Why does God hide Himself from mankind?

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Answers to Bible Questions

Scriptures are from the KJV of the Bible

(Q)   Why does God hide Himself from mankind?

 

(A)   To find the answer to this question we need to go back to the first book of the Bible; Genesis. In the beginning in Genesis 1 when God created the first man and woman everything was beautiful and very good. Genesis 1: 26-31:   ²⁶And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. ²⁷So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. ²⁸And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. ²⁹And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. ³⁰And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. ³¹And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

After God created Adam and Eve He also made every tree that was pleasant to the sight, and good for food. Genesis 2: 9:   ⁹And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God now told the man (Adam) not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2: 16-17:   ¹⁶And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: ¹⁷But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Now in Genesis 3: 1-7 is where all the problems of mankind began:   ¹Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? ²And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: ³But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. ⁴And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: ⁵For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. ⁶And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. ⁷And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

In the beginning, man loved God and was a holy creature, but the Fall changed this when they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God walked with them in the garden until they were disobedient which changed everything: Genesis 3: 8-13: ⁸And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. ⁹And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? ¹⁰And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. ¹¹And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? ¹²And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. ¹³And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. Notice in verse 8 above what it says about Adam and Eve hiding themselves from the presence of God. God did not hid from them, they hid from God. So it was man who first hid from God because of their sin of disobedience. Adam and Eves spirit of innocence was altered by sin and they fled from God.

Man from this time on down through history has been in rebellion against God. Man to this very day has stubborn pride, even arrogance toward God and most people do not want anything to do with Him. Sin is the real cause that separates God and man. Man always thinks he knows better than God, and so this attitude that man has toward God is why God appears to hide Himself from man. One thing to remember about God, and remember it well; the true God of the Bible could annihilate mankind from the face of the earth in the blink of an eye because of man’s rebellion, but because of God’s unconditional love for us, He is very patient toward us. God is showing us that man’s way of living without Him brings nothing but pain, misery, suffering, sorrow and all kinds of problems like the things we are experiencing in our world today. God has given us free will and He will not force us to do anything we choose not to do, even though he could do so. God wants us to come to Him willingly, and to put our complete and total trust in Him to help us with all of our problems.

Now starting from year (0) at the time when Adam and Eve were created up until the time of Noah’s flood there was about a 1,656 year time span. The flood was around the year 2,294 BC. During this time period there was great wickedness upon the earth and God found only one man that was just in His sight: Genesis 6: 8-9:   ⁸But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. ⁹These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. So Noah was the only one God had a relationship with during this time. Again it comes down to the fact that God will not deal with anyone in rebellion against Him. God now made a Covenant with Noah never to destroy the earth again by water: Genesis 9: 11:   ¹¹And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. God also told Noah and his sons to replenish the earth after the flood was over:   ¹And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. Well they did not do as God said: Genesis 11: 4:   ⁴And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. They did not want to replenish the earth as God told them to do, so what happened: Genesis 11: 6-9:   ⁶And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. ⁷Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. ⁸So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. ⁹Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. Once more rebellion; man always thinks he has a better way than God. Can you begin to see why God “hides” himself?

In Genesis 12 we come up to the time of Abram ( latter called Abraham ). God called Abram around 2,091 BC to start the Jewish nation of Israel. This was about 2,000 years after the creation of Adam and Eve. During this time God worked through dreams and visions with people and the prophets, but He did speak to Abram: Genesis 12: 1, 4:   ¹Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:   ⁴So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. God was working with certain people like Abram, Samuel and others, but not the general population. From about 1,400 BC to about 1,050 BC, Israel was not ruled by kings. The people think of God as their King during this time. Instead of an earthly king, Israel is lead by judges who settled disputes. But the time came when Israel did not want God to rule over them anymore, so they went to Samuel who was a prophet and judge at that time and asked Samuel to give them a human king to rule over them.  God was the real Judge over Israel, but He worked through the prophets and judges. So the elders of Israel came to Samuel and said, “make us a king to judge us like all the nations”: 1 Samuel 8: 4-7:  ⁴Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, ⁵And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. ⁶But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. ⁷And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. Above verse 7 gives us the attitude of man’s relationship toward God from the beginning of time. Man has rejected God, and man does not want Him to rule or interfere in his (man’s) life.

God is not hiding from man, but it is man who wants to hide from God. However, God is in complete control of everything and allows all that goes on for His own purpose. Remember, God sees all, knows all, and can and will intervene in the affairs of man at the time of His choosing. God has stepped back for now, but is still controlling the outcome of all things according to HIS will. The time is coming very close now when He shall intervene and take control of world events to save man from himself.

Let’s look at 1 Samuel 8: 11-22 and see what God said would happen because Israel wanted a human king to rule over them:   ⁸According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. ⁹Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them. ¹⁰And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king. ¹¹And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. ¹²And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. ¹³And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. ¹⁴And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. ¹⁵And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. ¹⁶And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. ¹⁷He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. ¹⁸And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day. ¹⁹Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; ²⁰That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles. ²¹And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the LORD. ²²And the LORD said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city. If you have read the above verses from 1 Samuel 8: 11-22 then you can see that a human king over Israel did not bring about the results they were expecting. Even today most of our human governments after time tend to overstep and misuse the power they were given and strip away the freedom and liberty from those they rule over and become oppressive.

All people on earth need the True God of the Bible to rule over them, and if they would come to Him willingly and sincerely seeking His way’s, then there would be true and lasting peace that all have been looking for since the foundation of the world. But God’s ways are not man’s ways: Isaiah 55: 8-10:   ⁸For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. ⁹For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. ¹⁰For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: ¹¹So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Today, God desires to have a relationship with all people on earth, but we must come to Him on His terms, no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it! God has provided the one and ONLY way to have a relationship with Him: Acts 4: 12:  ¹²Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Titus 2: 13:  ¹³Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;  Today, God will not step out of Heaven and show Himself to us so we will believe in Him; we need to believe in Him by FAITH:  ⁶But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.   Even though God does not make Himself visible to us, we have no excuse not to believe in Him: Romans 1: 18-22:   ¹⁸For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; ¹⁹Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. ²⁰For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: ²¹Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. ²²Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

We cannot see God visibly, but someday we will see Him face to face if we come to Him through His Son Christ Jesus who made our Salvation possible by taking our sins upon Himself, shedding his Blood for the forgiveness of our sins, dying our death, and Rising again to the Glory He had from eternity with the Father. Christ was 100% God, and 100% man at the same time. Only Jesus Christ could pay for our sins, because He was the Creator of mankind and the whole universe. So to have that eternal relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit we only need to believe by FAITH who Christ was and what He did on our behalf at Calvary.

We should not need to see God with our eyes to believe in Him, but by FAITH we should come to Him through Christ our Lord and Saviour. John 20: 29:   ²⁹Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. ²²For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

God is not hiding from us; but we could be hiding from Him! Isaiah 59: 1-2:  ¹Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: ²But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

Believe and you will be saved, and you will see God and be with Him eternally: Romans 10: 9-13:  ⁹That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. ¹⁰For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. ¹¹For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. ¹²For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. ¹³For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Don’t hide from God; come to Him now while you can, tomorrow could be too late!

John