Why is God hiding? Part 3
I still haven't answered one of the two questions that Part 1 raised. I simplified our metaphysical awe of God and his mysterious ways to two questions:
I feel I addressed Part 1 including offering reasons for being mysterious. If I were to sum up those arguments, it comes down to this: by tradition, the Jews held that no person could see the face of God and live. If God didn't hide himself, we would not be left with the ability to determine who we are as people in part because our sin and his presence are incompatible. In addition, we reveal OUR character through deep and honest trust in HIS. And we also reveal who he is in that process.
That leaves us with question #2. Has God ever FULLY revealed himself??? Again the answer is, of course, yes:
"I and the Father are one. If you have seen me, then you have seen the Father."
Now things get a little tricky. Paul very clearly says that Jesus condescended in order to become a man. He gave up the right to his glory in order to become like us. Clearly we didn't see God in all of his glory did we? Wasn't something STILL hidden? Did we get the entire picture of who God is when Jesus became God's revelation for us??
I hope you won't think I am playing semantic games as I write this. I believe the question is important because the answer will help us understand who Jesus IS. I want to offer that we did not SEE God in all of his glory when Jesus came. If I may, the time wasn't right.
But we saw a perfect presentation of God. I'm tempted to compare it to a vintage Pontiac GTO being repainted. You strip it to the metal and then put on a primer. And some people never get past putting the primer on...the final "glory" of the car never gets put back on. Real car buffs don't celebrate the paint job...they celebrate what is beneath the paint.
Jesus stripped off the glory and came humbly so that we could see what is "beneath the paint". If you recall, there are Old Testament prophecies that say, in essence, he wasn't much to look at.
And part of his ministry was very much about the treasure you either misplaced or would give anything to put your hands on. He spoke--seemingly in code--of worshipping the Father in spirit (and in truth). You could tell by the way that he said it that it wasn't something that was too usual. And you could also tell that there was something surprising about it for those he told (thinking of Nicodemus and of the Samaritan woman at the well.)
With Nicodemus you get a very deep hint as to what is going on when he compares the work of the Holy Spirit to the wind moving the leaves of a tree. You can't see the wind, but you can see the effect of the wind.
Sometimes we humans get caught up with the paint job. No, I'm not talking about just make up here. That's more like the decals on a vintage GTO. I'm talking about the paint job.
That's where Jesus called the Pharisees "white-washed sepulchres". Imagine a glorious cherry-red GTO with perfect trim, decals, tires...and a rotten pig inside. (There is a Mythbusters about this if you want to find out what REALLY happens.) We spend time waxing and polishing and buffing the OUTSIDE...and then others wonder WHAT that odor is.
So what did Jesus really reveal to us? It wasn't just how to be good. It wasn't how to live righteously. It wasn't even how to live in community. He certainly did all of those things as he prepared his disciples and followers for the revelation of the Bride (his church/ekklesia).
What he really revealed is this: how to live and how to die. Not live with a modifier attached. (Good, righteously, in community.) But how to live. Only when we go through the spiritual transformation of accepting him as our Deliverer and Ruler can we experience deliverance and life-in-balance.
He lived that way! He had to face death. He had to trust the Father to raise him (Deliver him from death). He had to give up THIS life in order to have THAT one...and nothing he did disqualified him from fully living THIS life.
Selah...
I come back to this over a month later. During that month I've worked an average of 10 hours per day...including weekends. What I wrote rings true still, so I'm going to post it pretty much as is.
If I were to summarize this series of posts--and it might be the most critical posts on the Salt Mill for people who are struggling with life--I would probably summarize this way:
Life is a struggle. The majority of that struggle is with Truth. (It's why God re-named Jacob "Israel" which means "struggles with God".) Most of the time, that struggle with Truth is actually a struggle with who WE are.
When God...Truth...is revealed fully, there is no room for self-examination and learning. As it says at that time "every knee WILL bow and every tongue confess Jesus Christ the Lord." (emphasis mine on WILL.) I think that what is going on now...where God has been fully revealed but is rarely obvious...is a very special time for mankind.
With God fully revealed through Jesus Christ, we have the fabulous opportunity of coming to God with full knowledge and dealing with every aspect of our life...good...bad...and indifferent.
Let me put it to you the way it occurred to me this Sunday. We were singing a song about coming before him and waiting for him to reveal himself to us. I realized that God could just as easily be singing many of the same words to me every Sunday. He is there before I get there. He (and only he) sanctifies the place and the worship. (Prooftext? God told Moses to take off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground. Moses didn't do anything to make that ground holy or sanctified.)
He desires us and longs for us to come before him and to come before him in fellowship with the Bride. He wants us to open up ourselves to him and share/reveal our innermost thoughts. He already has access to those thoughts because of who he is, but he wants us to share them anyway.
His hiding prevents our will from being violated by his majesty and glory. He remains sovereign while giving us room to grow in faith...nay...grow INTO faith. And as we learn to trust him while he's hiding...something is going on that we can't see or understand. He's preparing to fully reveal himself IN his shekinah glory.
My advice for someone who is hurting because God seems distant or hidden? Try to put the hurt to the side for just a moment, go outside, and yell at the top of your lungs:
"All ye all ye outs in free, all come home!!"
Then go back inside your house, open up the Psalms and start praying the more intimate ones to him. The sensation of his presence might be temporary, but if you yelled it at the top of your lungs, he probably will come out of hiding long enough to enjoy your child-like trust and to comfort your soul. He's there...he's really, really, really there.
1. Is God REALLY hiding?
and
2. Has he ever fully revealed Himself?
I feel I addressed Part 1 including offering reasons for being mysterious. If I were to sum up those arguments, it comes down to this: by tradition, the Jews held that no person could see the face of God and live. If God didn't hide himself, we would not be left with the ability to determine who we are as people in part because our sin and his presence are incompatible. In addition, we reveal OUR character through deep and honest trust in HIS. And we also reveal who he is in that process.
That leaves us with question #2. Has God ever FULLY revealed himself??? Again the answer is, of course, yes:
"I and the Father are one. If you have seen me, then you have seen the Father."
Now things get a little tricky. Paul very clearly says that Jesus condescended in order to become a man. He gave up the right to his glory in order to become like us. Clearly we didn't see God in all of his glory did we? Wasn't something STILL hidden? Did we get the entire picture of who God is when Jesus became God's revelation for us??
I hope you won't think I am playing semantic games as I write this. I believe the question is important because the answer will help us understand who Jesus IS. I want to offer that we did not SEE God in all of his glory when Jesus came. If I may, the time wasn't right.
But we saw a perfect presentation of God. I'm tempted to compare it to a vintage Pontiac GTO being repainted. You strip it to the metal and then put on a primer. And some people never get past putting the primer on...the final "glory" of the car never gets put back on. Real car buffs don't celebrate the paint job...they celebrate what is beneath the paint.
Jesus stripped off the glory and came humbly so that we could see what is "beneath the paint". If you recall, there are Old Testament prophecies that say, in essence, he wasn't much to look at.
And part of his ministry was very much about the treasure you either misplaced or would give anything to put your hands on. He spoke--seemingly in code--of worshipping the Father in spirit (and in truth). You could tell by the way that he said it that it wasn't something that was too usual. And you could also tell that there was something surprising about it for those he told (thinking of Nicodemus and of the Samaritan woman at the well.)
With Nicodemus you get a very deep hint as to what is going on when he compares the work of the Holy Spirit to the wind moving the leaves of a tree. You can't see the wind, but you can see the effect of the wind.
Sometimes we humans get caught up with the paint job. No, I'm not talking about just make up here. That's more like the decals on a vintage GTO. I'm talking about the paint job.
That's where Jesus called the Pharisees "white-washed sepulchres". Imagine a glorious cherry-red GTO with perfect trim, decals, tires...and a rotten pig inside. (There is a Mythbusters about this if you want to find out what REALLY happens.) We spend time waxing and polishing and buffing the OUTSIDE...and then others wonder WHAT that odor is.
So what did Jesus really reveal to us? It wasn't just how to be good. It wasn't how to live righteously. It wasn't even how to live in community. He certainly did all of those things as he prepared his disciples and followers for the revelation of the Bride (his church/ekklesia).
What he really revealed is this: how to live and how to die. Not live with a modifier attached. (Good, righteously, in community.) But how to live. Only when we go through the spiritual transformation of accepting him as our Deliverer and Ruler can we experience deliverance and life-in-balance.
He lived that way! He had to face death. He had to trust the Father to raise him (Deliver him from death). He had to give up THIS life in order to have THAT one...and nothing he did disqualified him from fully living THIS life.
Selah...
I come back to this over a month later. During that month I've worked an average of 10 hours per day...including weekends. What I wrote rings true still, so I'm going to post it pretty much as is.
If I were to summarize this series of posts--and it might be the most critical posts on the Salt Mill for people who are struggling with life--I would probably summarize this way:
Life is a struggle. The majority of that struggle is with Truth. (It's why God re-named Jacob "Israel" which means "struggles with God".) Most of the time, that struggle with Truth is actually a struggle with who WE are.
When God...Truth...is revealed fully, there is no room for self-examination and learning. As it says at that time "every knee WILL bow and every tongue confess Jesus Christ the Lord." (emphasis mine on WILL.) I think that what is going on now...where God has been fully revealed but is rarely obvious...is a very special time for mankind.
With God fully revealed through Jesus Christ, we have the fabulous opportunity of coming to God with full knowledge and dealing with every aspect of our life...good...bad...and indifferent.
Let me put it to you the way it occurred to me this Sunday. We were singing a song about coming before him and waiting for him to reveal himself to us. I realized that God could just as easily be singing many of the same words to me every Sunday. He is there before I get there. He (and only he) sanctifies the place and the worship. (Prooftext? God told Moses to take off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground. Moses didn't do anything to make that ground holy or sanctified.)
He desires us and longs for us to come before him and to come before him in fellowship with the Bride. He wants us to open up ourselves to him and share/reveal our innermost thoughts. He already has access to those thoughts because of who he is, but he wants us to share them anyway.
His hiding prevents our will from being violated by his majesty and glory. He remains sovereign while giving us room to grow in faith...nay...grow INTO faith. And as we learn to trust him while he's hiding...something is going on that we can't see or understand. He's preparing to fully reveal himself IN his shekinah glory.
My advice for someone who is hurting because God seems distant or hidden? Try to put the hurt to the side for just a moment, go outside, and yell at the top of your lungs:
"All ye all ye outs in free, all come home!!"
Then go back inside your house, open up the Psalms and start praying the more intimate ones to him. The sensation of his presence might be temporary, but if you yelled it at the top of your lungs, he probably will come out of hiding long enough to enjoy your child-like trust and to comfort your soul. He's there...he's really, really, really there.
posted by greg.w.h@9:00 AM link-to-post
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