He “hides” when we have turned from Him.

I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.

Isaiah 8:17

This commitment to wait for the Lord is part of a bigger message the prophet Isaiah received from the Lord and proclaimed to God’s people. The Lord was bringing a swift and catastrophic judgment on Israel for their rejection of Him. God would become both a sanctuary for a few remaining righteous remnant AND an offense and cause for stumbling for the majority of Israel and Judah. God would ensnare and trap in judgment the people of Jerusalem. The sinful nation would fall and be broken —  would be captured and taken away by enemies. God would indeed seem to be hiding, but even His judgment is the means to bring glory to Himself and to draw hearts to Him again (Isaiah 8:13-15).

The reason God would seem to be hiding was because the people would not be seeking Him. Don’t expect to find what you will not look for! Instead, they had turned to spiritualism, mediums, and necromancers for their spiritual advice. They would neglect God and His Word in the most occultist way possible in their culture (Isaiah 8:19). This rejection of the light of God’s Word led to immense emotional distress, physical loss and hunger, and then rage against God, as they stupidly did not recognize their own rejection of God had led to all their pain, gloom, and darkness (Isaiah 8:20-22).

Yet the prophet chose to wait on the God Who had turned away from the people that had turned away from Him. The nation may have rejected God and borne His judgment as a result, but the faithful still had hope. God would spare a remnant. God would be worth waiting for. Hope remained even when the darkest sins brought the most dangerous times of judgment. This shows us a contemporary truth: God’s mercy and grace are still our hope in difficult times.

Lord,

We live in a dark world too. People reject You, and although in this day You have no covenant of the Law with us like You did with Israel, You do still reward the faithful and punish the faithless. As many stumble in the dark, turning from the dawn of Your teaching and testimony to the darkest of sins and spiritualism, may Your people still faithfully wait, hope, and trust You still. You are our hope, dear God! The light of Your testimony and truth shines on us! Be our hope as we wait.

Amen