What the Bible says about Hiding from God
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Genesis 3:7 Immediately after their sin, and the knowledge of what they had done began to dawn on them, Adam and Eve immediately begin to “make do,” to adapt. This is illustrated by them making clothing for themselves. Quality of clothing is later used in the Bible as a symbol of the quality of righteousness, and their “making do” shows us that they were creating their own standards of righteousness. To add insult to injury, they hid from God when they knew He was about. John W. Ritenbaugh The Christian and the World (Part Two) Related Topics: Effects of Sin | Hiding from God | Standards of Righteousness

Genesis 3:23-24 Sin was introduced and destroyed man's relationship with God, so God drove man out of the Garden. Practically every picture or painting of this scene shows God leading them out. But this is incorrect! He “drove them out,” implying a punishing anger. Their relationship was broken. A major principle is shown at the very beginning of the Bible: Sin destroys relationships and produces separation. To understand this further, it is good to understand that at the heart of sin is the concept of failure. It is a specific kind of failure, producing a specific result and a specific fruit. Genesis 2 and 3 teach that sin is the failure to maintain a relationship, first with God, and secondly with man. Sin produces separation, first with God, and secondly with man. Eventually, sin produces death—the first death—and then the ultimate separation from which there can never be another relationship, the second death. In addition to being separated from fellowship with God, Adam and Eve were also separated from the Tree of Life and access to the Holy Spirit. A very clear progression is shown in the breaking of Adam and Eve's relationship with God: 1. They became convinced that their way was better than God's. 2. They became self-conscious, and they hid from God. 3. They tried to justify and defend what they did. In order to build a relationship with God, those steps must be reversed: 1. We must drop every excuse and every justification. 2. We must drop our pride and stop hiding from God, thinking He is unaware of what is going on. 3. We must become convinced that God's way is better than ours. Genesis 3:24 says that the Tree of Life is guarded. The Holy Spirit is guarded. We understand this symbolically, making it clear that our way back to the Tree of Life and access to the Holy Spirit is not going to be easy. In fact, it is impossible! No human being is going to get past a cherub. There is no relationship possible with God until He removes the barrier. He then personally and individually invites us to come back. But how do we "come back" when we never had a relationship with Him before? We were separated from Him through the sin of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve had a relationship with Him, and Adam and Eve represent all of mankind. Therefore, in God's mind, we had a relationship, but we wrecked it in the persons of Adam and Eve. God invites us back into a relationship with Him. John W. Ritenbaugh The Holy Spirit and the Trinity (Part Six) Related Topics: Adam and Eve | Failure | Failure to Live up to Standards | Fellowship with God | Hiding from God | Relationship with God | Self Justification | Separation from God | Sin | Sin Destroys Relationships | Sin Produces Death | Sin Produces Separation | Tree of Life

Jeremiah 17:10 God is stating what is later reiterated in Jeremiah 23. There is individual responsibility, and we have to face up to the fact that there is no hiding from God. He does not intend this in a mean way—not at all. He is not trying to make us feel as though we need to be looking over our shoulder all the time for His club to come down on us. That is not what He is looking for. He is looking for us to get the good out of life. His reasons are honorable, loving, kind, and good. He is trying to help us to understand that cause and effect are at work. We need to consider: Do we really trust God? John W. Ritenbaugh The Sin of Self-Deception Related Topics: Cause and Effect Principle | Cause and Effect, Spiritual | Hiding from God | Individual Responsibility | Self Deception | Trusting God | Trusting in God

1 John 1:3 Someone who is guilt-ridden and conscience-stricken because of sin, rather than seeking fellowship with God, will shy away from Him just as Adam and Eve did. After their sin, they ran, not to Him, but from Him—they hid from God (Genesis 3:8-10). Is there a more powerful act that we, as Christians, can do to demonstrate our desire to run to God rather than from Him—to demonstrate the strength of our desire to fellowship—than to pray always? A lack of desire to fellowship with God and Christ is a distinctive trait of a Laodicean (Revelation 3:18-20). We live in an era when people are apathetic about having a true relationship with God. No professing Christian would admit that he would not care to eat a meal with and fellowship with Jesus Christ, yet He reports that in His own church, some will not rouse themselves to fellowship with Him, though they know that He knocks at the door. By their inaction, they choose not to fellowship with Him. In fact, they are so far from Him that they do not even see their need! A terrible cycle of cause-and-effect is created: no awareness of need, no desire; no desire, no prayer; no prayer, no relationship; no relationship, no awareness of need. It runs in a vicious circle. God offers us, not just endless life, but even more—eternal, close fellowship with Him. That is part of our reward as firstfruits (Revelation 3:12, 21). But how does God know if we want to fellowship with Him forever? How can He determine about us, as He said about Abraham in Genesis 22:12: "Now I know"? Simply, if we areearnestly seeking fellowship with Him right now, in this life, our actions prove—just as Abraham's actions were proof—that we sincerely desire to fellowship with Him forever. What is the major way God gives us to show our desire for eternal fellowship with Him? Prayer! Through prayer, especially praying always, we are consciously deciding to place ourselves in God's presence—to have fellowship with Him and to acknowledge our vital need for Him. As an example of this, David writes in Psalm 27:8: "When You said, 'Seek My face,' my heart said to You, 'Your face, Lord, I will seek.'" The Amplified Bible expands the idea of "seek My face" as "inquire for and require My presence as your vital need." In everything we say or do, we are to acknowledge His presence in our lives and give thanks for it (Colossians 3:17). Our praying always should also include thanksgiving to God for the many blessings He provides to sustain us, prosper us, and perfect us. Considering this idea of eternal fellowship, it should come as no surprise that by striving to pray always we are in training to do now what we will be doing for eternity—closely fellowshipping with God. It is one reason why we have been called and elected by God—that we might have fellowship with the Father and the Son (Revelation 3:12, 21; John 17:24). Pat Higgins Praying Always (Part Six) Related Topics: Cause and Effect Principle | Fellowship with Christ | Fellowship with God | Guilt | Hiding from God | Laodicean Attitude | Prayer | Prayer as Fellowship | Praying Always | Seeking God | Separation from God | Watch and Pray Always

1 John 1:3 This, in short, is why we have been called and elected of God: that we might have fellowship with the Father and the Son. However, if we are guilt-ridden and conscience-stricken, rather than seek fellowship with God and enjoy it, we will shy away from them, as Adam and Eve did. What did they do when they sinned, breaking the commands of God? They ran away from God and hid themselves. John W. Ritenbaugh Love and Fellowship Related Topics: Fellowship with Christ | Fellowship with God | Hiding from God | Love and Fellowship | Sin Causes Death | Sin Causes Guilt | Sin Causes Separation from God | Sin creates estrangement from God

Revelation 6:16-17 We need to dig deeper into the minds of these end-time spelunkers. What thinking underlies their words? A shaking fist is absent; these individuals do not express anger or outright rebellion against God. Conversely, they make no confession of personal guilt; they express no repentance. While they recognize the existence of the Father and Son, they do not understand that God is a Family into which they can be born. They do not know—or believe—the gospel. They do not realize that they can develop a personal relationship with God and grow to become like Him. In other words, the cavemen's words are not those of converted individuals at all. The underlying thinking behind their comments is desperate self-preservation. They want personal safety. Understanding more than many do about God, convinced that the Father and the Lamb are stirred to anger, their knowledge is still so limited that they can only irrationally command "mountains and rocks" to fall on them. Pathetically, in the end, they can only ask a question that exhibits the depths of their despair. Who is able to survive during the Day of the Lord? They have no answer. Isaiah 2 provides us a bit more insight. In verse 9, the prophet, speaking of idolaters, addresses the issue of their repentance. These people, he says, "will be brought low and everyone humbled—do not forgive them" (Isaiah 2:9, New International Version). God has humbled them through mind-numbing terror; they hide in caves from God and His Son and talk to rocks. Yet, in all this, they have not yet expressed godly sorrow, not yet repented. So God has not yet forgiven them. The prophet Isaiah continues: Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust, from the terror of the LORD and the glory of His majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the LORD of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty, upon everything lifted up—and it shall be brought low. . . . (Isaiah 2:10-12) Notice that the cave-dwellers are those who have been humbled. In verse 11, Isaiah states the timeframe: They are humbled in a time when "the LORD alone shall be exalted. . . ." So, this passage in Isaiah 2 is dealing with the general period that we call the Day of the Lord. Interestingly, in verses 20-21, we see that they have eschewed idolatry: In that day a man will cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they made, each for himself to worship, to the moles and bats, to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the crags of the rugged rocks, from the terror of the LORD and the glory of His majesty, when He arises to shake the earth mightily. If the people who hurl their idols "to the moles and bats" as they enter the "clefts of the rocks" are the same ones who ask "mountains and rocks" to fall on them in Revelation 6:16, these folk may well have started out on a road to repentance. They are not there yet, for they lack the proper understanding and motivations. Though God has not yet granted them repentance (II Timothy 2:25), He is working among them, perhaps through the work of the Two Witnesses. He has increased their knowledge about Him, brought them to an understanding that idolatry is wrong, and led them to subterranean "places of safety." Charles Whitaker Post-Historic Cave-Dwellers Related Topics: Day of God's Wrath | Day of the Lord | Enforced Humbling | Flee from Idolatry | Hiding from God | Idolatry | Post-Historic Cave Dwellers | Wrath of God

 

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