TEXTS AND APPLICATION: I remember one of my favorite hiding places as a boy: in the closet in the toy room, under a pile of toys. I don’t know why I assumed no one would find me there, especially after hiding there the first time — but I did. For some reason, I thought no one knew where I would always hide. Seems silly now….
Well, it seems silly until I think about how often over the years I thought I was “getting away with” something before God. I may have been silly as a boy, but it’s sillier — foolish even — for an adult to think he can hide from God. We know that, and yet we still try to do it.
The false prophets in Jeremiah’s day were just that silly. Listen to God’s response to their silliness:
Jer. 23:23-24 “Am I a God who is only near”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and not a God who is far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places where I cannot see him?”—the Lord’s declaration. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?”—the Lord’s declaration.
The God of the Bible is not a God who is only near, that is, like the pagan gods who were thought to be limited to their temples and from whom people could hide. Instead, He is the God of the universe who resides everywhere. No one can hide from Him; He is all-seeing. He can find me in my secret places, yet He is also the One who fills the heavens and the earth. He is everywhere — which includes any place I run. How foolish I am to ever think He does not know my heart or see my wrong.
Yet, God so loves us that He seeks us in our hiding places so He alone might become our hiding place (Psalm 32:7). He finds us in our running so we might rest in Him. What grace! And what a reminder that staying in our supposed hiding place is, frankly, dumb.
PRAYER: “Father of heaven and earth, remind me daily that I cannot hide from you. Let me come out of hiding and instead hide in You as my refuge and my rock.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Jeremiah 26-29
