Hide and Seek

I've been pondering Isaiah 45 these past two days.  Isaiah is naming Cyrus, king of Persia, as God's anointed.  Cyrus is called and armed "though you do not know me."  Cyrus will rebuild Jerusalem and set the exiles free.  Isaiah says that the nations will recognize God.

Then he says, "Truly, you are a God who hides himself (sic)."

I'm totally baffled by this.  If God hides herself, how do the nations know that she is the one responsible for what has happened?  Is it because Israel's fortunes have been restored, so therefore Israel's God must be the power at work?  But why should the nations believe that?  It could be that, just as Israel's God uses Cyrus, some other god wants to lift up Israel.  And if this is a God who hides, why is s/he proclaiming herself here?  The whole thing seems twisted somehow.

I'm not being irreverent.  I'm just curious.  I love that God uses even those who aren't seeking her.  I believe that, I see that, I delight in it.  But I don't believe it because the events make it so clear.  We are always interpreting, always reading through lenses.  I see and believe because - because I do.  The "evidence" that I find around me does not convince my atheist neighbor, or my Hindu one or my Buddhist friend.  It doesn't convince my Jewish or Muslim neighbor that Jesus is the Christ, part of the Godhead.  Isaiah in fact has to spell it out for people precisely because it's not so self-evident.  Isaiah hands us the lenses to see God at work in Cyrus, to encourage Cyrus to act as the Messiah of Israel.  God is indeed hidden, shrouded in mystery.

Here is where I notice another passage in chapter 45.  "Woe to you who strive with your maker, earthen vessels with the potter!  Does the clay say to the one who fashions it, "What are you making?" or "Your work has no handles?"  Well, no.  Whatever God is up to, it remains a mystery.  It is not up to me, or to anyone, to pronounce so definitively on God's plan.  I can tell you what I believe.  I can stand for it, stake my life on it.  I do.  But I can't "prove" it.  That's not my place.

Perhaps God hides so that we will have the delight of seeking, and God delights in watching us seek. I don't even "know" that, but I like to think it.  Perhaps rather than a desperate move toward salvation, our quest for God is more of a game.

Where are you, God?  Let's play.