The Face of God – Hide and Seek
The Face of God – Hide and Seek.
“The Gentiles shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they were unfaithful to me, therefore I hid my face from them. According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I have dealt with them, and hidden my face from them… Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel… And I will not hide my face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out my Spirit on the house of Israel, says the Lord God.” (Ezekiel 39:23-25, 29).
In the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), the word that was usually translated as “face” was “panim” (paw-neem). That Hebrew word was also translated as presence, front, surface, countenance, and before or in front of. Panim is recorded over 2,000 times in the O.T., and is a very significant idea all through Scripture. The root Hebrew word means to turn, to incline towards. The face of God in the Hebrew sense was of course literally impossible, because God is a spirit, doesn’t have a body, hence doesn’t have a face. The face of God in the Hebrew Bible, then, was a substitute word for the presence of God, the entire Person of God. But even that is a mystery, since God is everywhere in the universe. We couldn’t escape the presence of God even if we wanted to. It is simply impossible to be outside of God’s presence. So why should we seek God’s presence, His face, if He is already present?
It’s important to understand that the face of God points to intimacy with God. Being in the light of His presence with His face shining on us speaks to the level of intimacy we enjoy with the Lord. When we seek the face of God, we are saying that we earnestly want to be closer to Him. When we seek the face of God, we are asking for a more intimate sense of His presence. When God hides His face, He is in a sense turning His back and becoming less intimate in His relationship with us. But we will see later in this series that God doesn’t turn His back on us unless we first turn our back to Him. And even if God hides His face, He is still present. When God hides His face, He is, in His wisdom, deciding not to be as close as He could be. There is an eternal with-ness of God that is a part of His nature. He will not withdraw His presence, He will not hide His face, but he may withdraw His intimacy for a time if that is what is needed. As David said countless times in his psalms, seeking God’s face is practically a life-long quest for growing intimacy with the Lord God.
Most of the time, but not all the time, there was a good reason the God of the Hebrew Bible had decided to hide His face. For the most part in Scripture, God doesn’t hide His face from us unless we first hide our face from Him. God usually doesn’t turn His back on us unless we have first turned our back to Him. The light of His face will generally not shine on us unless our face, our heart, is first turned to Him to receive His light. God didn’t completely withdraw His presence from us because of sinfulness, but He did withdraw the intimacy of His presence from those of us who were making a habit of rejecting Him. Hiding His face, stepping back in His intimacy, is only God acknowledging that our sin has created a distance between God and us. God is omnipresent, He is present everywhere in the universe. But He seems to reserve His intimate presence for those who desire Him and follow His lead. It stands to reason… If we want the Lord to come close to us, yearn to come close to Him. “Come close to God, and He will come close to you.” (James 4:8). When we develop a sinful lifestyle and reject Him through patterns of sinfulness, God’s intimacy will disappear like smoke. God will remain present, but His intimacy will not. Let’s let God’s Word be its own best commentary:
(1.) “I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil which they have done, in that they have turned to other gods.” (Deuteronomy 31:18).
(2.) “They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; with detestable acts they provoked God to anger. The sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they did not know, to new gods, new arrivals that your fathers did not fear. Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and have forgotten the God who fathered you. And when the Lord Yahweh saw it, He spurned them, and He said, ‘I will hide my face from them.” Deuteronomy 32:16-20).
(3.) “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to prayers made in this place.” (2 Chronicles 7:14-15).
(4.) “I will wait on the Lord, who hides His face from the house of Jacob; I will hope in Him.” (Isaiah 8:17).
(5.) “For a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you. With a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment; But with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you,’ says the Lord Yahweh, your Redeemer.” (Isaiah 54:7-8).
(6.) “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; Your sins have hidden His face from you. So that He will not hear, for your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perversity. No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth.” (Isaiah 59:2-4).
(7.) I will return again to my place until they acknowledge their sins. Then they will seek my face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek me.” (Hosea 5:15).
(8.)” The multitude of your sacrifices… What are they to me? says the Lord. I have more than enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fattened animals. I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations… I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me. I am weary of hearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offered many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong; learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” (Isaiah 1:11-17).
(9.) “You rulers of the house of Israel: Is it not for you to know justice? You who hate good and love evil… They will cry to the Lord, but He will not hear them; He will even hide His face from them at that time, because they have been evil in their deeds.” (Micah 3:1-2, 4).
“Seek the Lord… Let the wicked forsake…” (verses 6-7). In the beginning, God wanted fellowship with the people He made. God wanted to include mankind in the intimate friendship He enjoyed within the Trinity. It would go against the grain of God’s character and purpose to exclude Himself from man’s companionship. When sin entered the world, that fellowship was fractured. But even then, God followed the fallen friends into exile. God was determined to stay with His sinful, exiled creatures, and any distance between them was the effects of sin between man and God. Throughout the old covenant, it seemed that thoughtful people lived in fear of God’s abandonment. And yet they continued to sin to create that distance. But God never gave up on mankind. He continued to make Himself available to those who sought Him in repentance and righteousness and faith. People would fearfully say things like, “Cast me not away from your presence; take not your holy Spirit from me” (Ps. 51:11); or “Wake up, Lord God! Are you forsaking us forever? You can’t hide your face any longer from us!” (Ps. 44:23-24).
When God cut through the distance and made Himself approachable in His rich mercy, wise people would seek Him out. Notice the sense of urgency in this passage of Isaiah… Seek Him! Call upon Him! In other words, make the most of God’s presence! He doesn’t have to be near you. Take advantage of His nearness. Yes, He is a God nearby, but don’t forget that He can be a God far away as well (Jer. 23:23). God has every right to hide His face. But He isn’t doing that! In His love, God has exiled Himself out of the garden and is always hanging around His creatures.
“Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near.” (Isaiah 55:6). So return to God, Isaiah says. Repent! Reject your unrighteous impulses. Stop your wicked deeds. Quit your evil scheming and impure inclinations. Turn your back on your godless motivations, your shameless imaginations. Make changes, turn from your wicked thoughts and tainted deeds. Return to the Lord. He is waiting for you, He wants to renew your intimacy. You will find Him to be rich in compassion, abundant in mercy. When you turn to God, He is waiting with open arms to receive you unto Himself. He will forgive you. He will pardon you in His grace. His lovingkindness will envelop you and your fellowship with Him will be renewed.
God seems to be saying, Don’t expect me to be up close and personal all the time. Don’t presume that I am at your beck and call. Sometimes I choose to seem silent or distant, and yes, sometimes you might have a dry period in your spiritual life. So seek me when I seem close and intimate, but also seek me when I am distant. Call to me when I seem more available, and call to me when I appear to ignore you. God’s silence is a mystery, and as Isaiah says elsewhere in this passage, God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, God’s ways are not our ways. God’s wisdom is far deeper and higher than our understanding could ever be. After all, how really do we know what is best for us? How do we know what will lead us to deeper growth and stronger dependence on Him? God knows these things, they are His secrets. When God seems distant or silent or unresponsive, we need to continue trusting that He is acting in divine wisdom. God may seem distant at times, but in His mercy He is still present. Because God is full of lovingkindness, He wants to enjoy intimacy with you.