I used to be small enough to hide most of myself behind this or any of our pine trees that used to be in our front yard! No more, but today God said to me "Hide and Seek". He was trying to help me understand my Old Testament reading from recent days, and He said "Hide and Seek". Keep reading, and I'll explain.
I have continued to read the One Year Bible (NLT) and have just finished Second Chronicles. Throughout First and Second Chronicles and earlier books, the Israelites have had kings as their rulers. There is some amount of history written about each king. Some ruled for as little as 2 years and some for as long as 55 years. Some became king at the age of 7, and others at the age of 31. Some did what was evil in the sight of God where others did what was right in the sight of the Lord.
As I have read, I feel like I have been on a roller coaster ride among the different kings. When an evil king came into power, he had the Temple torn up and Baal images/idols brought into the Lord’s house to reside and be worshipped. Then when the righteous king came into power, he had all Baal idols and Asherah poles removed, and the Temple repaired. The Lord God of Israel was the only God to be worshipped. A roller coaster of kings and their obedient followers….
So God what is the point of reading this except for a historical perspective? Am I supposed to learn something deeper from this? (I assume the answer is “yes”, but sometimes I have trouble discerning what it is!)
That’s when He said “Hide and Seek”. Hide and Seek??? Yes, I remember playing that game a lot. Everyone must have played Hide and Seek as a youngster! Remember, one person is “IT” and counts to 25 or 50 while everyone else hides? Then “IT” goes looking for everyone and tries to tag someone yelling “Tag! You’re IT!” so they will become the “IT”. It was the kind of game you could play at any age and anywhere inside or out and any time of day; however dusk was the best time!
Think about a cute one year old who covers her eyes with her hands while another older person counts to 3. The child takes her hands down, the older person says “I see you” or “I found you”, and the child squeals with delight! At this age, they can repeat this for hours. Kids around 7-10 would race around the yard so fast trying to find that perfect hiding spot. They could really exploit this game unless there were boundaries set to keep someone from running to the next block to hide. It was loads of fun and didn’t cost us anything to play!
It finally dawned on me that what God wanted me to realize is that the history of the Israelites was like playing Hide and Seek with God in the Old Testament.
Hide: If the king was evil, he declared that everyone should worship non-God images and little “g” gods (Baal). We don’t know how they felt about it, but they followed their king. Of course, there were probably dire circumstances if they didn’t. So they hid from worshipping God and worshipped idols and images that they could see and touch.
Seek: But when the righteous king came into power, he directed his kingdom to follow the God of Israel who led them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. He had the Temple of God repaired and all evidence of non-God worship destroyed. The king directed them to seek God again and follow the covenant He made with Moses. When this happened, the people/kingdom prospered.
Deuteronomy 4:39-40 Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the Lord Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.” (NKJV)
Now the other side of this is that God is NOT playing a game; He is NOT hiding at all. He is omnipresent or present everywhere; He is constant; He is with us and in us as believers; He is with us and near us as not-yet believers; He is only a cry, call, yell, prayer away from us when we seek Him. We must seek Him as He seeks after us.
Ezekiel 34:11 For thus says the Lord GOD: “Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. (NKJV)
He will never hide from us. Sometimes we may intentionally try to hide from God, but we can never escape Him.
This is the God who loves us more than we can comprehend; He wants what is best for us and all of the blessings that He has for us. All that He desires is for us to call out to Him, and He will respond. We MUST SEEK Him and FIND Him, and we will if we search with all of our hearts.
Maybe this message should have been entitled SEEK and FIND!!
Thanks for stopping by,
Rachel