Why Do We Hide From God?: The Apostle Paul wrote,
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
When we sin, we break fellowship with God and in doing so, we either confess our sins and seek His forgiveness, or we hide under the bed and hope that God forgets about it.
Adam and Eve disobeyed God when they ate of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They knew they did wrong and when God called for them, they hid. When asked why they replied, “Because we were naked.” They covered themselves with fig leaves.
God answered, “Who told you you were naked?” In a utopia, with perfect temperatures, nothing to harm them, they had no need for coverings. But they felt shame. God killed an animal and used the skins to give them coverings. Everything changed from that moment on.
We know what is right and wrong
Humans have an innate sense of right and wrong put there by God their creator. Knowing that they sinned against God, Adam and Eve were looking for somewhere to hide their shame. It’s no different now.
King David, the writer of most of the Psalms, did his share of sinning. He was hand selected by God to be king of Israel, but he was hardly the perfect follower of God. David, even though he was chosen by God sinned, just as we all do. But David was also a man “after God’s own heart” and continues to serve as a mirror of us.
One of his sons, Solomon, succeeded him on the throne. Another one of his descendants would also take the throne of Israel and the entire world. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus would not have sons trying to kill Him for the crown, nor would He sin. Jesus is the only human who is/was completely sinless.
We often blame others when we feel shame for our actions
People react to their own shame differently. Some will deny it and if there is blame to be given, it is given to someone else. Of course, some will just deny it and leave it there to avoid facing it.
Most commonly, people will get angry and bluster about the injustice of being accused. Blame me? How dare they?! Then again, some folks might accept it, but fall apart. They beat themselves up for being such a horrible person, hoping that someone will try to comfort them by saying it’s not all that bad.
David accepted his shame he didn’t hide from God
David looked at his shortcomings straight in the face. When the prophet Samuel called him out for sending Bathsheba’s husband to certain death in battle, he didn’t deny it, but turned to God to repair their relationship.
Time and again David would experience the grace of God and be restored. He didn’t hide. David is a model for all of us how we should handle our shame when we sin.
God created us and wants a relationship with us
Let’s reason together. God created us. He desires the relationship with us. God gave His only Son to die on the cross for our sins. It is not His will that we hide. But rather, crawl up on his lap and say “forgive me.” Jesus spent His time on earth telling us to repent for our sin and shame. That’s what God is calling us to do.
We often hide from God because we are ashamed
God wants to forgive and He wants the relationship to be close will all of us. We hide because we’re ashamed. We may even lose faith because we stray from God, ignore His beckoning and the friendship fades.
It is a two-way street. We talk to God and He talks back. If we cut Him off, we try to justify our foolishness by claiming that God is wrong, or He doesn’t love us.
God sees everything. He knows everything. Why hide? He is loving and compassionate, which means that His relationship with each of us is a top priority. Repent and turn to Him. He is waiting for you in love!