A main frustration or accusation against God is that if they truly had one’s best interest in mind, God would be more visible or at least communicate their message more clearly. Direct communication though may not always be the best communication style. When parents encounter constant rolling of the eyes, confrontation or directness can just push your child further away.
It isn’t obvious that direct communication always has desired results.
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 God. God even came in person but Jesus’ miracles did not obtain the results suggested if God would stop hiding. It seems outward displays often only lead to cries for shortcuts that stunt moral growth.
Direct communication still requires interpretation.
Two people hear the same voice and come away with different meanings. Jesus spoke directly yet if was if He was speaking a foreign language to some. God through Jesus used to turn the other cheek as a metaphor to stop the cycle of revenge, but some have interpreted that as women should not protect themselves against violent men.
Direct communication could be perceived as confrontational than loving.
God’s overpowering presence in our lives could lead to consuming guilt or brief obligations to obey rather than heart-felt, lasting choices. 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. Convictions aren’t preached but caught. The road traveled of learning, reflecting, and freely choosing convictions over time may be the best journey.
Is it possible God has communicated more than we may think?
How do we best explain a universal desire to treat others like we want to be treated except possible a personal external force communicating through our moral intuitions? There is agreement on most moral matters. We know God’s moral advice for our own good because of such intuitions. God, as any loving parent, gives us the freedom to make amoral decisions based on past experiences, current circumstances, and future aspirations. God isn’t keeping information hidden, as if the future is already determined making freedom an illusion. Even an all-knowing God can’t know an unknowable future. We are asking what God wants us to do; God is asking what we want to do.
God’s invisibility and current communicative ways may be out of uncontrolling love.
If God pushed themselves on us from the beginning we may simply reject and never turn back. God communicated through our moral intuitions can allow the freedom necessary to make genuine, long-lasting decisions for our own good. God may be in the most loving ways constantly persuading and seeking to empower us to do all the good we can, for all the people we can, with the opportunities and gifts we possess.
What God May Really Be Like - Misbeliefs About God 