Does God Hide From Us?

Isaiah 59:1-2 “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short that it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. But your wrongdoings have caused a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.”

Does God hide from us? Perhaps not in the sense of we know hiding where someone plays a game with us, but the Lord does turn away from us. His face is hidden from us. His ear is turned away from us and He is not listening. There are may verses throughout Scripture to support that the Lord turns away from us when we choose sin over Him.

Why would He not listen to someone? Consider a time when perhaps you tried to help someone, but it seemed like they never listened to you. They did what they wanted to do even though you gave them sound guidance. Later they returned with complaints about their poor decisions, expected you to listen, and if you offered sound advice again, they went out and did the exact opposite. This is troubling when other humans do it to us, but consider how heartbreaking it must be for the Lord when He wants us to turn away from sin, but we choose it over Him. He is a holy God, pure light in which there is no darkness. So understandably He would want us to reject a life of sin and darkness. Yet, if we choose to wallow in sin and misuse our freedom for evil, then why should He listen to us? He is letting us have what we want most… sin.

If we want Him more than anything, if we humble ourselves before Him, if we repent and turn away from our wrongdoings, then He will listen. This is true for both unbelievers who do not yet know the Lord and those who are followers of the Lord, but have misplaced their focus on things other than the Lord. He will have mercy and see that we are trying, while imperfectly, to be like Him. His ear can hear us and His hand can save us, but we must call out to Him to save us, to help us, to have mercy on us. Then He will turn towards us and draw near us.