Articles
Hide-n-Seek
Hide-n-Seek
Dwayne Butler
When I was a little boy, me and my cousins had several games we would always play when we got together at a family outing. One was freeze tag. The other, of course, was hide and go seek. Hide and go seek was always one of my favorites. If you don’t know the rules it is pretty simple. You have one person who counts anywhere from 20-100. While that person is counting, all of the rest goes to find a really good hiding spot (some not so good). I can remember one time me and my cousin Jason stuck my cousin Jamie Lynn in the deep freezer that sat on the back porch at my grandparents’ house. When her parents heard her banging on the lid of the deep freeze, they weren’t too happy when they found out about it. Nonetheless, when you are young, and you don’t have a lot of money, hide and seek turned out to be a lot of fun for us.
But did you know that there were several in the Bible who tried to play hide and seek from God? Now, before we go any further, we have to realize that not one person has ever hidden from God and gotten away with it (Hebrews 4:13). Further, this game of hide and seek started a long time before any of us ever knew anything about it, spiritually speaking. Take for instance, the first two people. Adam and Eve were created by God, placed in a beautiful garden, and they were given everything that any two people could have ever needed. However, as we are wont to do, they wanted more. And wouldn’t you know it, Satan was right there to help them along (Genesis 3:1-6). After Satan deceived them into disobeying God, the Bible says, “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. Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” (Genesis 3:8-9).
Continue reading, and it turns out that God knew exactly where they were the entire time. Also, remember the story of Jonah. When Jonah was given a commission from God, for whatever reason, he deliberately disobeyed God and did exactly the opposite of what God said. I’m not sure why, but I have always found some humor in this verse: “But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord” (Jonah 1:3). I always like to insert “so he thought” when it says that Jonah ran “from the presence of the Lord.” Next thing you know, the ship was about to be broken from the storm that God caused to happen. Countless other examples could be cited. Achan tried to hide from God (Joshua 7). David tried his very best to cover up his adultery with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11). Neither were successful.
Now I realize that we may not be as blatant as any of these when it comes to trying to hide our sins from God, but I still think we try to use that same reasoning. We may think if the preacher or elders don’t know about our sins, then no one does. Children may think it’s a secret because momma or daddy doesn’t know it. Parents may think it’s a secret because the children don’t know it. David once said, “O God, it is You who knows my folly, And my wrongs are not hidden from You” (Psalm 69:5). We cannot play hide and seek with God. We can’t hide what is going on in our homes...we can’t hide what is happening at work...we can’t hide what is happening at school...we can’t hide what is happening on our computer or cell phones...and we can’t even hide your thoughts (Mark 2:8). God knows...and we should live our lives accordingly. He has caught every soul who tried to play hide and seek with Him (2 Corinthians 5:10; Ecclesiastes 12:14).
