If we don’t learn to see with lots more than our eyes, none of us will come out of that big country right-side up or alive.”
–Clair Huffaker (The Cowboy and the Cossack)
“The Lord is in His holy temple, The Lord’s throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.”
–Psalm 11:4 (NKJV)
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When I was a kid one of my favorite games was “hide-n’-seek.” If was one we most always placed when all the cousins were around. It was especially fun at night. Then when I became a parent I used to play it with my daughters. When they were real small, even before toddler phase, they would hide their heads under a blanket or such and think I couldn’t see them. They thought they really were hidden.
Then the thought came to my mind as I was pondering what to write. Hide-‘n’-seek is the oldest game on earth. If you recall, it was in the cool of the day, when Adam and Eve went to hide for they heard the footsteps of the Lord. “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3:8, NKJV) It seemed to Adam that the Lord could not find them, for His voice called out, “…Where are you?” (3:9). Of course, the Lord knew all along where Adam and Eve were hiding…and He knew the reason why. They were like my kids, thinking they were hidden, but really they were in plain sight to the Lord.
I recall another game of “hide-‘n’-seek. There came a command from the Lord to the prophet Jonah. “But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction in order to get away from the LORD. He went down to the seacoast, to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping that by going away to the west he could escape [hide] from the LORD.” (Jonah 1:2-3, NLT, brackets mine). Look at this–Jonah, a prophet of the Lord thought he could hide. He thought he could escape the Lord’s attention and that he would not be found. Oh, what foolishness. But think–he was one of God’s prophets. Did he purposely ignore the fact that God is omnipresent and omniscient? Was he that deceived in his mind? Very quickly we see that the Lord found him, and then the Lord played His own game of “hide-‘n’-seek. Jonah was hidden in the belly of the large fish, away from everything and everyone for three days, until he cried out to the Lord.
One more instance comes to my mind when men seek to play “hide-‘n’-seek” with the Lord. “And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!'” (Revelation 6:15-16, NKJV) In that terrible day to come, men will still try to hide from God. Now they try to hide their deeds, but there will come a time that they will revert to idols and pray that they will hide them from God. “Don’t let Him seek us.”
Foolishness, but then man in his folly doesn’t understand that God sees his works, his heart. In the days of Noah the hearts of men were evil, at Sodom God saw that the men were evil, and throughout recorded history there is the evil of man that God sees. Read the Bible, read the prophets, how the people tried to do wickedness thinking they were hiding it from God. Hide-‘n’-seek is a fun game for children, but to try to hide from the face of God is not only foolishness, but it is ridiculous to think that it could actually happen. “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, Keeping watch on the evil and the good.” (Proverbs 15:3, NKJV)
“The Lord is in His holy temple, The Lord’s throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.”
–Psalm 11:4 (NKJV)
—————————————-
When I was a kid one of my favorite games was “hide-n’-seek.” If was one we most always placed when all the cousins were around. It was especially fun at night. Then when I became a parent I used to play it with my daughters. When they were real small, even before toddler phase, they would hide their heads under a blanket or such and think I couldn’t see them. They thought they really were hidden.
Then the thought came to my mind as I was pondering what to write. Hide-‘n’-seek is the oldest game on earth. If you recall, it was in the cool of the day, when Adam and Eve went to hide for they heard the footsteps of the Lord. “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3:8, NKJV) It seemed to Adam that the Lord could not find them, for His voice called out, “…Where are you?” (3:9). Of course, the Lord knew all along where Adam and Eve were hiding…and He knew the reason why. They were like my kids, thinking they were hidden, but really they were in plain sight to the Lord.
I recall another game of “hide-‘n’-seek. There came a command from the Lord to the prophet Jonah. “But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction in order to get away from the LORD. He went down to the seacoast, to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping that by going away to the west he could escape [hide] from the LORD.” (Jonah 1:2-3, NLT, brackets mine). Look at this–Jonah, a prophet of the Lord thought he could hide. He thought he could escape the Lord’s attention and that he would not be found. Oh, what foolishness. But think–he was one of God’s prophets. Did he purposely ignore the fact that God is omnipresent and omniscient? Was he that deceived in his mind? Very quickly we see that the Lord found him, and then the Lord played His own game of “hide-‘n’-seek. Jonah was hidden in the belly of the large fish, away from everything and everyone for three days, until he cried out to the Lord.
One more instance comes to my mind when men seek to play “hide-‘n’-seek” with the Lord. “And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!'” (Revelation 6:15-16, NKJV) In that terrible day to come, men will still try to hide from God. Now they try to hide their deeds, but there will come a time that they will revert to idols and pray that they will hide them from God. “Don’t let Him seek us.”
Foolishness, but then man in his folly doesn’t understand that God sees his works, his heart. In the days of Noah the hearts of men were evil, at Sodom God saw that the men were evil, and throughout recorded history there is the evil of man that God sees. Read the Bible, read the prophets, how the people tried to do wickedness thinking they were hiding it from God. Hide-‘n’-seek is a fun game for children, but to try to hide from the face of God is not only foolishness, but it is ridiculous to think that it could actually happen. “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, Keeping watch on the evil and the good.” (Proverbs 15:3, NKJV)