Divine hiddenness or lack of clear or direct communication on God’s part has been a reason many question if there is a God or if God truly loves. Parents don’t hide from a child who is seeking their love and comfort. I have written a great deal on this topic so I am hoping to summarize the main reasons God may communicate the way God does.
God may communicate more clearly than we realize.
We only need to look inwardly as to how to be in family, work, or other relationships. We often don’t take risks telling our friends that something bothers us about them but gossip to others. How do you wish your friends would treat you if something was bothering them about you? We hate when our partner turns their desires into expectations, but then we act the same to our partners. God is considered a sexual killjoy but come to find out God only advises what we sense about commitment, lust, adultery, etc.
God often doesn’t need to communicate as we are free to make our own decisions.
God gives us a sense of morality for our own good, but then sets us free to follow our desires. The future isn’t already determined, making freedom an illusion. God’s plan is not a detailed blueprint but a general one to set us free to love. Controlling love is an oxymoron. Just ask older children! We are free to choose paths at this time in life based on past experiences, current circumstances, and future aspirations. There are many ways to do all the good we can, to all the people we can, as long as we can.
God’s direct communication doesn’t always produce the results we may think.
God dropped manna from the sky to help a nation survive in the wilderness and separated the Red Sea to escape one’s enemy, but the Israelites still did not believe or at least put their total trust in God. God even came in person but Jesus’ miracles did not obtain the results some may suggest if God would stop hiding.
God’s overpowering presence in our lives may only lead to consuming guilt or brief obligations to obey.
God’s lack of interference may allow us to make heart-felt, lasting choices. God’s invisibility may be out of uncontrolling love than cruelness. God’s interference and presence might prevent a superior world from emerging as a result of limiting the moral development and improvement of free creatures to make independent choices.
What we do with the communication we have than lack of communication may be the main problem.
God supposedly communicated through the Bible but that has led to divisiveness through tens of thousands of denominations. Imagine if religions discovered what they shared in common and allowed differences to be between that person and God. Certainty rather than accepting of differences only leads to pushing “supposed truths” onto others. What if churches combined their resources thus wasting less physical and emotional resources?
Communication can be excessive.
Constant communications can become confrontational. Convictions aren’t taught but caught. Convictions develop over time in one’s own time. I could have been told in the beginning that marriage isn’t about being right but flexible, but I would have still had problems. Relationships can’t be declared, they must evolve. The journey of learning, reflecting, and accepting convictions that last over time is unavoidable.
God’s invisibility and current communicative ways may be out of uncontrolling love than hiddenness.
God didn’t predetermine the future so God could dictate to us our choices. Don’t we know enough from God in terms of our relationships and what is better for the world? Perhaps we need less communication and more dependence on God for help in carrying out our convictions.
What God May Really Be Like - Misbeliefs About God 