Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself, the God and Savior of Israel. – Isaiah 45:15

Today's Scripture Reading (September 8, 2023): Isaiah 45

One of my favorite games as a kid was Hide and Seek. When I was growing up, we played several versions of the game in the neighborhood, but they all carried the same idea: someone was designated as the seeker while the others hid wherever they could find a spot. My favorite time to play the game was at dusk. In the area where I grew up, there was a long twilight time as darkness seemed to come slowly, and it was fun to play the game at that time of transition between day and night. It wasn't dark; you could still see, but at the same time, everything seemed to exist in shadows, and nothing could be seen clearly.

Early on, I learned that when you played hide and seek in that long twilight time, making artificial places to hide was easy. Taking a scrap piece of wood and tilting it toward a fence created an excellent hiding place. You couldn't be seen between the wood and the fence because you were in the safety of the shadow, yet you were in a perfect position to see out. And if you built your hiding place close to an escape route, even if the seeker came toward you, you could still make your escape.

Isaiah speaks to the people of Israel. Now, they were existing as outsiders in a strange land. They always thought that God was on their side, and because of that, this kind of exile could never happen, not to them. But now the impossible had happened. The question they were obsessed with, which caused the prophets to have to answer them repeatedly, was how did this happen to us? Where is God right now?

To the people, it seemed that God was hiding, maybe playing a celestial game of hide and seek. But the truth was that God was the seeker, and Israel had placed up the barricades as they tried to hide from God. Like an adult playing Hide and Seek with a child, he knew exactly where they were, but God was willing to allow them the illusion that they were hidden. However, the reality was that God was never far away. They would have found him if the people had just stood up and looked. But they found the act of standing up harder and harder to do.

Sometimes, it feels like God is still hiding and doesn't care about the things happening in our lives. But that is not the truth. He is still close by, and all we have to do to find him is just stand up and look.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Isaiah 46

Originally Published on February 26, 2011