-12), so also many today blind themselves to God’s self-revelation in creation (Romans 1:18-19, 28) and Scripture (Luke 16:27-31). For example, when God acts through nature to create a universe which, in the words of physicist Stephen Hawking, “appear[s] to have a design that both is tailor-made to support us and, if we are to exist, leaves little room for alteration,” (1) secularists dismiss God because His work is scientifically explicable; but when God acts in a way that is outside science, such as in Jesus’ miraculous resurrection from the dead, secularists dismiss God’s work as being scientifically impossible!
Take heart
If you are a Christian, and you feel like God is far away from you, take heart: God has not abandoned you! God’s “hiddenness,” like every other trial in life, is designed to refine your faith (1 Peter 1:6-7) as you learn to draw even closer to Him. Search your life and pray, in case God is disciplining you for some unrepented sin (Isaiah 59:2; Micah 3:4; 1 Peter 3:7, 12). If your conscience is clear, take comfort from King David, and other great Biblical heroes of faith, who have also been where you are now, and learned to trust God in the darkness (e.g., Psalms 13; 44 and 69). Look forward in certain hope to the New Creation (Romans 8:18-25), where you will at last see God face-to-face (1 John 3:2; Revelation 22:4). And look back in faith to Jesus Christ, who has made this possible. Because He Himself was abandoned by God in the darkness (Mark 15:33-34), we will not be shut out forever when He returns (Matthew 25:30).
As Peter puts it:
“You believe in Him and are filled with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls; even though you have not seen Him, you love Him” (1 Peter 1:8–9).
1) “The Grand Design,” Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow (New York: Bantam Books, 2010), 162.
