Several books on my bookshelves wrestle with the idea of “a hidden God.” My Amazon wish list contains a few as well. So here we will put the big question earlier than normal:

Question

How can we understand the character of God, who is both the single most important character in the Hebrew Bible and yet absent from the majority of it?

As we read Scripture, we note that God often uses stand-ins for Himself. Why?

Stand-Ins for God:

1. Angels
2. Humans
   1. Judges
   2. Kings
   3. Prophets
   4. Humans speak about God:
      1. God’s friends
      2. God’s foes
   5. Narrator
3. Nature
   1. Animate
   2. Inanimate
4. Absence

Additional Questions

How many of these stand-ins are created, sin-damaged, or sin-traumatized? The reliability of their witness for/about God is what then?

What then is God’s risk in allowing these (created, sin-damaged, and/or sin-traumatized) creatures and objects to speak for Him and about Him?

Do you consider as you could how challenging it is for God to allow His enemies (sinners) to portray Him to an entire world? Would you do that? Would you allow a deranged individual to be your PR person? Or let a sin-damaged object or non-human creature illustrate who you really are?

Why does God take this risk so often and for such a long period?

Regarding the reliability of the above Stand-ins for God:

Here is a list depicting a descending order of reliability:

1. God—when he appears/speaks.
2. Narrator—the persona built into the text telling us stuff.
3. Angels
4. Humans
5. Nature

We need such a list because those who speak for God or make claims about God are often unreliable characters. Even those on God’s side are: created, sin-damaged or sin-traumatized! Does knowing this force us to become suspicious as we read Scripture?

Perhaps, but it can just make us cautious. God and the narrator are the ones we can trust, while the others we examine more prayerfully and carefully.

Another scale of reliability has been created for assessing the above list of reliability:

1. Direct statements by the narrator about motives, attitudes, feelings, values, or other directly asserted qualities of these ‘characters.’
2. Reports of inner thoughts or speech of the character.
3. Direct speech of the character.
4. Actions of the character.
5. What other characters say about the character.
6. External descriptions of a character.

Why do Christians make such lists? Because they are concerned about assessing the reliability of those who have become our primary teachers regarding God. Let’s be brutally honest, folk in the Bible make mistakes, misunderstand, and even lie. Except Jesus, even the best of God’s followers did these things!

Additional Question

Assess the above three lists—what do you think about the work of others who have wrestled long and hard with the idea of knowing God? Are they spot on or too critical?

The Hiddenness of God

But back to the first idea: why does God appear so distant, perhaps hidden at times, even in Scripture? And how might we begin to get a better grasp of his “absence”?

God’s hiddenness was not a minor problem for God’s people, nor was it treated as such! It was incorporated into the very language of prayer! Rumblings of discontent were given legitimate expression within the worshipping community? It’s okay to bellyache to God and bellyache about God!

Here are some biblical texts regarding the hiddenness of God:

Psalm 27:9 Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger, you who have been my help. Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God of my salvation!

God’s hiddenness is linked to His anger, but not all instances of God’s hiddenness are negative, see verse below! God also has been asked to hide his face from human sins!

Psalm 51:9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

God’s hiddenness is also linked to negative verbs, yet when such verbs are negated within the passage or context then they are not a threat.

Psalm 22:24 For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him.

Time is also linked to God’s hiddenness, but there is a sharp contrast drawn between how humans view such time and how God does, see the three passages below.

Psalm 10:11 They think in their heart, “God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”

Psalm 13:1 How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

Isaiah 54:8 In overflowing wrath for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the LORD, your Redeemer.

People ask questions regarding why God hides his face. It is okay to question God about such things!

Psalm 44:24 Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?

Sometimes contrasting verbs surface within a passage regarding God’s hiddenness.

Ezekiel 39:29 and I will never again hide my face from them, when I pour out my spirit upon the house of Israel, says the Lord GOD.

There are consequences of not hiding God’s face and consequences of hiding it.

Psalm 22:24 For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him.

Psalm 104:29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.

When I was younger the idea of a hidden God was very problematic for me! Certainly, I felt that He was hidden to me! So you can imagine the joy I felt when I began collecting and studying passages that highlight the nearness of God, in contrast to a hidden God.

Deuteronomy 4:7 For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him?

Deuteronomy 30:14 No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.

Psalm 34:18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.

Psalm 73:28 But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, to tell of all your works.

Psalm 75:1 We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks; your name is near. People tell of your wondrous deeds.

Isaiah 50:8 he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me.

Isaiah 51:5 I will bring near my deliverance swiftly, my salvation has gone out and my arms will rule the peoples; the coastlands wait for me, and for my arm they hope.

Isaiah 55:6 Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near;

Jeremiah 23:23 Am I a God nearby, says the LORD, and not a God far off?

Jeremiah 30:21 Their prince shall be one of their own, their ruler shall come from their midst; I will bring him near, and he shall approach me, for who would otherwise dare to approach me? says the LORD.

Lamentations 3:57 You came near when I called on you; you said, “Do not fear!”

Matthew 3:2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to proclaim, `“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”“

Matthew 10:7 As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’

Mark 1:15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

Luke 10:9 cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’

Luke 10:11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’

Luke 24:15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them,

Romans 10:8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);

Romans 13:11-12 Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; 12 the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light;

Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Philippians 4:5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.

Scripture teaches us that knowing God is critical! I now know God as One who is near to me! But I also have become more familiar, perhaps even more comfortable, with the notion of a hidden God, a topic I am still studying.

John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Questions

How might we deal with the notion of a hidden God? Is it best to “hide” such an idea? (Note the irony of doing so!) How might we instead stare such an idea in the face–directly tackle it so that we might come away stronger for having done so? (Did we not, for example, see that hiddenness is not always a negative action?)

Is God sometimes hidden and sometimes near? Or could He simultaneously be hidden while also being near? Is this an either/or event or is it a both/and? Is it even more than these?

What can we learn from the nearness of God? How can you and I better incorporate the nearness of God into our lives, such that the reality of his nearness is good for us and not a perceived threat to us?