Plausible Deniability

I’ve pondered this question before:

“Why doesn’t G-d just let us all know that he exists? Why the big mystery?”

I’ve come to various conclusions each time I’ve come back upon this after a period of time. Hopefully, I have it finally resolved now. The answer? Plausible Deniability. Consider this. Adam and Eve knew G-d directly, but their human nature eventually resulted in their removal from the garden. The Israelites knew G-d directly, but after a period of time, human nature simply took over again and they became fat and lazy and indulgent in their own ways:

“When I bring them into the land flowing with milk and honey that I promised on oath to their fathers, and they eat their fill and grow fat and turn to other gods and serve them, spurning Me and breaking My covenant, and the many evils and troubles befall them–then..”

Basically, anytime G-d has made himself known to us we have turned away, and as a result G-d has had to deal harshly with his people. Instead, if G-d writes down what he wants from us in a scroll and then expects us to follow it thousands of years later, at the very least, we have plausible deniability. We have some recompense here. We can say that we tried and really wanted to do the right thing, but we weren’t really even sure if it all served a purpose. For all we knew, all of our history and the stories were just that. Stories. I mean, sure we believe that they’re true, but there’s no way to KNOW that they’re true, and that’s the difference. So long as we don’t have direct knowledge, G-d can be more generous and lenient with us when we go astray.

At least, for now, that’s my two cents on the matter. What do you think?

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