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tory of the relationship between man
and bis God.
Start at the Beglnnlng
Adam was the first human being
("enlightened" anthropology not–
withstanding). And God dealt very
intimately with Adam: forming him
(Gen. 2:7), moving him (2: 15),
bringing animals to him (2: 19) ,
teaching him (2:19, 20), giving him a
wife (2:22), etc. Adam knew God as
we know our parents-God literally
walked· in the garden of Eden (3:8).
But Adam, rather than following
bis Creator's orders, obeyed bis own
human reasoning- Adam sinned.
And immediately thereafter, "Adam
and bis wife bid themselves from the
presenceoftheLord God" (Gen. 3:8).
That's the crucial point! Man hid
from God-God didn't hide from
man.
This is the crux of the whole ques–
tion "Why does God hide Himself?"
Because God did reveal Himself.
lt
was man who hid. Man was the first
to play "hide-and-go-seek," and man
was the first to run and hide. As a
matter of fact, man has always bid–
den from God. Throughout history–
in every time and generation, no mat–
ter what the circumstance and situa–
t ion- whenever God has revealed
Himself to help men or nations, most
men and nations have crudely told
God: "Keep your (unprintable) nose
out of our (unprintable) business"–
and more often than not have backed
up that blasphemous insult by mur–
dering God's contemporary human
representative (Matt. 23:37).
This then is the purpose of our ar–
ticle: to ir refutably demonstrate that
man has always hidden from God–
and that God has not, does not, and
will not hide from man.
FromAdamdown through all history
to the present day and even on into the
future, man has and will resist God's
every revelation of Himself. Don' t just
believe us now. Make us prove that God
is always ready to reveal Himself to
man. And make us prove that man has
consciously and continuously hidden
himselffrom God.
Adam-The Prototype
God created Adamas His test case or
prototype for all mankind {the He-
28
brew word for "man" is
adam!) .
How
did the Creator make Adam His pro–
_totype? By putting the same kind of
human brain, spirit , and nature in
Adamas He would subsequently put
in all other human beings. Therefore,
God knew that Adam would react to
a given situation in the same general
manner as every other human being
in generations to come. As Adam
went so all mankind would go.
Now let's widen our field of view.
Let's look down the corridors of time
and generations of societies-and ob–
serve man's consistent repudiation of
God. God hiding Himself from man?
Hardly! It 's been just the reverse!
Pre- and Poat·Fiood Worlda
The pre- Flood world teemed with
wickedness and overflowed with vio–
Jence-Genesis 6:5 is unique in its
poetic portrayal of the prodigious de–
pravity of man. Yet the world knew
God!
It was only ten generations from
Adam to Noah-and human beings
had a nine-generation life span! Fur–
thermore, NQah was a preacher of
righteousness ( 11 Pet. 2:5). For the
120 years during which his servants
built the Ark, Noah himself pro–
claimed God's warning witness. The
world heard Noah and the world
knew God-but the world despised
Noah and the world rejected God.
The entire human race at that time
"had [knowingly] corrupted his way
upon the earth" (Gen. 6:12).
Little more than 100 years later,
man once more renounced God's reve–
lation and leadership. Man didn't
want to be distributed around the
world as God directed Noah (Gen.
11 :4), so man built for himself a huge
tower as a rallying
poi~;tt
to thwart
God. There was no excuse-all had
heard the heinous firsthand accounts
of the monstrous pre- Flood world and
all could see the still fresh evidence of
God's wrath. All knew God's servant
Noah- and all flouted him.
Israel Habltually Rejected God
We think of ancient Israel as God's
"chosen people." Yet God's revela–
tion of Himself to Israel (and to no
other nation) many a time was met
with rebuff and rebellion.
Israel cursed Moses for trying to
free them (Ex. 5:21 ). They told
Moses to " let us alone, that we may
serve the Egyptians" (Ex. 14: 12). ls- •
rae! didn't want to leave Egypt and
serve God- they loved the idols and
abominations of Egypt too much
(Ezek. 20:8)- so God had to pry Is–
rael loose by pouring out His devas–
tating plagues. Even after witnessing
the supernatural ferocity of these
plagues, God's "chosen people"
wanted to return to Egypt (Ex.
14:10-12).
With the victory celebration of
God 's spect acu la r destruction of
Pharaoh's army still ringing in their
ears, "the people murmured against
Moses" because the waters of Marah
were bitter (Ex. 15:23-24). Even af–
ter God had made these waters
sweet, Israel again murmured, in–
credibly preferring to have died in
Egypt with bellies full of meat and
bread than to have obeyed God (Ex.
16:3). After receiving all the meat
they could eat, Israel broke the Sab–
bath in an effort to get more (Ex.
16:27-28) . Once more Israel got thir–
sty and this time they were ready to
stone Moses (Ex. 17:4).
And, as unbelievable as it sounds,
after all they had seen with their own
eyes, they asked, " ls the Lord among
us, or not?" (Ex.
17:7)~r,
in other
words, "Why is God hiding?"
God answered that question in His
glory on Mt. Sinai. "And all the
people saw the thunderings, and the
lightnings, and the noise of the trum–
pet, and the mountain smoking" (E.x.
20: 18). Here was God "coming out of
hiding"-here was God "finally" re–
vealing Himself.
But what happened? "And when
the people saw it, they removed, and
stood afar off. And they said unto
Moses, Speak thou with us, and we
will hear: but let not God speak with
us, lest we die" (Ex. 20:18, 19).
A short time later Israel reasoned
that "Moses, the rnan" (Ex. 32: 1)
had brought them out of Egypt-and
since he was rnissing, the Egyptian
gods had better be reactivated to su–
pervise their orgy (Ex. 32:1-6). After
once more receiving God's stern cor–
rection, and with the knowledge of
God's continuous revelation and awe–
some power filling their rninds, an–
cient Israel rnutinied on the threshold
The PLAIN TRUTH March 1979