John 5:16-18
God is Working and Jesus is Working Too
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Isaiah 64:7
You Have Hidden Your Face from Us
7 No one calls on your name
or strives to lay hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us
and have given us over to our sins.
Jeremiah 14:7-9
LORD You are a Stranger in the Land
7 Although our sins testify against us,
do something, Lord, for the sake of your name.
For we have often rebelled;
we have sinned against you.
8 You who are the hope of Israel,
its Savior in times of distress,
why are you like a stranger in the land,
like a traveler who stays only a night?
9 Why are you like a man taken by surprise,
like a warrior powerless to save?
You are among us, Lord,
and we bear your name;
do not forsake us!
Habakkuk 1:1-4
1 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.
Acts 17:22-31
God is Near Each of Us
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Mark 15:34
My God, My God Why Have You Forsaken 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?”).
The different Prophets were very close to God and give us much information about Him...The Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk talk about God's absence from them in the verses above...Isaiah wrote that the LORD has hidden His face from His people...He seemed to be gone...The Prophet Jeremiah ask the LORD, "Why are you like a Stranger in the land, and like a Traveler who stays only a night?"...The Prophet Habakkuk ask Him how often must he cry out for help before You LORD will listen?...These Great Prophets who were very close to God, felt at times that the LORD had left them...They felt His absence, and even wrote about it...They felt that He was gone...These Prophets, like we do, have days and periods when the LORD seems to have left us...But as we think about the Prophets entire writings and not just these snippets of verses on the absence of God, we know that God was near them and inspiring them into writing what they have written about Him...When He left them, it was only for a period of time, it never was for good...And we know that these Prophets believed in Him and that they knew He is near, because of what they wrote in their complete books...And when God left them, they went out looking for Him...They would call out to Him, or they wrote about Him missing, and in their own way went looking for Him -and questioning why He had left...In the faith of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk, they all knew He is and was near them...
And yet, I think we want even more information about our Father in Heaven...
Jesus suggests to us that God is not necessary absence to us...By Jesus saying that God is always at His work to this very day, and He (Jesus) is working too means they are near and not absent...So, if God is "always" working each and every day -then He is active each and everyday...Because Jesus does not and cannot lie, then God is active and alive in our world...So, God is working, active, and near each of us...Jesus speaks the mind of God and the Word of God...God upholds, maintains, and controls the earth and the universes...God is Provident over all things...So God is everywhere...He is doing His will and what He thinks is right (which is always the right things to be done)...If He is absent it is not in a permanent way (we learn this from the Prophets)...He is like what St. Paul told the Athenians, God is not far from any one of us...He is near us and He wants us to seek Him...He wants us to call out to Him...On the darkest evening of the world, His Son called out to Him...He ask His Father, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?”...Had God left His Son?...Was He near?...For two days all those knowing Jesus wondered what had happened...Then on the third day, all were aware God was not absent...And if He was absent at all, it was only temporary...As events unfolded, He was there watching His Son and the world...Only later sometimes can we as men see some things...