Truth Hurts

 There are many times that the Bible makes me mad. Really mad, even. There are times i want to slam it shut and put it on a shelf and not read from it again. It offends me. It throws some pretty heavy stones right at my head, and i have little room to move out of the way. Other books don't ruffle my feathers this much. Sure, there is a lot of peace, hope and the like to be found between its covers. But there's also some stuff that just makes me squirm.
 Take, for instance, the book of Psalms, one of the greatest sources of inspiration for modern poets, a one-hundred-and-fifty-chapter wellspring of comfort and joy.

Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.

 That's Psalm 1:1-3.
 I read that and think, You know, maybe i'm this blessed fellow. Maybe i'm this man, this one who delights in the law of the Lord, who meditates on it and grows and flourishes and becomes firm in foundation and yielding a great harv--

Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.

 Ow. That would be verse four.
 See, the Old Testament, which the apostles called Scripture, is God-breathed and, therefore, "is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness..." (2 Timothy 3:16) Basically, in other words, it is for us. It is an examination tool, and a method of correction and instruction. And it hurts. Because, as a human, i am evil. Horribly evil. My heart is deceitfully wicked. Every inclination of the thoughts of my heart are only evil all the time (apparently the amount of wickedness within us is sufficient to make God become rather redundant in His descriptions). So as much as those first three verses apply to me or you, that fourth one applies to us.
 This isn't a one-time ordeal. This is throughout Scripture. Proverbs, or "The Book of Wisdom," if you will, takes only seven verses.
 This book, or these sixty-six books if you like, is intended to cut. It's intended to cut. It isn't a feel-good-book. It's a two-edged sword capable of dividing soul from Spirit, and marrow from bone--and it is pointed directly at you and me. Because, by nature, we're evil.
 Yet again i say, it's intended to cut. Sharply. Swiftly. And it doesn't stop until it's separated you from your very nature.
 The marrow, the interior region of the bone, the very core of it, the heart of it, is severed from the rest of the bone by this, the Word of God. It hurts.
 It hurts because it cuts deeper than any physical sword may come close to touching, and it splits you from your core, your thoughts from your mind, your intentions from your heart. It cuts away all that exterior stuff we call the flesh. So then we may be the blessed one that doesn't walk in the way of sinners.

 You'll find cancer must be cut away, infected tissue must be torn off, and necrotic limbs must be severed. And only then can life be preserved, only then can the body be healthy. It's painful.
 The truth hurts. And the truth doesn't care about our feelings. Just because it causes pain or it offends or it's not popular; that doesn't negate the truth of it in the slightest. In fact, it may serve to compound the factuality of truth when it hurts, because it's at that point that it's being quite effectual.
 There have been times i've been reading the Bible and fell into tears wishing that God didn't ask that of me, or that He didn't say that about people with my particular mentality or sin. But He did--nay, He does. The Great Physician had to start slicing away at my flesh, splitting it from my spirit. And He still does so nearly every time i open His Word.

 Pick up the Bible. Let it . . . Hurt you.

The Word Made Flesh

It seems to me the best thing to start this with is by saying that if your sin causes you to hide your face from God, you have the wrong impression of Him.

The first time we sinned, we hid from Him. Adam and Eve knew their nakedness and sewed fig leaves together as loin cloths. This would've been horribly uncomfortable, as fig leaves cause skin irritations. God does drive them out of the Garden of Eden, but not before He makes proper coverings for them. He showed mercy on our own stupidity.
The next thing He does is actually for our own good, believe it or not. He cast them out of the Garden of Eden. People use this instance to say God isn't merciful, but i use it to say He is. Look at it in context real quick; we sinned, we corrupted the earth itself, we have damned our own souls, and there is literally no hope for us whatsoever. So God puts us out of the Garden. 'Why?' you might ask.

"Then the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—' therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life." (Genesis 3:22-24)
That's an incomplete sentence in verse twenty-two. God made an incomplete sentence. When i first saw that, it really messed with my mind. I've heard it implies a sense of urgency in sending them out of the Garden, and that may be so. But i'd like to direct your focus to why He did that. So we wouldn't eat from the tree of life, and live forever.
Honestly, who in their right mind would want to live in this corrupted world forever? No, we need an exit plan, and that's exactly what God has in mind. He is heartbroken that we did the only thing He told us not to do, but if the tree of life would make us live forever in our sin, it would perhaps be best if we died.

The Word made flesh is Christ, and the definition of the Greek term, "Word," is Logos. According to Vine's Dictionary of translated words, it "denotes 'the expression of thought as embodying a conception or idea.'"
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:1-3)

At the beginning, through the embodied expression of God's idea, everything was made beautiful and eternal and perfect. It was only after man directly disobeyed God that things got corrupted. And God had mercy on them afterwards.
His Word was to become flesh; His plan for us was for His will to become manifest in the form of a Man, Christ, to come and die and resurrect with Himself the original intention of creation to those who would accept Him; life eternal with Him in a place not corrupted by sin.

Instead of it being a matter of don't (eating from the tree of knowledge), it became a matter of do (His will).

So again, i say that if your sin causes you to hide from God, you have a gross misconception of Him.

No, in fact, we have confidence from Christ to cover us.
"This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him." (Ephesians 3:11-12)

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:15-16)

"And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming." (1 John 2:28)