June 25, 2014.

“Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.”
(Jeremiah 23:23-24)

Can we hide from God? This may sound like a silly concept, but I think it is a fair question. Can man hide from the Almighty? The quick and easy answer is “well no, God is omnicient and omnipresent, therefore we cannot hide.” Whereas I believe this to be true, I don’t think our actions always line up with our way of thinking. How often do we sin in secret? How much easier is it to do something you shouldn’t either when no one else is around or no one will notice? It has been my experience that it is much easier to sin in the dark than it is in the light, so to speak.

Why is this? I believe the problem is that we don’t have a tangible idea of God. Sure, we can say that God is omnipresent, but does that mean that we feel his presence at every moment? Not necessarily. However, we do feel the presence of others if they are in the room or you know they are watching you. Often, this presence of other people is enough incentive not to do the thing we know we shouldn’t do simply because someone else will see what we have done. Does God see what we do at all times?

Of course He does. In fact, He sees what we do more intimately that what other humans can observe because He knows even the motives behind what we do. This can be a sobering thought. But it is not often what we think about when we are alone and prone to sin. This idea that we can hid from God has been around since the fall of man.

“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
(Genesis 3:6-13)

When Adam and Eve transgressed the commandment of the Lord, the first thing they tried to do was hide from God. They were not able to hide. Is hiding our first instinct when we sin? For me, it often is. We don’t want the world to see our flaws, for we must put forth a persona of perfection. This persona is always false, because we sin. I believe it would serve the church well to simply admit to being a fallen race and continue to help each other do the best we can. No matter how hard we try, nor how successful we are with man, we cannot hide from God. Eventually, our sin will find us out.

“But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.”
(Numbers 32:23)

Honesty really is best the majority (if no all) of the time. If everything is in the open and fully acknowledged, then there is little that can be held against, so long as the issues are being resolved to the best of our ability. Let us serve God and one another in spirit and truth.

Suggested Daily Reading: Genesis 3, Numbers 32, Jeremiah 23, Matthew 18.

Grace and peace.

-Walter