Deuteronomy 18:15-18
God Will Hide His Face
15 Then the LORD appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the cloud stood over the entrance to the tent. 16 And the LORD said to Moses: “You are going to rest with your ancestors, and these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them. 17 And in that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and calamities will come on them, and in that day they will ask, ‘Have not these disasters come on us because our God is not with us?’ 18 And I will certainly hide my face in that day because of all their wickedness in turning to other gods.
Habakkuk 1:1-17
The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received.
2 How long, Lord, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you do not save?
3 Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.
4 Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted.
5 “Look at the nations and watch—
and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told.
6 I am raising up the Babylonians,
that ruthless and impetuous people,
who sweep across the whole earth
to seize dwellings not their own.
7 They are a feared and dreaded people;
they are a law to themselves
and promote their own honor.
8 Their horses are swifter than leopards,
fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Their cavalry gallops headlong;
their horsemen come from afar.
They fly like an eagle swooping to devour;
9 they all come intent on violence.
Their hordes advance like a desert wind
and gather prisoners like sand.
10 They mock kings
and scoff at rulers.
They laugh at all fortified cities;
by building earthen ramps they capture them.
11 Then they sweep past like the wind and go on—
guilty people, whose own strength is their god.”
12 Lord, are you not from everlasting?
My God, my Holy One, you will never die.
You, Lord, have appointed them to execute judgment;
you, my Rock, have ordained them to punish.
13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?
Why are you silent while the wicked
swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
14 You have made people like the fish in the sea,
like the sea creatures that have no ruler.
15 The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks,
he catches them in his net,
he gathers them up in his dragnet;
and so he rejoices and is glad.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and burns incense to his dragnet,
for by his net he lives in luxury
and enjoys the choicest food.
17 Is he to keep on emptying his net,
destroying nations without mercy?
Psalm 13:1-6
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.
Psalm 22:1-11
I cry out, but You do not answer
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.
3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the one Israel praises.
4 In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
8 “He trusts in the LORD,” they say,
“let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”
9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
10 From birth I was cast on you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
11 Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
Mark 15:34
God Why Do You Forsake Me
34 And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?" (which means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?").
Many years ago one of our Great Saints, Thomas Aquinas, first wrote the phrase about our God who hides...He first used the phrase 'Deus Absconditus', which was about God sometimes seems to be hiding and some of the aspects of His divine nature are hidden...Deus Absconditus is Latin, and it means the hidden God...St. Thomas Aquinas recognized that God seemed not available each and everyday to him and to others, despite God being near to all of us...God does seem some days to be more hidden than other days...And maybe (and this is a guess) in the totality of one's life, God seemed and seems more hidden on most of our days than to days when he felt or we feel His Presence...
Some believers, believe that we do have a God who hides, and many non-believers believe He hides most, if not all the time...Moses, when he wrote the Book of Deuteronomy, told us this would happen...He wrote that God said when we turn away from Him and are busy with other idols and obstacles that keep us from Him -He will not be there: "And I will certainly hide My face in that day because of all their wickedness in turning to other gods."...And the prophet Habakkuk wrote and complained that the LORD did not listen, even though he called and called for help...King David, a man close to God, wrote in his Psalms: How long, Lord?...Will you forget me forever?...How long will You hide your face from me?...He also wrote the words that Jesus said on the cross "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?"...
All these authors and men, and especially Jesus were close to God...I think that is one of the reasons St. Thomas Aquinas came up with the term 'Deus Absconditus'...He must have felt a remoteness, some feelings of His Father hiding on certain days of his life...And as He studied the Scriptures, he even read about those days happening to other men, that were very close to Him and those who had much faith...Certainly when Jesus was on the cross came, thoughts came up or over Him, and He ask why His Father had forsaken Him...He is God's Real Son, and it seems He feels His absence at a time He needs Him, as He hangs from the cross...
Maybe a feeling of absence is a part of faith...Maybe doubts and certain type of feelings in our faith are very much related to a feeling of God's absence...All the authors, prophets, and even Jesus experienced this remoteness of God in their minds and wrote or spoke about them...Maybe we should look at the way we think about our faith, and realize that faith is not defined as being safe and secure or having comfort and security...It seems in certain situations, security is being searched for -by us and others...Faith is about the cross and seeking the One who was on the cross and the One who sent Him...Faith maybe is related more to the Holy Spirit (which maybe separate from our thoughts), and less in regularly type safe and secure thinking...And maybe our thoughts about faith and seeking our Father is the type of searching we need...
Maybe, this feeling of the absence of God comes from our on feelings and emotions -and then put in our thoughts...Somehow we want and need the feeling of God, after all He created us...And when we feel this feeling of being lost and alone and discomfort, we have this need to cry out for Him...David did this (crying out) in many of his Psalms...Maybe this absence feeling comes maybe from being human (and Jesus was fully human), and when we feel aloneness and remoteness of our LORD -we feel He is hiding...Our faith is not defined by having the best people or doctors in the world always around us, protecting us to make us safe and secure...Nor is faith, having our closest friends and our closest family members making us always feel comfortable and happy...Faith maybe less about safe and secure and comfortable, and not about the warm and fuzzy feelings...Faith is not about being perfectly happy each and everyday even though that is what we think we need and want...Maybe faith is more about some seeking and searching, some suffering, some troubles, as we journey through our lives...Maybe our Father is wanting us to exercise our Spiritual muscles to get them in better shape -so our faith can be stronger...And this aloneness and feeling we are away from Him exercises the right things in the soul...