When God Conceals Himself

Proverbs 25:2: "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings."

Sometimes in our life experiences, we wonder where God is and why He does not make Himself known to us with miraculous regularity. Often, I have heard people say, "If God is real, then why does He not reveal Himself in such a magnificent way that would impress everyone to follow Him? . . . Why is He so noticeably absent from our everyday lives (if He is even real at all)?"

Proverbs 25:2 addresses this question by telling us that God chooses not to broadcast Himself to us, for His glory. God is all-wise, and He knows that we will revere Him more if we are willing to pursue Him above all things. Our glory is in our finding the blessedness of companionship with the Almighty, and He knows that we will cherish Him more, when we have passionately pursued Him above everything else.

Jeremiah 29:13 presents this truth all too well. Specifically, the passage says, "You (man) will seek me (God) and find me when you seek me with your whole heart." Notice that the passage does not say, "you will find me when you pursue me halfheartedly." God is apt to reveal Himself to us when we are focused and determined to find Him. God's glory is mocked whenever we give to Him our leftovers. He is glorified and we are blessed when we pursue Him with unadulterated devotion.

Jesus referenced such a pursuit of God when He compared the Kingdom of Heaven to a treasure hidden in a field, that "when the man found it, he . . . with joy went and sold all he had and bought that field" (Matthew 13:44). Those who find the Kingdom of Heaven (and thus God Himself) are those who are willing to give up all in seeking the Lord.

It is interesting in the gospel accounts to see the Pharisees demanding of Jesus a sign to validate His authority as Lord (see John 2:18 for example). When Jesus did perform miraculous signs, He refused to entrust Himself to the people for he "knew what was in a man" [i.e. their duplicity](John 2:24-25). Although people were impressed with what Jesus had done, their true hearts of apathy (even hatred) for the Lord later would be revealed with Jesus' subsequent miracles. Although the religious leaders knew that Jesus was a "teacher who had come from God . . . (for the) miraculous signs (He) was doing" [John 3:2], they would later persecute the Savior and would try harder to kill him (John 5:16-18). This vehement hatred often was fueled by the miraculous deeds that Jesus performed before the people.

When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the religious leaders did not rejoice in this overwhelming miraculous act by the Lord; rather, they plotted to take Jesus' life and kill Lazarus to get rid of the Divine evidence (John 11:53; 12:10). Although God chose to reveal Himself in a majestic, supernatural way, the hardened hearts of the people were further spurred on to destroy the Lord.

If we find ourselves angry at the Lord for His apparent unwillingness to reveal Himself, maybe we need to look at ourselves to see how passionate we are in seeking Him. If we think we can beckon Him to us through our shallow superficialities that lack substantive desire for intimacy, we shouldn't think that we will find Him. God, to His glory, will choose to distance Himself from us until we are better able to appreciate who He is as Lord.