Still Faithful When God Cannot Be Seen
To think that no one cares about what is happening to us is very
unpleasant. But to think that God does not know or care about us can
be most distressing.
To the Judaeans exiled in Babylon, God did not seem to care much
about their situation. They were still exiled, still feeling abandoned by
God because of their sin. But Isaiah speaks words of comfort to them.
Isaiah 40 is a beautiful passage in which Isaiah speaks so tenderly to the
people about their God: “He tends his flock like a shepherd: he gath-
ers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently
leads those that have young” (Isa. 40:11, NIV). But after so long, the
exiles were thinking, Where are You, O Lord? We can’t see any evidence
that You are still there—or care!
Read Isaiah 40:27–31. In what ways does Isaiah describe God? How is
this description of God meant to answer their belief that “ ‘my way
is hidden from the L ord ; my cause is disregarded by my God’ ” (Isa.
40:27, NIV)?
Another group of people who might have considered that their way
was hidden from God is found in the book of Esther. In this book, God
is not mentioned even once. However, the whole story is an unfolding
drama of God’s intervention to save His people from an irrevocable law
to have them destroyed. Not only does this story describe events of the
past, but it also symbolizes a time in the future when God’s people will
again be persecuted and a law again will be introduced for their destruc-
tion (Rev. 13:15). Can you imagine how easy it would be to conclude
that if such terrible circumstances existed, God must surely have deserted
His people? But we are not to fear. The same God who saved His chosen
ones in the story of Esther will save them again in the final crisis.
We have read how Isaiah described God to the exiles. How would
you describe God to people who felt that God had disappeared
and had abandoned them? How would you teach them to see
through the eyes of faith and not be dependent on what they see
around them with their human eyes?
