A Roman emperor once challenged Rabban Gamliel with a question that sounds modern. If there is a God in the world, why does He not reveal Himself directly? Why not speak face to face with His creatures? Then surely they would respect Him more.
Rabban Gamliel quoted Torah. God is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24). No flesh can stand in that flame and keep breathing.
The emperor was not satisfied. So Rabban Gamliel set up a lesson.
The next morning, while the emperor was present, Gamliel suddenly slapped his servant hard across the face. The emperor erupted. You strike a man in the presence of Rome? You deserve punishment for such contempt.
Gamliel bowed. Forgive me. The servant brought me extraordinary news and I was overcome. A ship of mine, lost at sea for seven years, has suddenly returned to port — fully laden with cargo, and without a single sailor or sail aboard.
The emperor laughed. Impossible. A ship cannot navigate itself across seven years of ocean without a crew and return loaded.
Gamliel closed the circle. If a small ship cannot cross a sea without a captain, how can a universe cross eternity without the One who guides it? You have just answered your own question. God reveals Himself in the fact that the world runs at all.
The assembly applauded. Gaster's Exempla of the Rabbis (1924, No. 12) preserves the story. Divine fire, the sages say, is not the only evidence of God — so is the quiet arithmetic of a world that has not fallen apart.