10.11 Hiding and disclosing

The first thing the man and woman did after they ate was hide. "They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden" (Genesis 3:8). Asked where he was, Adam gave the reason: "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself" (3:10). From then on, hiding runs through Scripture. People hide themselves, hide others, hide things, hide what they have done, and hide what they mean.

The words

The Hebrew has several words for hiding, and each is used mostly for its own kind of hiding.

Ḥāvāʾ, "to hide oneself". A person takes his own body out of sight. Adam (Genesis 3:10). Israel under the Philistines "hid themselves in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and in cisterns" (1 Samuel 13:6). Saul on the day he was made king: "he has hidden himself among the baggage" (1 Samuel 10:22).
Ṭāman, "to hide, bury". A thing is put into or under something. Achan's plunder is "hidden in the earth inside my tent" (Joshua 7:21). Moses "hid him in the sand" (Exodus 2:12). An enemy's net is hidden in the path (Psalm 140:5). It is also the word for the sluggard who "buries his hand in the dish and will not even bring it back to his mouth" (Proverbs 19:24).
Kāḥad, "to hide, withhold". Something known or done is kept back. "Tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me" (Joshua 7:19). "Do not hide it from me" (1 Samuel 3:17). The same word also means to be cut off: "you would have been cut off from the earth" (Exodus 9:15).
Sātar, "to hide, conceal". This is the widest of them. It is used of hiding from danger, of hiding someone else to keep him safe, of things hidden from understanding (10.2), and of God hiding his face (10.9).
The Greek kruptō, "to hide", covers all of these.

Hiding from God

In each scene where a person hides from God, something of God is perceived first: a sound (Genesis 3:10), God naming himself (Exodus 3:6), "the terror of the Lord, and … the splendor of his majesty" (Isaiah 2:10), "the face of him who is seated on the throne, and … the wrath of the Lamb" (Revelation 6:16).

Adam hid because he knew he was naked (Genesis 3:10).
Moses "hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God" (Exodus 3:6), and no wrong is named.
At the end, people call "to the mountains and rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us'", for "who can stand?" (Revelation 6:16–17).

Job names the one condition on which he will not hide: "Only grant me two things, then I will not hide myself from your face: withdraw your hand far from me, and let not dread of you terrify me" (Job 13:20–21). In his words, it is the dread that makes a person hide.

None of it works. "Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth?" (Jeremiah 23:24). "There is no gloom or deep darkness where evildoers may hide themselves" (Job 34:22). Isaiah names what the attempt does: "Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel … and who say, 'Who sees us? Who knows us?' You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay" (Isaiah 29:15–16).

That nothing is hidden from God is the same fact for everyone, and it falls very differently.

For the one who suffers it is comfort: "O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you" (Psalm 38:9).
For the one being made it is wonder: "My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret" (Psalm 139:15), and the psalmist answers, "my soul knows it very well" (139:14).
For the one who has done wrong it is judgement: "I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore" (Hosea 5:3).

Hiding from people

Much of the hiding in Scripture is from people who could do harm, and in these verses it is the weaker side that hides. "When the wicked rise, people hide themselves" (Proverbs 28:28). "The poor of the earth all hide themselves" (Job 24:4). When Israel hid in the caves, "all the people followed him trembling" (1 Samuel 13:7).

Often the verse records not the feeling of the one who hides but someone else's counsel to hide.

Jonathan: "Saul my father seeks to kill you … Stay in a secret place and hide yourself" (1 Samuel 19:2).
God to Elijah: "hide yourself by the brook Cherith" (1 Kings 17:3).

Where the feeling is named, it is fear.

Jacob fled from Laban "secretly", and he said why: "Because I was afraid" (Genesis 31:27, 31).
Isaac hid that Rebekah was his wife, and gave the reason: "Because I thought, 'Lest I die because of her.'" (Genesis 26:9). The fear there is the fear of dying (Chapter 2).
Joseph of Arimathea was "a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews". The same verse ends with him going to Pilate and taking away the body (John 19:38).

Hiding can be good sense: "The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it" (Proverbs 22:3). It ends when the news changes. The men who had hidden in the hills "heard that the Philistines were fleeing, they too followed hard after them in the battle" (1 Samuel 14:22).

And sometimes hiding is refused, or impossible.

The servant chooses not to hide: "I gave my back to those who strike … I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting" (Isaiah 50:6).
No one can hide from a friend who turns: "it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me — then I could hide from him. But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend" (Psalm 55:12–13).

Hiding another

To hide someone else is to keep him alive, and the verses say what moved the one who did it.

Rahab hid the spies, and gave her reason: "as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted … for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath" (Joshua 2:11). All Jericho's hearts melted. It was her confession that turned her to hide them.
Obadiah "took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water" (1 Kings 18:4).
Moses's parents hid him "because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict" (Hebrews 11:23).

God hides people too, and those he hides ask for it.

"Hide me in the shadow of your wings" (Psalm 17:8).
"You hide them from the plots of men; you store them in your shelter from the strife of tongues" (Psalm 31:20).
The servant is hidden to be used later: "in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away" (Isaiah 49:2).
At the last, a life is hidden in someone: "your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).

There is a false shelter too: "we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter" (Isaiah 28:15).

Hiding what I hold

A person can hide what he has done. Achan tells it in order: "when I saw … then I coveted them and took them. And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent" (Joshua 7:21). Joshua had to ask him first: "do not hide it from me" (7:19).

What happens next differs.

It fails, and fear follows. Moses "struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand" (Exodus 2:12). When it came out, "Moses was afraid, and thought, 'Surely the thing is known'" (2:14).
Conscience turns it round. The lepers hid the plunder, and then "said to one another, 'We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news. If we are silent … punishment will overtake us'" (2 Kings 7:8–9).
It can be kept because it is enjoyed. "Though evil is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue, though he is loath to let it go" (Job 20:12–13).
It can be not hidden at all. "They proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves" (Isaiah 3:9).

What God has done is not to be hidden. "I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation" (Psalm 40:10). "We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord" (Psalm 78:4). In his pain, Job's comfort is that "I have not denied the words of the Holy One" (Job 6:10). Some things cannot be hidden: "A city set on a hill cannot be hidden" (Matthew 5:14). And a hidden good is worth less than a visible one: "Better is open rebuke than hidden love" (Proverbs 27:5).

Two men in Jesus's parables hide something in the ground, and they hide it for different reasons. One finds "treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has" (Matthew 13:44). The other says, "I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground" (Matthew 25:25). One hid it in joy, the other in fear.

The hidden trap

In the Psalms a purpose is hidden in order to catch someone. "They hold fast to their evil purpose; they talk of laying snares secretly, thinking, 'Who can see them?'" (Psalm 64:5). The next verse says where the purpose was hidden first: "For the inward mind and heart of a man are deep" (64:6).

The one it is set for prays out of his weakness. "When my spirit faints within me, you know my way! In the path where I walk they have hidden a trap for me" (Psalm 142:3). "No one cares for my soul" (142:4). It is worse when it comes from those he had prayed for: "Yet they have dug a pit for my life. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them" (Jeremiah 18:20).

And the trap turns. "In the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught" (Psalm 9:15). The soul the pit was dug for (Psalm 35:7) is the soul that rejoices: "Then my soul will rejoice in the Lord" (35:9). The one taken "out of the net they have hidden for me" says, "Into your hand I commit my spirit" (Psalm 31:4–5).

Longing to be hidden

Job in his pain wishes he had been hidden from life itself, cursing the night that did not "hide trouble from my eyes" (Job 3:10). Later the same wish becomes a hope: "Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!" (Job 14:13; section 10.3).

What changes it

The same act of hiding can be fear, good sense, care for another, or joy, depending on a few things the verses name.

Who hides whom. God hiding a person is safety. God hiding his face from a person is dismay. The two are four verses apart in one psalm (Psalm 27:5, 9; 10.9).
What is hidden, and why. A treasure in joy, a talent in fear (Matthew 13:44; 25:25).
Where the fear stands. It comes before the hiding (Genesis 3:10; Matthew 25:25) or after it fails (Exodus 2:14). Those who hide another are, in one verse, "not afraid" (Hebrews 11:23).
Whether there is anywhere to hide. From an enemy, yes. From a friend, no (Psalm 55:12–13). From God, never (Jeremiah 23:24).

Connections:

from feeling (10.1): fear drives a person into hiding, or follows when hiding fails; the one who hides another is, in one verse, unafraid
with knowing (10.2): understanding can be hidden from a person, and "the things that are revealed" are given to be done
with speaking (10.5): what is held is kept back or told; "Do not hide it from me"
with right and wrong (10.8) and Chapter 12: a wrong concealed, and a purpose hidden in the heart to catch another
with God (10.9): hiding from God, being seen by him, being hidden by him, and his hidden face
with others (10.10): hiding from people who could do harm, and hiding another to keep him alive
with life under God's anger (Chapter 13): "hide yourselves for a little while until the fury has passed by" (Isaiah 26:20)