Does God ever hide from us? (Hosea 5:6)
5 Israel’s arrogance testifies against them;
the Israelites, even Ephraim, stumble in their sin;
Judah also stumbles with them.
6 When they go with their flocks and herds
to seek the Lord,
they will not find him;
he has withdrawn himself from them.
Hosea 5:6
ESV - 6 With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the Lord, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them.
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Asked February 11 2020
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Jack Gutknecht
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Tim Maas
God cannot accommodate the abiding existence of sin or evil in His presence. I am reminded of the expulsion of Satan from heaven (Luke 10:18), as well as of the darkness that descended on the earth at the time that Jesus was crucified (Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44), when He was bearing the penalty for the sins of all humanity from eternity past to eternity future, and God the Father could not look on Him. The same thing happened to King Saul, when God would not answer him by any of the normal means of consulting Him (1 Samuel 28:6) because of his disobedience, to the point where Saul even went to a medium in an attempt to discern God's will, which further compounded his sin and guilt. God is always accessible to those who seek Him in humility and with a consciousness of their own transgressions, rather than depending (as in the verse cited in the question) on adherence to prescribed ritual in the absence of sorrow over their wrongdoing. Any seeming "hiddenness" on His part is a consequence of unconfessed and unrepented sin that humans have committed.
Jack Gutknecht
Is God hiding? God Himself asks us this question through the prophet Jeremiah. “‘Am I a God near at hand,’ says the LORD, ‘And not a God afar off? Can anyone hide himself in secret places, so I shall not see him?’ says the LORD; ‘Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ says the LORD” (Jeremiah 23:23-24). There is no hiding from God (Job 34:22; Psa 139:7-12) and no escape from his judgment (Amos 9:2-4).
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