Where is God?

Why doesn’t God show Himself to humanity, so that every skeptic would shut his mouth? Just one appearance would do. This was the cry of the prophet Isaiah (see Isaiah 64:1-2). Moses asked God to show Himself, and was told that he couldn’t see Him and live. Here is why. The Bible tells us that God is light. This isn’t the light with which we are familiar. It’s called “unapproachable” light. When Saul of Tarsus was converted on the Road to Damascus, he saw the unapproachable light, and it was “above the brightness of the sun.” It was so powerful, it blinded him permanently (but for God's healing grace).

Think for a moment about the sun. It is so powerful, we can’t even look at for more than a brief moment without it severely damaging our eyes. It is a massive ball of fire that is so big, this earth fits into its volume more than a million times. And it was created by the One who we are told is "fire." Scripture reveals “our God is a consuming fire.” Why does the Bible use the word "consuming?" It speaks of Him coming in a fearful "flaming fire." Why would it say that, if God is supposed to be good and kind? For the same reason a good and kind judge is wrath-filled at a devious and unrepentant murderer, who has raped and slit the throats of a number of innocent young girls. The judge's goodness is manifest in his anger.

God is unspeakably wrath-filled at sinful humanity, because He is holy, just and good. That’s why Moses couldn’t stand in His presence. Moses was like you and me. He was a sinner--a criminal, with a desperately wicked heart. If he stood before God, the holiness of His goodness as a flaming fire would have "consumed" him. Moses would have been an anvil for Eternal Justice. The only way he could be in the presence of the "goodness" of God, was for him to be hidden in the cleft of a rock. Once he was sheltered in the rock, he was allowed to look at where God has been (read the account for yourself in Exodus chapter 33).

Look now at this terrifying warning about the future: “And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9). When the holiness of God Almighty is manifest at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (and, as sure as Hell, it will be), every unsaved person will scream, “Why didn’t you warn us!” And we will say, “We tried to warn you. Oh how we tried. We told you that God had provided a cleft in the Rock, in which you could hide. He gave us a Savior so that we wouldn't have to perish. We wrote books about this incredibly good news. We printed millions of gospel tracts, we gave away Bibles, recorded CDs, produced television and radio programs, made DVD’s, left our loved ones and the comfort of our homes and preached until we were hoarse. We wept on our knees for you, and then pleaded with you, but you wouldn’t listen. You instead argued about evolution and creation. You twisted our words. Your questioned our motives. You slurred our integrity, and called us liars. Now you have to face the Justice of a holy God. The time has come for the villain to get what’s coming to him. It is time for equity, and Hell is your just reward. You have no one to blame but yourself. Your blood is on your own head.” What a fearful thing, to fall into the hands of the Living God.