The Hiding God
“Truly You are the God Who hides Himself, O God of Israel the Savior” (Isaiah 45:15).
God has a hiding nature.
He hides to test us, to try us, and much more.
He hides and withdraws from us, to see how we respond.
He hides so that we might seek Him. In that seeking process, our old nature dies, which is required for us if we want to know Him and experience Him in deeper ways. One of Jesus’ main messages is that we must “die” – lose our life, give up everything, hate our life.
His dealings with us are a glorious, supernatural mystery. He knows what is best for us.
“Look, I go forward, but He is not there,
And backward, but I cannot perceive Him;
When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him;
When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him.
But He knows the way that I take;
When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:8-10).
Why does God hide? He hides to test and try us.
There are numerous scriptures regarding why God hides. A very clear example in scripture is in 2 Chronicles, when God withdrew and hid from the king Hezekiah “in order to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart.”
“However, regarding the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, whom they sent to him to inquire about the wonder that was done in the land, God withdrew from him, in order to test him, that He might know all that was in his heart” (2 Chronicles 32:31).
The presence of God often is withdrawn from us, that God might test us.
You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not (Deuteronomy 8:2).
God searches the heart:
“I, the Lord, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give to each man according to his ways,
According to the results of his deeds (Jeremiah 17:10).
God weighs the heart:
Every man’s way is right in his own eyes,
But the Lord weighs the hearts (Proverbs 21:2).
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