God’s Disguises
God’s actions can be strange, mysterious, unusual, and unexpected. Thus, we often miss Him because we look for Him as we imagine He should reveal Himself. I believe the Lord has frequently come to each of us without our knowing it – and that we need to do better about recognizing Him.
There are many biblical indications that God hides Himself or disguises His ways: (1) Of all the Israelites, only Moses was allowed to approach the thick darkness where God dwelt (Ex 20:21 cf. 2 Sam 22:12 and Ex 17-23). (2) God was hidden in the temple behind the veil (Mt 27:50-51). (3) Many of God’s ways are incomprehensible to us (Rom 11:33 cf. Isa 55:8-9). (4) When Jesus was on the cross, God the Father hid Himself from His own Son (Ps 22:1). (5) God’s ways were baffling to righteous Job. (6) He seemed to hide himself from faithful Israel in Psalm 44 (verses 9-10, 17-18, 24). (7) Several prophets perceived the Lord as hiding Himself (Isa 8:17, 45:15; Ex 19:9; Lam 3:44, NCV; Ps 10:1, 30:7, 89:46, 97:2). (8) God declared that He had hidden Himself from His people (Isa 54:8 cf. Prov 25:2, Message). (9) God hid revelation from His people until He was ready for them to understand it (Lk 18:34, 10:21 cf. Eph 3:3-10). (10) God’s ways – like having His own Son die for our sins – were so incomprehensible to Satan that he made the terminal mistake of crucifying the Lord of glory (1 Cor 2:6-8). (11) The holy angels don’t grasp many aspects of God’s ways (1 Pet 1:10-12). (12) God the Son was hidden and largely unrecognized in the Incarnation (Jn 1:9-12).
Let us look for the Lord and His messages to us in the various events of our life without insisting that He meet our expectations about how He is to appear or communicate.
If we love, we will do our duty and, thus, be successful in God’s view.