HEBREW WORD STUDY – HIDING WITHIN HIDING – HASETER ‘ASETIR הסתר אסיר Hei Samek Taw Resh     Aleph Samek Yod Resh

Deuteronomy 31:18: “And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.”

There is a very peculiar grammatical structure in this verse.  The word hide is repeated two times.  Normally in Semitic languages when a word is repeated it is to show emphasis. This is why it is rendered as surely I will hide my face.  This is really to impress upon the reader that God’s means business. When He says He will hide His face, it means He will hide His face, He means what He says.  Yet, I have always had a problem with that concept because does not God always mean what He says? When He says something there is no doubt, no shadow of turning as we used to sing in that old hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness.”  When He says we are saved, He means it, no doubt about it.  If He doubts His own Word then that does not leave us with much confidence in Him.  I believe that is why the first use of the word hide haseter is an Hiphal infinitive absolute.  An infinitive absolute is a simple form but very difficult to translate.  Your translation is really contextual, that is you need to depend upon the context to determine how to translate it appropriately. 

For me personally I just cannot accept the standard translation for the reasons I have given. Hence there must be another way to look at this without giving the impression that God’s Word is not absolute, that it is possible for Him to back down on his promises or declarations.   

I believe the next use of the word satar – hidden gives a clue.  It is expressed as ‘asetir which is in a Hiphal imperfect form first person singular.  Literally, you would read this sentence as: “And I am caused to hide shall I be caused to  hide my face from them.”  So, what does that mean?  

The Jewish sages speak of a “double galut.”  Galut means exile. This verse is likely speaking of a doubt exile from God’s presence. There is an old rabbinic story of a rabbi walking down a street with his students when they heard a child sobbing behind a wall. When they went to investigate they found a little girl behind the wall crying. The rabbi asked what was troubling her and she said that she was playing hide and seek with her friends, but no one came looking for her. The rabbi turned to his students and said: “In these tears I hear the cry of God.  For God has hidden Himself and no one is looking for Him.”

In Deuteronomy 31:18 God says that he will hide his face or His pani which is His presence from His people because of their evil ways and turning to other gods.  But by repeating the word hide as an infinitive absolute what He is saying is that there is a concealment within a concealment. Like the little girl playing hide and seek, she felt her friends forgot about her.

There are times when God hides His face and we don’t even realize it.  We dwell in darkness and think it is light. This is what the sages call a double galut an exile within an exile, a concealment within a concealment.  

There are many churches today that once knew the presence of God in their services. People flocked into their worship services because they felt the presence of God the moment the entered the sanctuary.  As time went on the church fell into worship of other gods.  Oh, they still worshipped God Jehovah, but the also worshipped their success, their prosperity, their reputation in the community.  Disunity entered the church with people jealous of others.  Some just could hardly sit through a worship service because they felt their musical talents are being ignored  and they could lead a worship much better.  They mentally criticized every word the pastor preached thinking they are more enlightened and knowledgeable about the Word of God than he or she believing they could preach a much better sermon. People get together and gossip about each other rather than pray for each other and encourage each other in their faith.  Before long the Spirit of God has left the church.

The Spirit of God may have left but people are not even aware of it. They still sing and clap their hands, dance around and worship God.  They speed the music up and increase the volume to get that excited feeling. What they feel is not God but their own emotions being stimulate by music and noise like your average football game. 

God, like that little girl weeping behind a wall, is saying “I withdrew my presence to make them aware of their sin and they don’t even miss me.”  Some people go to church just to get that excited feeling which they call God’s presence.  

Aesop told a fable about a man who took all his wealth and purchased a rock of solid gold. He then went out and buried it.  Every day he would dig up his gold, hold it in his hands, hug it and bury it again.  One day a thief observed this and when the men left the thief dug up the gold and stole it.  The next day when the man went to dig up his gold he found it was gone.  He cried out in agony.  Someone asked what was wrong and he told of the theft.  The man asked if that is all he did with his gold and when the poor victim said it was, the man said to just find a rock the same size, bury it and dig it up each day and pretend it was his gold rock.  This is what the man did and he was satisfied.

If the presence of God leaves your life and if the thrill of God’s presence was all you desired, then be satisfied with your fast and loud music giving you your thrill or maybe just go to a football game and get your thrill there. 

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