We’ve all played the popular game Hide-and-Seek in many variations. The most popular is played with a designated “it” who will look for the concealed players trying to get back to a designated home base. The first one tagged by the “it” is the loser, while the last player to be found is declared the winner.
Surprisingly, the Bible also has many instances of hiding and seeking. Either someone is hiding from God and He is seeking that someone or God Himself is hiding His face and someone is seeking Him. Let’s check this hide-and-seek game and see how we all end up as players.
After the serpent convinced the woman how desirable it was to eat the fruit of the tree of good and evil, she ate of it and gave some to her husband. When their eyes were opened to the truth of their nakedness, they covered themselves with fig leaves they sewed. Hearing God’s presence in the garden, “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?’” (Genesis 3:8-9). And just like that, we immortalized the game of hide-and-seek.
Adam and Eve must have taught this game to their son Cain because he played it in high stakes. Out of jealousy, he murdered his brother Abel. God asked Cain where his brother was, and he replied, “'I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?’ And the Lord said, ‘What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground’” (Genesis 4:9-10). Cain hid Abel’s body by burying it!
It’s obvious that hiding in these two instances was the result of sins committed. Adam and Eve hid from God to avoid the shame of the truth—their disobedience exposed who they were, naked and suddenly fearful of the unexpected. Cain, on the other hand, hid not only the evidence but lied to God when questioned to protect himself. Not one of them accepted any responsibility for their wrongdoings.
When I was working for a ministry, several of our partners working in Muslim countries had stories of people sharing visions of a “man in white.” One of them happened in Turkey during the 2023 earthquake, where a little boy told the story of a “man in white” holding up the walls until the boy could leave for safety before it collapsed. Go ahead and check the Internet for more similar stories. Why am I saying this? These encounters have led people, whose beliefs were contrary and antagonistic to Jesus, to faith in Him!
Yet, those who already held God’s promise were even first-hand eyewitnesses and tasted of His goodness. After God spoke about His commandments, and the people witnessed the “thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die’” (Exodus 20:18-19).
How interesting! Here’s God who’s been with them in their journey, providing safety from their enemies and giving them what they need to survive, yet they cannot bear to see the great firework displays brought by His very presence among them. They needed a buffer, an intercessor to hide God from them—or is it to hide themselves from God?
Many years ago, I joined a charismatic movement before I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. In one of the sessions, I had a vision of myself sitting on a rock in the desert, watching people from ancient times. Suddenly, Jesus, whose face was hidden from me, was ascending to heaven. I heard myself crying and begging Him to show me His face. And a voice gently said to me, “You are not ready to see my face for you will not be able to live.”
I didn’t understand what it meant until years later. “The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Exodus 33:11). Moses wanted more from God, so he asked God to show him His glory. And God said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord...’ But you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (vv.18-20).
Moses and I may have asked for the same thing—to see God’s face. But he was called a friend to God while I didn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. God was gracious and told Moses, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen” (vv.21-23).
We have been hiding the truth from ourselves, misleading our own souls by seeking different paths that we think will bring us satisfaction and happiness. In our anxieties caused by our own deceptions, God reminds us that He knows what we need: to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33). And the caveat to the seeking? “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near,” says Isaiah (55:6). There is an urgency to this seeking, for the game must one day come to its end. We must seek repentance of our sins from God and end the hiding of our treacherous acts. The day will come when it’s no longer possible to seek God’s forgiveness, and judgment has arrived.
In Ezekiel, the Lord spoke of Israel’s restoration after their captivity and desolation. He said, “I will not hide my face anymore from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel” (39:29). God hid his face from His people because of their uncleanness and transgressions. When they repent, God will bring them back and gather them.
King David gave us a beautiful picture, a psalm, of hiding in and seeking the Lord. He said, “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. “For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;he will lift me high upon a rock… “Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;Be gracious to me and answer me!You have said, ‘Seek my face.’My heart says to you, ‘Your face, Lord, do I seek.’ Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help. Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation!” (vv.4-5, 7-9)
Again, let’s make it clear that the game of hide-and-seek will end, and God will dwell among His people. Let’s emphasize for the second time the words of Isaiah and “seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near” (55:6). Do not delay!
Photo Credit: ©RNS/Pixabay/Creative Commons
Luisa Collopy is an author, speaker and a women’s Bible study teacher. She also produces Mula sa Puso (From the Heart) in Tagalog (her heart language), released on FEBC Philippines stations. Luisa loves spending time with her family over meals and karaoke!