We may Hide, but God Seeks--by Linden Malki

The first reaction to the first breakdown between God and His creatures is that they hid. Why they thought that would accomplish anything is not clear--it seems like such a trivial thing. They knew, however, that the bite of the fruit wasn't the point--the issue at hand was obedience.  This was also the point of the offerings that Cain and Abel made--Abel had made the effort of doing what God had asked, and Cain apparently didn't bother, and then took it out on Abel--and then tried to avoid admitting it,  and was banished; he was marked and then banished from God's presence.

There were times that God hid Himself from people; in cases where people had rejected Him the relationship was destroyed.  Most often, though, it was God who chose  the people who He had plans for: Noah, whose contemporaries were so disobedient to God that He made that separation permanent; and the Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph who were called to be the ancestors of a nation. God revealed Himself to Moses and Joshua, and they were called to lead God's people out of captivity to a Promised Land (with a few glitches on the way). The next few centuries were tough, as the people were learning to become a nation; there was a century where the tribes did build a thriving society, and then it fell apart. The Northern tribes rebelled. and were absorbed by the Assyrians and a whole string of later empires, and only a few Samaritans kept a thin thread of knowledge of God alive to this day.  The Southern Kingdom, where the royal line of David lasted a few more centuries, with their relationship marked by high and low times; to a point where the words of God that had survived in hiding were found in the Temple, and kept the traditions and laws alive. What is amazing is that as forgetful and evil that people have been, God has never allowed them to be totally lost, without hope. The survival of the Jews through the Greek and Roman centuries and then exile for 1900 years, and the survival of the Church from a few followers who spent various stretches under persecution to a community that has touched a good percentage of today's world, are reminders that God has not forgotten His people, no matter how rough times have been. 

We need to remember that God has never forgotten, even when we as human beings have treated each other badly and have been forced into hiding, both as communities and as individuals. It may be tempting to just lay low, not make waves; and that has been appropriate in some times and places. In this past century, both the Jewish community and the Church have been driven into hiding in some times and places; but it looks like God's not through with us yet.