Isaiah 45:15
Our God Hides
15 Truly you are a God who hides himself,
O God and Savior of Israel.
John 14:22-31
On God Showing Himself
22Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"
23Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
28 “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, 31 but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
“Come now; let us leave.
Matthew 5:48
God is Perfect
48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
1 Corinthians 12:27
A Part of Jesus
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
Except for the Exodus and when God was with Moses, and when Jesus walked the earth, it seems God is truly a God who hides Himself...God is, without doubt, throughout the Bible, especially in Genesis, and with the Prophets, but as we look around today for Him, and even when I read my Bible, it seems He likes to hide, or at least play hide and seek with us...He certainly did not disclose His purpose of why He did the creation or why He brought or brings us into life into a simple chapter or verse...Maybe it is because His thoughts are not like the thoughts of man, or His ways are not like the ways of man...After all God is Spirit and Truth, and we have a physical human body and mind...We sin...So we are to worship someone we cannot see, but He exists in a Spirit and in our minds, through the Holy Spirit (that He has put in us)...This Advocate that is in us is felt stronger sometimes than at other times...
If you noticed when Judas, the disciple (this is not Judas Iscariot) asks Jesus why do You intend to show Yourself to us and not the whole world, is a very good question, the question does not have a direct answer to it (at least for me)...Jesus tells Judas that the whole world will get to know Him through the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, that His Father will put in each one of us...So we are given an ability to seek Him, but through our daily decisions and choices we make, we can either get closer to Him, further from Him, or stay the same with our relationship with Him...But in each one of us there is a strong, medium, or weak (and everything in between) Advocate in us either seeking Him or not seeking Him...And it seems our sin keeps us from Him...
Why would God not want us to actually feel Him, and see Him everyday?...He must have a reason...It is like in many cases, we will only feel His Presence randomly...Only one or a few times in our lives...That random moment is a special mystique moment or moments in our lives...But it still gets back to Judas question, why don't you just show yourself to the world, and do it often, very often?...
I think each one of us have a reason, or many reasons why we think our LORD hides...We know He is perfect...Jesus says be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect...When something imperfect meets something Perfect, then there is no longer perfection...Maybe we somehow have to change before we can meet Him on a regular basis...We need to be perfect...We are a part of Jesus, and this part is through the Advocate that His Father sent us...We have only a small slice of Him in us, only a glimpse of Him is in us...Maybe this is the first attempt to put perfection in us...The Holy Spirit , especially in our youth may have been a perfect part in us, but as we grow, continue to sin, our Holy Spirit meets, and meshes, and lives with our other parts (of us) and the perfection becomes imperfection...I think when we are born again, after our resurrection that God will turn that small slice of perfection into something different, something perfect so we can continually be in His Presence...Then He will make us perfect, like He is Perfect, and we can be together, forever...But this is only a guess, because perfection must meet Perfection to stay Perfect...