God Hides on Purpose
Introduction
One of the most frustrating things about God for many people is that He does not just come out and reveal Himself fully to everyone so that there is no longer any reason to doubt that He exists. The reason behind this frustration is that it would forever remove any barriers to worshipping and obeying God. Of course this presupposes the notion that everyone would be willing to worship and obey a God so revealed. I have my doubts about that notion.
We want to explore a few things during this time together. First, what are the ways that God hides Himself? Does God truly hide, or are we unable to perceive the ways that He reveals Himself? Is it both? Second, why does God hide? This is probably the most important question to address. We will never know all the answers to that question, but a good deal of progress toward answering it will help us and build our faith in Him and what He is doing. Third, how can we go about perceiving Him? How can we hear Him speak? How can we see Him in the world around us?
We will also indulge in some rather unorthodox ways of discovering how God reveals Himself today. For example, one of your homework tasks will be to watch a movie or read a book; not a “Christian” movie or book, but a popular one of our time. Then we will discuss how God reveals Himself based on what we see in the movie or book.
God Hides on Purpose
Of course there are many who look at the hiddenness of God and say, “He doesn’t exist.” These are the atheists. Others perceive the hiddenness of God and say that there is no way of knowing whether God exists or not. These are the agnostics.
Now we could engage in a short study proving from Scripture that God does indeed hide Himself. But all of us already know that, right? However I think it would be good for us to do it anyway, for two reasons.
First, it helps dismiss the ideas of the atheists and agnostics that God isn’t there or that we can’t know whether or not He is there. You see, if I drive my car into the garage and close the door, anyone on the outside will not know whether or not I have a car. I could explain to them that I’ve closed the garage door so that the car cannot be seen. They then have two choices – they can accept my explanation about why they cannot see the car, or they can continue to declare that it doesn’t exist, or express the notion that there is no way to know whether or not it exists. The scriptures that tell us that God is hidden are analogous to me explaining to another person that my garage door is hiding the car.
Secondly, there are many ways God hides Himself that we are unaware of. I think that we will be surprised at some of these. I think many of us have the notion that God is on an all-out campaign to fully reveal Himself to mankind right now! The point of our study is to become aware of the many ways that God hides. We will look at the reasons for this a little later.
So, let’s look at some scriptures. To begin, let’s go back to a time when God was more fully revealed, at least in a tangible way, in the Garden of Eden.
Gen. 3:8-9 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
Here we see that it was apparently a routine for the Lord God to walk and talk with Adam and Eve in the garden. Immediately after this, God began to hide Himself from them in a greater way.
Gen. 3:21-24 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
First God provides coverings for Adam and Eve to allow them to hide from God. And from the time that Adam and Eve sinned, nakedness has become a shameful thing. But this is not just physical nakedness. We are ashamed to expose our souls and spirits to each other as well; and most importantly, we are ashamed to expose our souls to God.
Secondly, God banned them from the beautiful garden He had made for them. They could no longer walk and talk face to face with the Lord God in the garden.
Ex. 33: 18-23 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” Then the LORD said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
Here we find that it is not possible for anyone to see God’s face and live. Moses may have been the only person to have seen a revelation of God to this extent. More than any other verse in the Bible, this passage establishes the fact that God hides Himself from us.
John 1:18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
Here the apostle John declares that no one has ever seen God.
John 6:46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.
Jesus here declares that no one has ever seen the Father except Himself.
Col. 1:15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
God is invisible. He cannot be seen by human eyes.
1 Tim. 6:15b-16 God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
No one has ever seen Him.
1 John 4:12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
So these verses establish the fact that God is invisible, that no one has or can see Him. I think we are all aware of this level of hiddenness. All of us, believers, atheists, and agnostics, agree that God, if there is one, hides Himself. Whether we like it or not, whether we agree with Him or not, God definitely hides Himself from us.
There are also some ways that God hides Himself that we are not so familiar with. Let’s look at some of these.
The birth of Jesus was a calculated move by God to hide Himself. Even though we have all been taught that Jesus coming was a culmination of God revealing Himself, there is no doubt that He did it in a way that allowed Him to remain hidden. What better way to hide the promised Messiah than in the home of a Galilean redneck. And to top that, He was the first born of a knocked-up girl who brought shame to her family, friends, and, most of all, to her husband. Who would have thought to look for God in a barn!? And then again, on top of that, the whole family disappeared for several years. As soon as the religious and political ruling class was alerted by the Wise Men to the fact that God had arrived in the flesh, the whole family gets whisked off to Egypt under the instructions of the angel of God. Can you imagine the manhunt that would go on today if an entire family disappeared? There is no doubt that Jesus’ early life was designed by God Himself to be a hidden life.
At age twelve, when Jesus went to the Passover Festival, he stayed behind and listened to the teachers there and exhibited a very unusual understanding of the things of God for someone so young. It was quite obvious that Jesus’ parents and family really had no idea who he was. It was hidden to those who were closest to Him. When asked why he had put them through so much grief and pain, Jesus answer made no sense to them. “I must be in my Father’s house.” They were really quite baffled by his answer.
The hiddenness of who He was with respect to His family continued well into His life.
Mark 3:20-21, 31-32 Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”
How many of you have ever heard of this passage? Jesus was about 30 years old at this time. Even after Jesus began to publicly preach, teach, and heal, His family was not on board! This included His mother! She was the one to whom the angel had appeared. She was the one who had this Child in a most unbelievable way. No other child in the world had been born without intercourse. Even knowing all of this, Jesus divinity was hidden from her. None of His brothers saw who He was either. It was hidden to them.
Now, let’s look at the hiddenness of Jesus during his public ministry. Most of us look at this as the full revelation of God in the person of Jesus. And so it was! But even here we see that God continued to cloak Himself.
Matt. 8:1-4 When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.
Also Mark 1:40-46; Luke 5:12-14
Here Jesus performs one of the first miracles recorded. But instead of advertising this to the world, Jesus asked the man to cooperate with Jesus hiddenness by keeping the miracle quiet.
Matt. 9:27-31 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”; and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.
Again, although he had already done many miracles, Jesus tells the blind men to keep it quiet.
Even John the Baptist who had officially introduced Jesus’ public ministry began to doubt that Jesus was the Messiah. He appeared to have the veil of hiddenness over the eyes of his heart when he questioned Jesus’ Messiahship while he was in prison.
Matt. 11:2-6 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
Also Luke 7:18-24
Though not answering him directly, Jesus does not hide his divinity from John.
Matt. 12:15-16 Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill. He warned them not to tell others about him.
Jesus did not ask those He had healed to go out and spread the good news. He told them to keep it a secret! He wished to remain hidden!
Matt. 13:10-17 The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables:
“Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”
Also Mark 4:10-12; Luke 8:9-10
Isn’t this amazing? Jesus hides the secrets of the kingdom in parables. He was selective with whom He would share the kingdom teachings.
Matt. 13:44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”
Here Jesus overtly compares the hiddenness of the kingdom of heaven with the chance discovery of a treasure hidden in a field.
Matt. 16:15-20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Also Mark 8:27-30; Luke 9:18-21
So if He had sent his disciples out earlier to preach and heal, why is He now telling them to keep it a secret?
Matt. 17:1-9 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
Also Mark 9:1-10
For the first time, these three disciples caught a glimpse of Jesus glory. Then, just as the hype of the moment began to build, it was gone, and Jesus real glory was hidden again. And what does Jesus say? Don’t tell anyone!
Mark 1:21-26, 34 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
“Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
…and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.
Also Mark 3:11-12; Luke 4:31-35,41
It’s obvious that the evil spirits knew exactly who Jesus was. And Jesus, wishing to remain hidden tells them to be quiet.
Mark 7:24 Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret.
Jesus went to the vicinity of Tyre to hide. He was trying to keep His presence a secret.
Mark 8:22-26 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”
After healing this blind man, Jesus tells him to go straight home, not even pausing to go into the village.
Luke 10:21-22 At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Does it look like Jesus is picky concerning whom He will reveal the Father?
Luke 24:13-16 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.
On the road to Emmaus, Jesus once again hides Himself and talks with two of His disciples.
John 12:27-29 “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.
Note here that some heard God’s voice, but others only heard thunder. Some said the thundering was an angel’s voice.
John 14:8-10 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
Again, we see that the disciples were still unable to perceive that Jesus and the Father were one. It was hidden from them. Philip reflects our sentiments when he asks to see the Father. Jesus explains that He and the Father are one and that seeing Jesus is seeing the Father.
John 20:11-16 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Note here that Mary did not initially recognize Jesus after He had risen. He was hidden to her.
Over and over again in the gospels – the books of the Bible that tell the story of Jesus’ life on earth – we discover that Jesus engages in behaviors that are designed to conceal who He was to the masses. Over and over again we find Him telling others to keep His true identity a secret. I want you to understand that this is exactly the opposite of what we would do. We are always trying to make sure that everyone is fully aware of Jesus and who God is. We engage in “in-your-face” tactics that are designed to make everybody know that God exists and that Jesus is God’s Son. It is important to note that Jesus used tactics that were bold and “in-your-face” sometimes, and other times He quite literally hid Himself.
The main thing I wanted you to understand from this introductory session is that God hides, He tells us that He hides, and does it on purpose. So whenever someone pontificates about the lack of evidence for God, you can dismiss that clap-trap because we know from these scriptures that God hides Himself from the kind of empirical evidence required by the physical sciences. He cannot be physically seen tasted, smelled, measured, touched, heard, or weighed. We cannot isolate Him in a super collider. We cannot sequence His DNA. We cannot detect His essence with a large Hadron collider. His atomic structured cannot be deciphered by organic chemistry nor can His fundamental elements be found on the Periodic Table. He cannot be explained by Higgs bosons, quarks, antiquarks, string theory, e=mc2, the spin of an electron, or Planck’s Theory. He is not subject to the Laws of Thermodynamics, Ohm’s Law, or the Ideal Gas Law. He has told us that no man has ever seen God at any time. He is, and has chosen to be, hidden!
Heb. 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
One of the most frustrating things about God for many people is that He does not just come out and reveal Himself fully to everyone so that there is no longer any reason to doubt that He exists. The reason behind this frustration is that it would forever remove any barriers to worshipping and obeying God. Of course this presupposes the notion that everyone would be willing to worship and obey a God so revealed. I have my doubts about that notion.
We want to explore a few things during this time together. First, what are the ways that God hides Himself? Does God truly hide, or are we unable to perceive the ways that He reveals Himself? Is it both? Second, why does God hide? This is probably the most important question to address. We will never know all the answers to that question, but a good deal of progress toward answering it will help us and build our faith in Him and what He is doing. Third, how can we go about perceiving Him? How can we hear Him speak? How can we see Him in the world around us?
We will also indulge in some rather unorthodox ways of discovering how God reveals Himself today. For example, one of your homework tasks will be to watch a movie or read a book; not a “Christian” movie or book, but a popular one of our time. Then we will discuss how God reveals Himself based on what we see in the movie or book.
God Hides on Purpose
Of course there are many who look at the hiddenness of God and say, “He doesn’t exist.” These are the atheists. Others perceive the hiddenness of God and say that there is no way of knowing whether God exists or not. These are the agnostics.
Now we could engage in a short study proving from Scripture that God does indeed hide Himself. But all of us already know that, right? However I think it would be good for us to do it anyway, for two reasons.
First, it helps dismiss the ideas of the atheists and agnostics that God isn’t there or that we can’t know whether or not He is there. You see, if I drive my car into the garage and close the door, anyone on the outside will not know whether or not I have a car. I could explain to them that I’ve closed the garage door so that the car cannot be seen. They then have two choices – they can accept my explanation about why they cannot see the car, or they can continue to declare that it doesn’t exist, or express the notion that there is no way to know whether or not it exists. The scriptures that tell us that God is hidden are analogous to me explaining to another person that my garage door is hiding the car.
Secondly, there are many ways God hides Himself that we are unaware of. I think that we will be surprised at some of these. I think many of us have the notion that God is on an all-out campaign to fully reveal Himself to mankind right now! The point of our study is to become aware of the many ways that God hides. We will look at the reasons for this a little later.
So, let’s look at some scriptures. To begin, let’s go back to a time when God was more fully revealed, at least in a tangible way, in the Garden of Eden.
Gen. 3:8-9 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”
Here we see that it was apparently a routine for the Lord God to walk and talk with Adam and Eve in the garden. Immediately after this, God began to hide Himself from them in a greater way.
Gen. 3:21-24 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
First God provides coverings for Adam and Eve to allow them to hide from God. And from the time that Adam and Eve sinned, nakedness has become a shameful thing. But this is not just physical nakedness. We are ashamed to expose our souls and spirits to each other as well; and most importantly, we are ashamed to expose our souls to God.
Secondly, God banned them from the beautiful garden He had made for them. They could no longer walk and talk face to face with the Lord God in the garden.
Ex. 33: 18-23 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” Then the LORD said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
Here we find that it is not possible for anyone to see God’s face and live. Moses may have been the only person to have seen a revelation of God to this extent. More than any other verse in the Bible, this passage establishes the fact that God hides Himself from us.
John 1:18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
Here the apostle John declares that no one has ever seen God.
John 6:46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.
Jesus here declares that no one has ever seen the Father except Himself.
Col. 1:15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
God is invisible. He cannot be seen by human eyes.
1 Tim. 6:15b-16 God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
No one has ever seen Him.
1 John 4:12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
So these verses establish the fact that God is invisible, that no one has or can see Him. I think we are all aware of this level of hiddenness. All of us, believers, atheists, and agnostics, agree that God, if there is one, hides Himself. Whether we like it or not, whether we agree with Him or not, God definitely hides Himself from us.
There are also some ways that God hides Himself that we are not so familiar with. Let’s look at some of these.
The birth of Jesus was a calculated move by God to hide Himself. Even though we have all been taught that Jesus coming was a culmination of God revealing Himself, there is no doubt that He did it in a way that allowed Him to remain hidden. What better way to hide the promised Messiah than in the home of a Galilean redneck. And to top that, He was the first born of a knocked-up girl who brought shame to her family, friends, and, most of all, to her husband. Who would have thought to look for God in a barn!? And then again, on top of that, the whole family disappeared for several years. As soon as the religious and political ruling class was alerted by the Wise Men to the fact that God had arrived in the flesh, the whole family gets whisked off to Egypt under the instructions of the angel of God. Can you imagine the manhunt that would go on today if an entire family disappeared? There is no doubt that Jesus’ early life was designed by God Himself to be a hidden life.
At age twelve, when Jesus went to the Passover Festival, he stayed behind and listened to the teachers there and exhibited a very unusual understanding of the things of God for someone so young. It was quite obvious that Jesus’ parents and family really had no idea who he was. It was hidden to those who were closest to Him. When asked why he had put them through so much grief and pain, Jesus answer made no sense to them. “I must be in my Father’s house.” They were really quite baffled by his answer.
The hiddenness of who He was with respect to His family continued well into His life.
Mark 3:20-21, 31-32 Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”
How many of you have ever heard of this passage? Jesus was about 30 years old at this time. Even after Jesus began to publicly preach, teach, and heal, His family was not on board! This included His mother! She was the one to whom the angel had appeared. She was the one who had this Child in a most unbelievable way. No other child in the world had been born without intercourse. Even knowing all of this, Jesus divinity was hidden from her. None of His brothers saw who He was either. It was hidden to them.
Now, let’s look at the hiddenness of Jesus during his public ministry. Most of us look at this as the full revelation of God in the person of Jesus. And so it was! But even here we see that God continued to cloak Himself.
Matt. 8:1-4 When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.
Also Mark 1:40-46; Luke 5:12-14
Here Jesus performs one of the first miracles recorded. But instead of advertising this to the world, Jesus asked the man to cooperate with Jesus hiddenness by keeping the miracle quiet.
Matt. 9:27-31 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”; and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.
Again, although he had already done many miracles, Jesus tells the blind men to keep it quiet.
Even John the Baptist who had officially introduced Jesus’ public ministry began to doubt that Jesus was the Messiah. He appeared to have the veil of hiddenness over the eyes of his heart when he questioned Jesus’ Messiahship while he was in prison.
Matt. 11:2-6 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”
Also Luke 7:18-24
Though not answering him directly, Jesus does not hide his divinity from John.
Matt. 12:15-16 Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill. He warned them not to tell others about him.
Jesus did not ask those He had healed to go out and spread the good news. He told them to keep it a secret! He wished to remain hidden!
Matt. 13:10-17 The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables:
“Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”
Also Mark 4:10-12; Luke 8:9-10
Isn’t this amazing? Jesus hides the secrets of the kingdom in parables. He was selective with whom He would share the kingdom teachings.
Matt. 13:44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”
Here Jesus overtly compares the hiddenness of the kingdom of heaven with the chance discovery of a treasure hidden in a field.
Matt. 16:15-20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
Also Mark 8:27-30; Luke 9:18-21
So if He had sent his disciples out earlier to preach and heal, why is He now telling them to keep it a secret?
Matt. 17:1-9 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
Also Mark 9:1-10
For the first time, these three disciples caught a glimpse of Jesus glory. Then, just as the hype of the moment began to build, it was gone, and Jesus real glory was hidden again. And what does Jesus say? Don’t tell anyone!
Mark 1:21-26, 34 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
“Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
…and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.
Also Mark 3:11-12; Luke 4:31-35,41
It’s obvious that the evil spirits knew exactly who Jesus was. And Jesus, wishing to remain hidden tells them to be quiet.
Mark 7:24 Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret.
Jesus went to the vicinity of Tyre to hide. He was trying to keep His presence a secret.
Mark 8:22-26 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?” He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.” Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go into the village.”
After healing this blind man, Jesus tells him to go straight home, not even pausing to go into the village.
Luke 10:21-22 At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Does it look like Jesus is picky concerning whom He will reveal the Father?
Luke 24:13-16 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.
On the road to Emmaus, Jesus once again hides Himself and talks with two of His disciples.
John 12:27-29 “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.
Note here that some heard God’s voice, but others only heard thunder. Some said the thundering was an angel’s voice.
John 14:8-10 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
Again, we see that the disciples were still unable to perceive that Jesus and the Father were one. It was hidden from them. Philip reflects our sentiments when he asks to see the Father. Jesus explains that He and the Father are one and that seeing Jesus is seeing the Father.
John 20:11-16 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Note here that Mary did not initially recognize Jesus after He had risen. He was hidden to her.
Over and over again in the gospels – the books of the Bible that tell the story of Jesus’ life on earth – we discover that Jesus engages in behaviors that are designed to conceal who He was to the masses. Over and over again we find Him telling others to keep His true identity a secret. I want you to understand that this is exactly the opposite of what we would do. We are always trying to make sure that everyone is fully aware of Jesus and who God is. We engage in “in-your-face” tactics that are designed to make everybody know that God exists and that Jesus is God’s Son. It is important to note that Jesus used tactics that were bold and “in-your-face” sometimes, and other times He quite literally hid Himself.
The main thing I wanted you to understand from this introductory session is that God hides, He tells us that He hides, and does it on purpose. So whenever someone pontificates about the lack of evidence for God, you can dismiss that clap-trap because we know from these scriptures that God hides Himself from the kind of empirical evidence required by the physical sciences. He cannot be physically seen tasted, smelled, measured, touched, heard, or weighed. We cannot isolate Him in a super collider. We cannot sequence His DNA. We cannot detect His essence with a large Hadron collider. His atomic structured cannot be deciphered by organic chemistry nor can His fundamental elements be found on the Periodic Table. He cannot be explained by Higgs bosons, quarks, antiquarks, string theory, e=mc2, the spin of an electron, or Planck’s Theory. He is not subject to the Laws of Thermodynamics, Ohm’s Law, or the Ideal Gas Law. He has told us that no man has ever seen God at any time. He is, and has chosen to be, hidden!
Heb. 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
