Why God Hides

17 June 2018

Dear Phyllis,

As a young man I used to wonder, if God wanted people to know who He is, why has He hidden Himself so thoroughly that only a few ever find Him? Obviously, it is only a very small percentage of people who truly know the Lord. I believe there are two reasons for this.

First of all, pride, arrogance, and cleverness are so repugnant to God that He has hidden Himself so that man by his own wit cannot find God. After one meeting Jesus thanked God for the people who weren't saved, and only a few children responded (Lk. 10:21).

But another more basic reason is that man simply cannot look at God and live. When Moses asked to see God, the Lord responded, “No man can see My Face and live” (Ex. 33:20). The best the Lord could do for Moses was to place him in a cleft of the rock, cover him with His hand, and then allow him to see some of His back parts. Even then, that had such an impact on Moses that when he came down from the mountain he had to cover his face with a veil because the people couldn't look at his face (Ex. 34: 29-35).

In the early 1950s the US was detonating quite a few atomic bombs to get a better understanding about the power and effect of a nuclear explosion. Anyone involved and was in a position to physically see the blast had to wear dark welders glasses. To look at a nuclear explosion unprotected would simply burn out their eyes. I have had a few encounters with the Lord where I had to ask the Lord to turn down the dial. I had hit the limit of what I could take.

Sixteen years ago I stuck my hand in a large table saw and virtually took off most of the fingers on my left hand. The ambulance first took me to the Saitama University Hospital, which was a very good hospital. They took one look at my hand and said, “Gomen nasai, but we can't deal with anything like that here.” Next they took me to the largest medical facility in Saitama-ken that had one of the three doctors in that prefecture that could do that kind of surgery. When he first examined my hand he told me, “I will give you 3% chance that we can do anything to restore your hand. 97% you will windup with a usable little finger and a stiff thumb that you won't be able to move.” (Three years ago the wife of a friend had terminal cancer and the doctor told her, “You have 30% chance of living”. Her husband said, “Praise the Lord. That means that Jesus has 70% chance of saving her.” Today she is just fine.) The doctor gave me 3% chance of recovery and today Jesus has restored 98% usability of my left hand. But for the first week the nerves in my hand functioned just fine. They worked just like they were supposed to. For nearly a week my hand felt just like I had placed it palm down on a hot frying pan and couldn't get it off. The pain was tremendous. Every night the nurse would ask me, “Would you like a pain killer and a sleeping pill?” I always answered, “No thank you. I can handle this pain.” But I spent much time at night walking the floors of the hospital as I couldn't sleep for the pain. That was one side of the equation, but on the other side, it was during those long painful night that Jesus turned on the speakers in heaven. I could hear the angels singing. The volume was just above a whisper but I had to plead with Jesus, “Please don't turn up the volume any louder. If You do my heart will burst.” Roald Lidal was out of the country when the accident happened and as soon as he got back, the first thing he did was to rush to the hospital to try to console me. He was concerned that I would be in deep depression over losing the use of my left hand. As he tried to comfort me I told him, “Roald, that isn't the problem. The problem is that the Lord has met with me and revealed Himself to me to such an extent that I can't talk about it.” For many months every time I tried to share with someone what I heard during those long weary nights I could only get two or three words out of my mouth before I would burst into tears and be rendered speechless.

Samuel Rutherford and many of the old divines use to speak much about the Lord's absence. Rutherford spoke much about Jesus coming and going and hiding His face behind a veil. He was right. I know exactly what he was talking about. Of course, Jesus promised - and in reality is – to always be with us. But the overwhelming sense of His presence is a fluctuating thing.

The reason I am writing about this subject today is that recently Jesus has been pulling back the curtain about 10 cm (4”) allowing me to see something of Himself. I can honestly say I am grateful He doesn't open it any further as my heart couldn't take it. Sometimes I have to say, “Lord, that is enough. I can't handle any more”. I would refuse to go to heaven except that I know in heaven Jesus will change me to enable me to look more openly on His Face. But at this point 10 cm is my limit. It is a fact that God has chosen to hid Himself but He does reveal Himself to some of the more unworthy ones to such an extent as they can handle.

But there may be one more reason why He has hidden Himself. You talk about a disguise, who in the world would believe that that Man working with His dad in their wood shop in Nazareth was the creator of the universe? You can't get more disguised than that. What John wrote about Him in the first chapter of his gospel about: “all things were made by Him and for Him; and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”; is so profound and off the board that the greatest minds on earth completely stumble at it. As I read the gospels and see those heated debates that Jesus had with the Pharisees and high priests, I frequently think, what would happen if Jesus would take off His robe of humanity and they could see directly Who they were talking to? They would be clawing the dirt with their finger nails trying to dig a hole to hid in. As it is, it was a miracle that they were actually able to pull off the crucifixion. A year before then the high priest had sent soldiers to arrest Jesus and bring Him in. And they came back empty handed (Jn. 7:44-46). The night of the final arrest, when the soldiers came to the garden to take Jesus, He asked, “Who are you looking for?” They answered, “Jesus of Nazareth”. When He replied, “I am He”, they went backwards and fell to the ground (Jn. 18:3-6). It took the veil of human flesh and the grace of God to enable His enemies to finally pull off what was written in the Scriptures. Theologically we can accept that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (2 Cor. 5:19), but in that day He was perfectly disguised in human flesh.

But there is one more area where God has hidden Himself to such a degree that it is almost unbelievable. Do you believe that Jesus actually lives in your heart? He says He does, and the undeniable fact that we are born-again of His Spirit is proof that He does. Why doesn't He reveal Himself more clearly to us? I believe it is because He has so blinded our eyes to live a life just as if Jesus was a million miles away in heaven leaving us alone here on earth to live out our lives as if He wasn't watching. If Jesus was actually standing right beside me watching everything I do there are a lot of things that would be impossible. But Jesus leaves us along to do whatever comes to our mind. In one sense He has left us to live out our Christian life on our own. It was a great mystery that the God of creation was in the Body of that carpenter in Nazareth. But it is a far greater mystery that that same Jesus also lives in me.

To the vast majority of humanity God has hidden Himself so that natural man cannot find Him. He is here but they don't know it. And to us, who He has called to Himself, He has revealed Himself to such as degree that our spiritual eyes have been opened to know Him, but even so He is so hidden that the bulk of our life must be lived by faith. Thank God there are those times when His great love overcomes Him and He sticks His head out from behind the veil to say, “Hi there.” At such times all we can do is burst into tears and say, “Jesus, Jesus, Lord Jesus!”

Oh thank You Lord,

                                            bill