Seeing that the Hiding God Secretly takes care of His People and Openly Saves Them

The book of Esther shows us a vivid record of how the hiding God of Israel secretly took care of His oppressed elect in their dispersion and openly saved His persecuted elect in their captivity; the hidden God cares for us and saves us even today, though He conceals Himself.

We human beings are made in the image of God and according to His likeness, and we resemble Him so that we may express Him.

However, even though God created the universe, the heavens, the earth, and all things in them, He hid Himself in His creation.

It is not easy to find God today; He is there, He is very present, and the whole creation displays His majesty, but He is concealed, hidden.

It seems that the personality of God is diametrically opposed to our personality. We want to be expressed and manifested, and we don’t like to be hidden or concealed.

The more expressed we are, the more we express ourselves, the happier we are.

With God, however, things are very different; He hides Himself and does not like outward manifestations.

Even when people challenge Him, He is not easily provoked; He will not manifest His glory unless He wants to.

God’s character is such that He likes to keep Himself hidden. He does many wonderful things, but He never likes to manifest Himself.

He arranges many situations, people, and circumstances in our life to work out for good, for we love Him; however, He is a hiding God, for we cannot easily see Him.

It is only when we look back at our history and the things we went through that we realize that it was God who did this, it was Him who arranged that, and it was God who allowed such and such thing to happen.

Because the character of God is to be hidden, concealed, and not outwardly manifested, the divine disposition constitutes a great trial and test to us.

We may want God to do something for us or we may think that He needs to do a particular matter, and we may even stand on His word to ask Him to do what He wants to do, yet He would not do it in our time or in our way.

We need to realize that, if we study the Scriptures carefully, God has a particular kind of temperament: He doesn’t like ostentation but rather, He likes to work in secret rather than openly.

When the Lord Jesus spoke the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens in Matt. 5-7 He said that we, as children of our heavenly Father, should seek our God in secret, give alms in secret, do our righteousness in secret, and pray in secret, for the Father who sees in secret will repay us (Matt. 6:1-8).

Our Christian life is a life lived before our Father in secret, not in an outward, ostentatious, and showy way.

We should not show off what we have, what we know, what we can do, or what God has done for us; rather, we need to know the hidden character of our God and be one with Him to live a life in secret before Him, without any display of our spirituality or knowledge.

May the Lord have mercy on us that we may know God as the hidden God, the hiding God, the God who conceals Himself, and may we learn from Him and be one with Him in this aspect.

How the Hiding God Secretly Takes Care of His People and Openly Saves Them

In the Old Testament, we see that God chose a person, Abraham, and He chose his descendants, to be His people, a people set apart unto God to be His treasure, His personal possession, and His dwelling place and expression.

However, the people of Israel did not obey God nor did they keep His word; rather, they became degraded and rotten, and God disciplined and punished them by handing them over as slaves to the Gentile nations.

However, even in His severity, there is mercy (Rom. 11:22), for while they were in captivity among the nations, God was there, taking care of them in a hidden way.

Just imagine, as the people of Israel were scattered and dispersed among the nations in the Babylonian Empire, they must have told the others about Jehovah their God, and these, in turn, must have asked them, Where is Your God – and are you sure He’s living, for you are here in captivity, even in slavery?

Yes, God was there with them, but He was hiding; He was working in secret to help them.

The hiding God secretly takes care of His people and openly saves them.

We see this in a vivid way in the book of Esther, where the name of God is not mentioned even once, though we clearly see how He was working in secret to care for His people and how He openly saved them.

While the people of Israel were in captivity, dispersed among the nations and in slavery, God was taking care of them in a hidden way.

Then, at the right time, He came in openly to save them.

When they were at the bottom, in their lowest situation, but even there, Christ was among them, suffering with them (Zech. 1:7-17).

Yes, God had to discipline His people, for they were rebellious and disobedient, so He used the Gentile nations as tools to do so.

However, the hiding God was with the people of Israel throughout all these things, caring for them.

God used the Medo-Persian Empire to overthrow the Babylonian Empire, and Cyrus, the king of Persia, cooperate with God and was even called God’s shepherd, for he fulfilled God’s desire (Isa. 44:28) and served God’s purpose (45:1-4).

The hiding God did many things for His elect, the people of Israel, in a secret way.

If you read the book of Esther you see a vivid record of how the hiding God of Israel took care secretly of His oppressed elect in their dispersion and saved openly His persecuted elect in their captivity.

The crucial point of this book is that the very God who chose Israel, the descendants of Abraham, as His elect, after He gave them into captivity to the Gentile nations, became a hidden God to them to take care of them secretly and save them openly while acting in secrecy.

Truly, God is One who hides Himself, as Isaiah exclaimed in Isa. 45:15.

This is the reason that the book of Esther does not mention the name of God even in places where the name of God should be mentioned (Esther 4:3, 16).

The hiding God did many things for His people Israel, but He did it all in secret.

He established a top king in the Gentile world in power over a great empire extending from India to Ethiopia (1:1-2).

Then, the hiding God caused the top king to depose his queen because of her disobedience to his word (3-22).

He had a big banquet and wanted to present his queen to his nobles and high officials, so he asked her to come before him wearing the royal crown.

However, she disobeyed him; so he deposed her, and there was a search for a new queen.

In His secret care, the hiding God raised up Esther, a Jewish orphan virgin, to be crowned by the top king as his queen (2:1-18).

What are the chances of this, that a Jewish woman would become the queen of the whole empire? God arranged all this in secret, for the hiding God was secretly caring for His people.

Then, when an evil leader in the kingdom wanted to destroy and wipe out all the Jewish people in one day, God used Esther to openly save her people.

Her uncle told her, Who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this (Esth. 4:14)?

The name of God was not used, but it is clearly God who arranged all these things, for the hiding God secretly takes care of His people and openly saves them for the fulfilment of His purpose.

He gave Esther favour in the eyes of the king, for she went before him without being called, and He gave her favour that the king would grant her wish that her people would not be wiped out by the evil leader in the kingdom.

When we read the book of Esther, we cannot but be filled with appreciation for the hiding God and with faith in Him, for He is concealed, yet He secretly works to save us and bring us to the fulfilment of His purpose.

Lord, grant us to see how the hiding God secretly takes care of His chosen people and openly saves them when they are persecuted and in captivity. May we realize that our God is concealed and hidden, yet He works behind the scenes to save us, transform us, conform us to the image of Christ, and bring us to maturity. Thank You, Lord, for all Your secret care and open salvation. We believe into You and, even though we cannot see You with our eyes, we love You and trust in You. Thank You for being our hidden God who comes in, again and again, to care for us secretly and save us openly while acting in secrecy. We give ourselves to You. We trust in Your inner operation and outward arrangement. Do in us what You need to do. Gain in us what You need to gain. Keep our being open to You. We love You, Lord!

Today God is Hiding Himself, and the God whom we Serve Hides Himself when He’s Helping us

The hidden nature of God, His hiddenness, is a test to us in our Christian life. We read the Bible, especially the Old Testament, and we see how God did so many great things for His people, and we may want God to do great things for us also.

But even as He operated in the Old Testament, so He does today: He hides Himself, and even when He does things for us or helps us, He does it in a hidden way.

He’s not ostentatious or showy in His doings, and He doesn’t want us to make sure that we know that He is doing what He is doing.

He doesn’t need our acceptance, agreement, or appreciation; He does things according to His purpose and heart’s desire, and all things work out for good for us, whether we see it, agree with it, or accept it.

During the years of the captivity of the children of Israel, God was hiding, and today He is still hiding.

Even today, in the church age, God is hiding Himself (Isa. 45:15).

He arranges many things to happen, He is in control of the world situation, and even in our personal universe, He does many things, yet in all these things, God hides Himself.

The omnipotent God whom we are serving is still hiding Himself; He does this especially when He is helping us (Isa. 8:17).

He only wants us to keep our being open to Him and allow Him to be God.

We think we know what we need and we may have a list of things we want, but God knows best what we need and what we really want.

As long as we remain open to Him and allow Him to be God, even to be the hidden God whom we serve, we will be content with God and Him alone.

We cannot see God and, apparently, He may not be doing many things for us; actually, He’s with us and in us all the time, in a hidden way, and He’s doing many things in us and for us.

For example, with the current war in Ukraine, there was a brother who was right there, on the front line and called his wife to say goodbye, for he knew he was going to be on the front line of attack, so he may not make it.

The wife then called another sister and some other saints, and prayer was made fervently concerning the brother; his life was spared, for the Lord worked to protect him.

The hidden God surely is working on these dear ones, especially those on the front line of war, and He is secretly operating to take care of the refugees in Europe.

We only need to pray and be joined to the Lord in His desire, and He will do what is in His heart – yet in a secret way, in a way that is not showy or newsworthy to be published in the media.

The real news is what God is doing in a secret, hidden way; He does the greatest work in the universe by working in the environment and situation of His people and also in their being to fulfil His purpose.

And though we do not see God nor do we sense that a divine presence is in us, we know that He is there as the hidden God to help us and work out what is in His heart.

In the work of building up the church, which the Lord is doing in a hidden, secret way, in the depths of His people’s being, He is slowly and surely working Himself into our being to obtain the Body of Christ, His corporate expression.

Both in the Old and in the New Testament, our God was and is hiding, and He does many things for us and in us, yet in a hidden way.

Thank You, God, for always being there with us and for us. Thank You for being the omnipotent God whom we serve. We trust in You and we love You. Though we cannot see You and apparently You are not doing anything for us, we know that You are the hidden God who does many things in us and for us. Amen, Lord, thank You for Your tender care for us; thank You for Your salvation day by day. Thank You for all our circumstances and the environment we are in. We want to keep our being open to You so that You may gain in us what You are after. Gain our cooperation in what You are doing in us and for us.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by Ron Kangas in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Esther, msgs. 1-2 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther (2022 winter training), week 12, entitled, A God who Hides Himself – the Hidden God.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – The intrinsic revelation of the books of history in the Old Testament from Joshua to Esther, a portion from, Life-Study of 1 & 2 Kings, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee.
  – Hidden or prominent, heart or policy, a portion from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 1) Vol. 07: The Christian (5), Chapter 23, by Watchman Nee.
  – Becoming a person who knows the Triune God, an article by Ron Kangas in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Esther Program 2: The Open Salvation of the Hiding God in Secrecy, watch the life-study of the Bible radio broadcast.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – God moves in a mysterious way / His wonders to perform: / He plants His footsteps in the sea, / And rides upon the storm. / Deep in unfathomable mines / Of never-failing skill, / He treasures up His bright designs, / And works His sovereign will. (Hymns #675 stanzas 1-2)
  – Thou hidden love of God, whose height, / Whose depth unfathomed no man knows, / I see from far Thy beauteous light, / Inly I sigh for Thy repose; / My heart is pained, nor can it be / At rest, till it finds rest in Thee. / Thy secret voice invites me still / The sweetness of Thy yoke to prove; / And fain I would: but though my will / Seems fixed, yet wide my passions rove; / Yet hindrances strew all the way; / I aim at Thee, yet from Thee stray. (Hymns #423 stanzas 1-2)
  – Praying always in the spirit / Is the secret we are told! / In the spirit, God to contact, / Is the secret we must hold! (Hymns #780 chorus)