10我们要注意以赛亚是如何表达这个思想:“以色列的神啊,你实在是自隐的神。”(赛四五15)他这一句话是非常重的。……乃是他根据许多的事实所产生出来的发表。……当申言者看看神所作的事,看看以色列人在神手中的遭遇,看看神百姓的经历,就叫他不能不承认,神的确是一位自隐的神。以赛亚为什么会得到这一个结论?……那是因为神在以色列人中间,在以色列人身上,作了许许多多的事,但神却把自己隐藏起来。……许多事都是祂作的,以色列人却不知道作事者是谁。所以有一天以赛亚就惊叹说,“神啊,你实在是自隐的神。”(李文集一九五六年第二册,八至九页)如果你把整个宇宙的故事,把所有人类中间的故事,把旧约的故事,把新约的故事,一点一点地都看过,你也会得到和以赛亚同样的结论,就是承认神实在是一位自隐的神。……在宇宙中有这么多的东西,有这么多的故事;但是六千年来,还没有一个人看见过神。……到了新约,就有父怀里的独生子将神表明出来(约一18)。但实际上,就是这个表明也是隐藏的。这一位独生子,虽然是要来表明神,但祂却把神藏在人里面,并且是藏在一个不像样的人里面。这一个人面貌憔悴,形容枯槁,并没有什么佳形威仪(赛五二14,五三2下),实在叫人看不出祂就是神。祂生长在加利利省的拿撒勒城。那个省是小省,那个城也是个小城。犹太人都公认,那个地方并没有出过什么申言者或名人(约七52,一46)。所以当这一个拿撒勒人耶稣出来的时候,不要说人不会想到神在祂里面,就是想到祂是申言者的人都不很多。可是神却藏在祂里面!这是何等奇妙的事实!(李文集一九五六年第三册,一九至二○页) 10Note how Isaiah expresses this thought: “Surely You are a God who hides Himself, / O God of Israel” (Isa. 45:15). This statement of his is most emphatic…His utterance is based on an accumulation of facts…What he has seen of God’s doings, what he has observed happen to Israel under the hand of God, what he has beheld of the experiences of God’s people—all these observations have forced the prophet to acknowledge that God is a God who hides Himself. Why did Isaiah come to this conclusion?…It was because God did countless things in the midst of the children of Israel and countless things in their personal lives, yet He concealed Himself…Very much was being done by Him, yet the Israelites were utterly ignorant as to who the doer was. Then one day Isaiah exclaimed, “Surely You are a God who hides Himself, / O God.” (CWWL, 1956, vol. 2, “A God Who Hides Himself,” p. 3) If we carefully examine the history of the universe, the history of mankind, the history of the Old Testament, and the history of the New Testament, we will arrive at the same conclusion: God is a God who hides Himself…There are many things and many stories in the universe, yet in six thousand years no one has seen God [John 1:18]…In the New Testament times, although the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, came to declare God, this declaration was also hidden. Although the only begotten Son came for the very purpose of declaring God, God was hidden inside a man, even an unbecoming man. This man’s visage and form were marred; He had no attracting form nor beautiful appearance (Isa. 53:2). This made it truly difficult for anyone to recognize that He was God. He grew up in the small town of Nazareth in an insignificant province of Galilee. The Jews recognized that no prophet or person of repute had ever come from Nazareth (John 1:46). Therefore, when Jesus the Nazarene appeared, very few thought that He could be a prophet, let alone that God was in Him. Yet God was hidden within Him. What a wondrous fact this is! (CWWL, 1956, vol. 3, p. 16)