The Hiding of Divine Power
J. O. Keen, D. D. Habakkuk 3:4 And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power. "It is the glory of God," says an inspired writer, "to conceal a thing." "He holdeth back the face of His throne, and spreadeth a cloud upon it." Up to a given point all is clearness, beyond that all is mystery. It is revelation so far, it is reservation onward. And this, not to keep our curiosity and sense of wonder on perpetual stretch of seeking to pry into the hidden, but out of pity to our feeble finite eyes, which would be blinded for ever were the infinite blaze to be outpoured upon us. Concealment is absolutely necessary: "the holding back" is a boon. Full unfoldment would be cruel on the Divine Side, and inevitable death on the human side. Mystery, however, is a comparative term: what is mystery to a child is plain to a man. What is mystery to a peasant is intelligible and simple to a philosopher. What is mystery to a philosopher is easy reading to the saint in glory. The finite will never outgrow mystery. The depths of infinity, whether of power, of wisdom, or of love, can never be sounded by any human plumb-line of thought. However vast and rich may be the revelations given, Deity ever must be hidden in the abstract and absolute sense. Seeing God in His works is not seeing Him in His essence; beholding Him in His Word is not beholding Him as He is; even gazing on Him as incarnated in His beloved and sinless Son is not to see Him in the unclouded majesty and mystery of His Being. As the sun conceals more power than it can ever display, so Jehovah hides more might in the abysses of His nature than He can ever show. Bright beamings He gives apportioned to our strength of vision, but beyond that there is gracious reservation, there is merciful "hiding." "POWER!" Habakkuk was awed and impressed by the "horns" and "hidings" of this glorious attribute. "Once have I heard this," says the Psalmist, "yea, twice have I heard it that power belongeth unto God." A God without power — power to will, to think, to act, to create, to conserve, to govern, to reward and punish — would be, could be no God at all. Almightiness is an essential of Godhood, Omnipotence as well as eternity must inhere as an attribute in a Being existing from necessity. Its evolutions are vast, varied, minute, and majestic. In type of careering worlds and wheeling systems Jehovah has written the language of His power on the glorious page of the heavens. And what voluminous emblems and evidences of mightiness we have in the world of mind, and what in the universe of truth! Next to God Himself, man wields a power almost omnipotent; and through him Jehovah is bringing to bear upon races, tribes, nationalities, soul-worlds, evolutions of His almightiness, which effect magnificent reforms in mind and morals, and lead them up to imperial heights of moral and immortal honour, holiness, and truth, or sink them by wilful obstinacy and rebellion to depths of ruin and woe. Are storms and earthquakes, and rolling seasons and fruitful showers, and quickening Sunshine the result of wilful rebellious forces of caprice, or rioting powers of accidentalism? Do they look like it? Is it in the nature of caprice to be so unerringly regular in its freaks and doings as the revolutions of the seasons? Could an unconscious energy — a blind force — which is only another name from the vocabulary of scepticism for "CHANCE." — could it possibly be so transcendently wise in its exploits and infinitely clever in its achievements as the miracles and manifestations of the power to be witnessed on the theatre of our globe? A thousand times no! These are the workings of Omnipotence through the medium of the material by which humanity may learn and receive constant assurance that verily there is a God to whom power belongeth, and that despite the most astounding manifestations thereof there still is and ever will be what the prophet has declared, "the hiding of His power." But, I am asked, does creation apart from revelation afford proof that this power, the effects of which we see, is centred in and exercised by a person? Decidedly so. I would ask, in reply, do the effects beheld show evidences of thought, intelligence, wisdom? "Laws" argue a lawgiver, and a lawgiver argues an intelligent, personal being. Therefore nature does afford presumptive evidence that power, the effects of which we see, has behind it personality — that it is wielded by an imperial will, governed by an all-wise mind, and obedient to an infinite spirit. To supplement nature, Jehovah has graciously given us revelation. Power uncentred in an intelligent Personality, supposing it were possible, would be lawless, reckless, ruinous! Power is centred in the Living God. And His presence and power in nature is the source of all force, energy, and law, and the necessary condition of any course of events. While omnipotence in Jehovah is one as an attribute, nevertheless it is varied in its exertions and manifestations according to the mediums through which it operates. Seen in creation over matter, it is physical; in prophecy over mind, it is intellectual; in providence over events and circumstances, it is sovereign and judicial; in religious influences on conscience, character, life, it is moral. The seat of power is the WILL. According to the teaching of this sacred book, the infinitude of power has been hidden in Jesus Christ. God, so to speak, has compressed Himself into the limits of the human. Omnipotence, with every other attribute of Divinity, has been presented in mysterious condensation in the person of the Loges. "Christ," says St. Paul, "is the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24). What demonstrations thereof He gave when tabernacling in human form. From His look and touch and word outbeamed the "horns," while behind the veil of flesh were the "hidings" of Onmipotence. The Cross is the centralisation of the highest power — the concentrated power of love! Christianity is moral plenipotence. "The Gospel is the power of God." It creates not new worlds, but clean hearts. It subdues not earthly kingdoms, but rebel wills. Yes; the world is what it is to-day through the living revolutionising power of Christianity. "Without Jesus Christ," says Pascal, "the world would not even exist; for either it would have been already destroyed, or it would have become like a hell." Remember, it is not the human, but the Divine through the human, which has produced such effects. It is not the instrumentality, but the God-power through which it has wrought such supernatural changes in all lands where it has had full and unfettered sway. The age of physical miracles may be among the vestige of the past, but moral miracles, perhaps, were never so plentiful and constant as to-day. This, indeed, is the mighty power of God. The power of truth over mind, light over darkness, love over hate, divinity over human sin, sorrow, woe. Nothing can withstand it. What? I am not quite so sure of that. Moral power with Jehovah is powerless to effect a moral change in man if there be no concurrence of will. Physical might with Him is illimitable, nothing can withstand it; but moral might can only successfully work when and where there is voluntary acquiescence on the creature-side in the Divine will. Hence the slowness of Gospel progress of which our sceptical enemies accuse us, far from being evidence of failure, is a glaring and terrible illustration of man's deep-seated depravity and stubborn unwillingness to accept salvation. Did He proceed on the principle of coercion in the realm of truth, human hearts and wills would bend in subjection before Him as golden grain before the breeze; but it would be the subjection of trembling slaves, and not the loyal, loving homage of sons. Compulsion makes serfs, but not saints. From "the hiding of His power" — His grand reserve of forces — at His bidding, shall yet sally forth battalions of might to accomplish His purposes and promises of love, or execute His threatenings of wrath; for the "kingdoms of this world" are to become "the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ." (J. O. Keen, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power. WEB: His splendor is like the sunrise. Rays shine from his hand, where his power is hidden.