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Musings on Faith #56 Hiding, From God? | |
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"And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked . . . . . and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden (Genesis 3:7a & 8b, KJV)." Of course, we all know that what revealed to Adam and Eve their nakedness was the consequence of their sin of eating the forbidden fruit - the origin of sin. What strikes me about this passage, however, every time I read it, is the fact that it says "and Adam and his wife hid themselves". Did they really? No doubt they tried. But do we believe that God did not know exactly where they were, and their condition, having sinned and then discovering their nakedness, when He said "Where art thou? (Genesis 3:9, KJV)." Absolutely not!
And yet, here we are, over six thousand years later, by Biblical reckoning, still hiding from God. What a silly, inane and hopeless gesture, this hiding from the Lord! Why do we do it? Why do we so deceive ourselves? Sin committed in the midst of a vast, unpopulated wilderness is plainly visible to God. I’m sure you’ve heard the old saying "You can run, but you can’t hide." Well, with man this may or may not be true. I can recall going with my Dad to Alaska in 1966, and meeting a lady from Mississippi who had, we learned, a dark and troubled past down South, but when she |
moved to Alaska she was able to "hide" andbegin a new life. She ran, and she hid - successfully. But there was One from whom she did not, and could not, hide, and that One is the Lord God Almighty, all hearing, all seeing, all knowing.
And when all is said and done, there is only One who matters when it comes to matters of life, sin, obedience, and eternity. That One is God, our God, through His Son, Jesus Christ, our redeemer and our Lord. So let’s stop closing doors and drawing blinds to "hide" from the Lord. Another old saying comes to mind: "You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time." We might well add to that old truism "but you can’t fool the Lord God any of the time, ever." Nor hide.
So let’s stop this silly and fruitless exercise, and live our lives, all our waking hours, as though we were in the midst of a large group of faithful Believers. How silly and inane, indeed, to do otherwise. Certainly God is not fooled. After all, He is with us, and in us, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, whether or not we pay heed to this fact. God is not mocked, so let’s stop fooling ourselves! Self-deception is folly. |
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