There is a childhood game that is very popular in the United States. It is called “hide and seek”. Perhaps it is popular where you live. In this game, one child hides his eyes and counts to ten or twenty. The other children run and find a spot to hide.
When the count is over, the child who was counting unveils his eyes and tries to find the hidden children. The first child that is “found” (discovered) now becomes the one who counts, and the game repeats. Children just LOVE this game! It costs no money and needs no “props”, only places where children can hide.
This game came to mind when coming up with a title for this post. However, we have titled this post “Hide OR seek” rather than “Hide AND seek”.
The Bible tells us that “Hide OR seek” is mankind’s two very different responses to God’s call. This is why “Many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14)
In the Beginning, Adam and Eve walked with God in the Garden of Eden. They fellowshipped with God, their Father and Creator in a beautiful, INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP. The first humans enjoyed God’s company and He enjoyed theirs.
Genesis 3:8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day,…
The anthropomorphic description of God “walking” (mithallek) in the garden suggests the enjoyment of fellowship between Him and our first parents (Adam and Eve). The adverbial phrase “in the cool of the day” (NIV, NASB, NJB) or “the breezy time of the day” (NJPS, NAB) translates the Hebrew phrase “wind [rûah] of the day.” The NRSV’s rendering makes the time more explicit, “at the time of the evening breeze” (also REB). – New American Commentary
The beautiful fellowship that Adam and Eve enjoyed with God in the Garden of Eden all changed when sin entered the garden.😈🐍
Mankind responds in one of two ways – HIDE OR SEEK
Most of mankind’s response to God – HIDE
Genesis 3:1: Now the serpent 🐍was more crafty 😈than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.
God warned Adam and Eve not to eat from this tree. This was the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. We believe that this “tree” is a metaphor to describe the WORLDVIEW that says, “WE HUMANS know better than GOD how to live our lives.” This antichrist worldview continues to govern MOST of the world’s population today. Even many Christians subscribe to this worldview and are eating off of this nasty tree, whether they realize it or not.
God WARNED Adam and Eve that this worldview would kill them. He continues to WARN US TODAY, but most people are not listening.
Like most of humanity, Adam and Eve chose to believe the lies of the serpent over the truth of God. The serpent was able to convince them that eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would make them wise and would not kill them. We KNOW this was a BOLDFACED LIE!
Through his LYING TONGUE, the serpent🐍 actually ACCUSED GOD OF DOING THE VERY THING HE WAS DOING…..LYING. This is how the enemy works. 😈 He ACCUSES OTHERS of doing the very thing that he himself is SECRETLY doing.
The minute Adam and Eve “ate” from this “tree”, they saw themselves in a different light. They were in open shame because they had disobeyed the one commandment that God, their Father, Creator, and Friend had given them – NOT to eat from that “tree”. God did not give them that commandment because he was a mean “overlord” who wanted to “spoil their fun”. He did not give them that commandment because He wanted to oppress them and keep them from “learning”. He gave them that commandment because He loved them and did NOT want them to die.
Adam and Eve DID EAT and their eyes that had been closed to the wiles of the devil, and open to God, were now open to the devil and closed to God.
Genesis 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves waist coverings.
Because of their shame and guilt Adam and Eve decided to sew fig leaves together in an attempt to cover themselves. I think we can all agree that FIG LEAVES are a completely inadequate clothing. 🌿A stiff breeze, a soaking rain, and they would be fully exposed once again. This is similar to how much of mankind thinks religion can cover sin.
“As Satan 😈🐍had promised them, their eyes were opened, although in a very different sense (than what they expected). Now, when it was too late, they saw the happiness they had fallen from, and the misery they were fallen into. 😭
“They saw God was provoked, his favor forfeited, and His image lost. They felt a disorder in their own spirits, of which they had never before been conscious. They saw a law in their members warring against the law of their minds and captivating them both to sin and wrath; they saw that they were naked.”😭😭
“— That is, that they were stripped, deprived of all the honors and joys of their paradise state, and exposed to all the miseries that might justly be expected from an angry God; laid open to the contempt and reproach of heaven, and earth, and their own consciences.” 😭😭😭
“And they sewed, or platted fig leaves together🌿 — And, to cover at least part of their shame one from another, made themselves aprons — See here what is commonly the folly of those that have sinned: they are more solicitous to save their credit before men, than to obtain their pardon from God!”- Benson Commentary
Adam and Eve tried to get back what they had lost, but it was too late. Their feeble attempt to clothe themselves with fig leaves was as ridiculous and inadequate as mankind’s attempt to cover his own sin through religious observances or “good works”. It will NEVER be ENOUGH to restore what was LOST in the Garden of Eden.
Because of Adam and Eve’s transgression and fear of angering God, they HID from God. This was their natural reaction to their own sin and shame. They HID from God. Isn’t that what we tend to do when we know we have done wrong? We do our best to hide from the consequences of our own actions, going through incredible lengths just to cover our tracks so that “nobody will know”. We may be able to hide our sins from other people, but we CANNOT HIDE from GOD.
Genesis 3:8 Now they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
An example of this can be found in the Biblical story of David and Bathsheba. In this story King David committed adultery with the beautiful Bathsheba and she became pregnant. Because Bathsheba’s husband Uriah had been away serving in the military at the time of conception, it would quickly become known that her husband could not have fathered her child.
In order to “cover his tracks”, David commanded Bathsheba’s husband Uriah to the front line of the army during a very heated battle. David did this so that Uriah would be killed in battle. If Uriah were killed, nobody would know that Bathsheba’s husband was not the father of her child. David had a man killed in order to HIDE/cover up his own sin.
Since the first sin of Adam and Eve, mankind’s natural response to God is to HIDE from Him because deep down we KNOW that we have sinned against Him. Even the atheist is hiding from God, whether he/she knows it or not. They have simply deceived themselves into believing that God doesn’t exist so that they won’t have to face Him (or so they think). This is just another form of hiding from God.
Adam and Eve soon discovered that you CAN’T hide from God. It is not possible. God is omniscient and omnipresent. There is no place to hide that He cannot SEE.
Genesis 3:9: Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
The Lord God called out to Adam and Eve…”Where are you”…but He KNEW. He always knew. He knew before He created them and set them in the Garden. God knew.
Hebrews 4:13: And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom we must answer.
Jeremiah 23:24:
“Can a man hide himself in hiding places
So I do not see him?” declares the Lord.
“Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord.
Even at the time of the end, much of mankind will try to hide from God. God declares the end out of the beginning, from ancient times the things that are yet to happen.
Jesus Christ Himself told us that the world (most people) will RUN from the Light (Jesus Christ/Holy Bible) because they do NOT want their evil deeds exposed. They PREFER to HIDE in DARK caves, bunkers and underground holes…. than have their WICKED DEEDS exposed by the light!
Revelation 6:16: and they *said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the sight of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;
The truth is…ALL THINGS are EXPOSED BY THE light. 💡 Everything HIDDEN will be REVEALED whether we want it to…or not.
John 3:19: And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, 💡✝️and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. 😈20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed.
Luke 12:2: or there is nothing covered up, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.
Ephesians 5:13: But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.
Hiding our sin and shame is NOT POSSIBLE before a Holy, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent God. It is foolishness to try to hide from the One who gives us breath every day.
But there IS ANOTHER WAY! SEEK GOD while He may be found!
John 3:21: But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light💡, so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in God.”
Our deeds are going to be exposed whether we like it or not. However, those who practice truth actually run TOWARDS the light SO THAT their deeds will be revealed. Why? Because their deeds are performed “in Christ”, meaning that Christ was WITH THEM/IN THEM when they performed them. These people who practice TRUTH are looking for a HEAVENLY REWARD, not punishment or condemnation.
Romans 8:1: There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
WE CAN’T HIDE FROM GOD! It is futile!!! Instead, we should make peace with our Maker and RUN TO GOD! Jesus WANTS a RELATIONSHIP with us! Jesus came to RESTORE what we lost in the Garden of Eden.
We get to choose – HIDE OR SEEK!
Rather than HIDE from God, NOW is the time to SEEK HIM. God PROMISES us that when we SEEK HIM (YHWH/JESUS CHRIST/HOLY SPIRIT) with all our HEART...we will FIND HIM!
Jeremiah 29:13: And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
God is not looking for sinless perfection. God does not want us to make futile attempts to cover our own sin with worthless fig leaves. (religious observances). God wants our HEART. 💖God Himself will cleanse our sins and wash them away in His precious blood that was shed on the Cross for You and for me. ✝️
1 John 1:8: If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Romans 4:7: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven,
And whose sins have been covered.
8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.”
We don’t have to HIDE ANYMORE!! It’s not possible anyway! Jesus Christ (God wrapped in the likeness of human flesh) CAME TO RESTORE what was LOST in the Garden of Eden!
All we have to do is CONFESS our sins before God in PRAYER…and ask Him to FORGIVE OUR SINS by ACCEPTING Jesus Christ as LORD and SAVIOR. As soon as we do this and MEAN IT with all our heart, God will FORGIVE OUR SINS and CLEANSE US. At this point, we can stand before God as though we had NEVER SINNED!
Whatever we have done in the past can be washed away with the blood of Jesus. ✝️Through accepting Jesus Christ as SAVIOR and LORD…we get a NEW START! God wants to give us a NEW HEART! In-fact, THROUGH JESUS CHRIST we can now SEARCH FOR GOD with all of our hearts so that we can finally have a REAL RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM!
How do we SEEK GOD? We seek TRUTH!
- Repent and TURN from all sins confessing them to the Father in prayer
- Receive Christ’s FORGIVENESS OF ALL SIN! – Christ our SAVIOR! ✝️
- Make Jesus Christ LORD of OUR LIFE! This means live life God’s way, not our own way – WALK by the SPIRIT, not by the FLESH.
- Receive the GIFT of the Holy Spirit🕊️ who is GIVEN to ALL BORN AGAIN BELIEVERS
- Read and study the Bible (Word of God) to learn HOW to live for God. Holy Spirit will be our teacher and guide.
- Find a Bible believing, spirit filled Church
- Spend time in PRAYER!
Although we titled this post “HIDE OR SEEK”, a name that is similar to the popular children’s game “HIDE AND SEEK”…What we are speaking about is NOT a game. This is TRUTH and TIME IS SHORT!
I believe that whether people know it or not, deep down WE ALL desire to have a real RELATIONSHIP with our Creator who has always known us and has always loved us. There is a hole in our heart that can only be filled by God. The problem is that most of us attempt to fill this hole with so many other things like alcohol, sex, drugs, money, people, vanity, and all other types of idols. These idols can never fulfill, and will only make the hole bigger, the depression deeper, the anxiety greater.
As a Word of encouragement, when my son was younger, he had a desire to know the truth. My son searched for love, for God in all the wrong places. He even looked into all different types of religions. He quickly discovered where God was NOT. So, he kept searching. To be honest, he didn’t even realize he was searching for God. He was just searching for truth, for the meaning of life, for something he didn’t quite understand. But God honored his desire to know the truth.
My son had a dream of Jesus Christ whose face was shining like the sun. In this dream my son was shown Heaven, and he was shown Hell. Needless to say, he is now a changed man. My son now knows the truth and the truth has set him FREE!
HALLELUJAH!!!🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
God may give you a dream of Jesus, or He may not. God does not speak to all of His children in exactly the same way. But He has promised that if you seek Him with all of your heart, you will FIND HIM.
My son recently told me…..”My heart is safe with Jesus”. 💖 And it is!
Oh, and my son was shown that the Lord is coming back SOON!!! Be READY!!!
How to be saved – Life in a Dying World
