Why God Remains Invisible: Unpacking the Mystery of Divine Hiddenness – Babafemi Oluwadare
When my Dad was alive, he used to ask a question. That question bothers on what every inquisitive person would like to ask. “Why didn’t GOD just appear to the whole world and they would repent? Why can’t he just write some stuff on the sky about Jesus and make it visible for all men to see at a time?”
In Akungba town, Ondo State, there was an elderly man who asked questions pertaining to this, as well. In one of our dialogues with him, (in which it happened I was there), he asked why GOD has never made himself visible to man.
On the ground of GOD’s invisibility, many have resorted to concluding that he doesn’t exist and considered the Book that tells us about his existence and salvation plan for mankind “fairy tales”.
This would have been factual if the Bible had claimed GOD can be seen and has been seen and today, we find the opposite. Job said, (Job 9:1) “Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not: he passeth on also, but I perceive him not.”
Job had never seen GOD and “somehow” he knew he existed. How men in those days knew GOD existed despite not seeing him is just a modern-day mystery because modern-day men allude everything to things of nature. In Acts 17:28, as written by an ancient philosopher, oxygen and carbon dioxide could not have been without the Spirit of GOD around us.
In the days of Bible writers, none of them did see GOD as the Bible itself attests that “No man hath seen GOD at any time” and “somehow” these Bible writers knew that there is a Self- Conscious and Intelligent Being who hides himself from the sight of men for a reason best known to him, perhaps for the benefit of man.
We ought to, however, note that in every action of GOD, there is often a reason. In Gen 2:17, when GOD withheld knowledge from man, it was because that kind of knowledge was ‘perilous’. In John 13:7, Jesus declined to unravel a ‘certain truth” because he knew the disciples’ neuro-systems could not apprehend them. In John 16:22, Jesus also declined to unravel certain truths because of human weaknesses. In 1 Cor 13:12, it was made known that the little available knowledge we have today is ‘in part’ due to earthly limitations to knowing more about the spiritual. In Eph 3:5, we had a glimpse that the gradual unraveling of knowledge was part of GOD’s divine plan.
Similarly, if GOD had chosen to hide himself from man now, he has his own reason, which is for our benefit, and at least, GOD gave us a reason we can’t see him yet in Exodus 33:20, he said, “No man can see me and live”.
The atoms in the human body are over 90% “nothing,” and our biological systems would not survive it if GOD in His Majesty were to appear to man. Unequivocally speaking, if GOD were to appear to men, their biological systems would fail them.
Jesus tells us in Mat 24:29 that when he shall in his majesty, all the billions of stars, the sun, the moon, and the visible and invisible planets shall be driven from their courses.
In Isa 40:12, GOD is said to have measured the oceans in the hollow of his hand. If the GOD who measured the Pacific oceans, the Atlantic oceans, and the Indian oceans ‘in the hollow of his hand’ were to come down to the earth in his majesty, that would result in maximum destruction. I mean ‘premium’ and ‘irreparable destruction’.
And it is for this that GOD does send angels to the earth in those days, and even with the presence of angels, men were often frightened (Jud 13:20-22).
All these are a result of the corrupt bodies we are dwelling in, and the entire universe subjected to vanity. We’re nevertheless, assured that it wouldn’t be like this forever. Jesus assured us in Mat 5:9 that GOD shall soon be visible to man. All needed on our part is ‘holiness’, which is only achievable by the precious blood shed on Calvary (Heb 12:14).
In the meantime, GOD has given us his spirit till that very time and has ensured that all we needed to know about him is confided in his Express Image who is Jesus Christ (Col 1:15).
