GOD'S Hiding Of Himself

                                                                          

Now right in that setting come these words which we hardly need to dwell upon. Firstly, "He hideth himself."

I doubt whether there is one of us who does not know something of the poignancy that lies in that statement. "He hideth himself." 

That is one of our greatest occasions of suffering, the fact that the Lord hides Himself.

Our cry all the time is that He will show Himself, come out into the open, let us see Him and see what He is doing. But "He hideth himself."

He was enshrouded in the mystery of His ways with His beloved servant.

In all the values of this book, this is not one of the smallest, that God could say of a man that he is perfect and upright and there is none like him in all the earth, and then could hide Himself from that man. You see the point.

Oh, the misrepresentation of God and of Job which this book brings out! This is one of the things which God set Himself to destroy out of hand.

This misrepresentation came through Job's friends. They were pious men, in their way godly men, who said some very lovely things - and yet they were used by the Devil as instruments against this choice servant of God.

A problem arises here, which we make no attempt now to answer. Were the things spoken by these men Divinely inspired utterances?

Can we take them as Scripture? "Lay thou thy treasure in the dust... and the Almighty will be thy treasure" (Job 22:24-25) - is that an inspired utterance, can we take our stand on that? 

That is something to be fulfilled as the Word of God, and yet that - and many other equally lovely things - were uttered by men of whom God said in the end "Ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right" (42:7).) 

Here is a man of whom God can say that he is perfect and upright.

NATURALLY  He can never say that about you and me, or about any one of us - though thank God He can say it of us IN CHRIST. 

Yet He could say it of Job naturally as to outward life. He could say finally of Job that he had said the thing which was right. "Ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath."

God could speak so at the beginning and at the end about this man, and draw Satan's attention to him as the most perfect man on the earth, and then hide Himself from him in the time of his anguish.

I say the precious thing about that is that God's hiding does not always mean that God is against you; it does not mean what these men interpreted it to mean, that God had a controversy with Job and that there must be some deep, awful, secret sin in his life which he was hiding or to which he was blind but which the eyes of God could see. 

That is all false, says God: this man is perfect and upright; and yet under the accusation of pious men, under the assaults of the devil to this man's anguish, God hid Himself.

Have you had one boil? You know the misery and the pain. Job was a man covered from head to foot with these things. That was only one phase of his suffering. 

Children gone, flocks and herds gone, camels gone, his home gone, his friends gone, and his wife turned against him saying, "Renounce God, and die." Job was left like that.

And God, affirming this man's perfection and integrity, still hides Himself. "He hideth himself."

What is our case compared with Job's? The Lord deals with us in the same way; He hides Himself.

He must have an object which far outweighs all the dangers of the possibility of His being misunderstood and misinterpreted.

His servant was given plenty of occasion to say, God is unfaithful, unloving, unrighteous; He has turned against me; and so on.

But God ran the risk of it because He saw something of value which far outweighed all that. He knew that in the long run He would be justified and not condemned. "He hideth himself."

Do not think, my beloved, tried, pressed brother or sister, that the fact that Satan assails and things are so difficult and hard means of necessity that you are under judgment.

Even if you are standing on the ground in Christ of righteousness from God, and are not persisting in a known course of wrong over which the Lord has a controversy with you. 

Even if you are able to say, I stand not on any ground of my own, but on the ground of His righteousness through faith, and I repudiate all known, habitual sin.

Even then it does not mean that God is necessarily coming out to you to show Himself always very wonderful. He may hide Himself, and those who mean well may interpret that fact the other way. 

It is one of the most difficult things to bear when calamity falls; people will come along and say, The Lord must have some cause for judging you, you must lie under some condemnation for Him to allow that. "He hideth himself." 

~T. Austin Sparks~