In the Dazu Shrine near Chongging, China, is Guan Yin, goddess of a thousand arms and a thousand eyes. With a thousand eyes she sees the pain of others. With a thousand arms she reaches out to help. 

It is a beautiful statue carved with amazing detail and overlaid with gold. It is evidence of great devotion.

This is the image that comes to my mind as I read our Old Testament lesson (Isaiah 43-45). 

The prophet imagines an artisan crafting an idol with great care. Yet that beautiful creation is just that - a creation that cannot hear or help or save. 

In contrast, eight times in these chapters Isaiah reminds us that the LORD is the Creator. That Hebrew word only has the true God as its subject. Only the LORD, our Creator and Redeemer, can "create." 

How can we be sure our God is that true God? Isaiah uses Creation and Prophecy/Fulfillment to reassure the exiles in Babylon.

• Prophecy/Fulfillment: None of the false gods can make prophecies like the LORD did about raising up Cyrus, king of Persia. The Persian empire would not become the world power for 200 years after Isaiah’s time. How do I know that the God of the Bible is the true God? He makes prophecies and is able to fulfill them. No other god can make that claim.  
• Creation: Isaiah also emphasizes the LORD’s power in creation. As you go outside today, notice the power and wisdom of God that is evident in even the smallest creatures. 

Why do we need that reassurance? Because we struggle to see our God. "Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself" (Isaiah 45:15). 

Our God is the Deus absconditus (Latin, ‘hidden God’). "The apparent absence of God from those who seek him, or from circumstances where the godly are in extreme trouble" (The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions). 
 

• God seems to be absent from the Israelites as they suffer exile in Babylon.
• In our New Testament lesson (1 Peter 2), God seems to be absent when Christian slaves suffered unjustly (2:19-20). 
• Our God often seems to be hiding himself when we call out to him.
• • He does not give relief from pain.
  • He does not preserve a faltering marriage.
  • He does not bring a special someone into your life.

And sometimes our God is hidden in the apparent "mistakes" he has made.

Often people ask me about God's "mistakes" such as why God did not stop sin from entering into the world in the first place. When someone asks me that, I tell him I see so many more of God's apparent mistakes! In fact, this morning, I realize my sinful mind is like the goddess Guan Yin pictured above. Instead of a thousand hands and a thousand eyes, my mind becomes the god with a thousand charges against God's wisdom and power.  Why God? Why! 

1 Peter 2 closes with four quick quotations from Isaiah 53. The ultimate "hidden God" is there on the cross. The Creator of the world dies. The Creator God calls out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 

The Deus Absconditus, the God who hides himself, is the God who proves himself by coming forth victorious from the grave. 

There are many times that the only place I see my God clearly is in the empty tomb. That's why I call my daily Bible reading, "The Fellowship of the Empty Tomb." I'm so glad you are with me to see your God reveal himself as "the God and Savior" of His Church (Isaiah 45:15). In my daily Bible reading I claim the truth of again: "Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again." Amen. 
  
As our closing prayer, let us join with psalmist and come to worship our Creator and Redeemer. 

Psalm 95
1 Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
    let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
    and extol him with music and song.
3 For the LORD is the great God,
    the great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,
    and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
    and his hands formed the dry land.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
    let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
7 for he is our God
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    the flock under his care. Amen.