For those of us who have purposed to read through our Bibles this year we recently read Deut. 29 which contains a favorite passage of mine – Deut. 29:29: “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

        Before reading any further read this verse again…and again – one more time and think about what it’s saying. This verse has 3 principle points and I want to share a couple of quick thoughts on 2 of the 3 with you.

        First, notice that we have the responsibility as children of God (in this case the nation of Israel) to focus on the things that God has revealed – and doing this can be difficult. These things not only belong “to us and to our children forever,” but were given to us for a specific reason: in order “that we may do (follow) all the words of this law.” This is the fundamental purpose of placing this verse at the end of a long chapter on covenant renewal. True, we cannot know many hidden things. But what has been revealed to us (in this context it’s the terms of the Mosaic Covenant) is what must capture our interest and devoted obedience.

        A second point in this verse is that we must frankly admit that some things are hidden from our eyes. We really do not understand, for instance, the relationships between time and eternity, nor do we have much of an idea how the God who inhabits eternity discloses Himself to us in our finite, space, and time. It is revealed to us that He does; we have various words to describe certain elements of this disclosure, such as the incarnation, the completed canon of Scripture, etc – but there are lots of things we do not know. There’s much about God we don’t know and we don’t know the “why’s” of so many things.

        So we have to admit and understand that there are mysteries about lots of things and, at the same time, know they are not self-contradictory. Paul says in 1st Cor. 13:9 & 12 that we only know in part. What God has not disclosed of Himself we cannot know; the secret things belong to God; and because of His love, sovereignty and divine character we can rest in this truth! Indeed, because of the contrast in the text, the implication is that it would be presumptuous to claim we do know, or even to spend too much time trying to find out – lest we find ourselves presuming on God’s exclusive terrain.

        Some things may be temporarily hidden to induce us to search: Prov. 25:2 tells us it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, and the glory of kings to search a matter out – or to get to the bottom of things. But that is not a universal rule: remember that the very first sin involved trying to know some hidden things and thus be like God.

        Here’s my final thought: the path of wisdom is reverent worship of Him who knows all things, and careful adherence to what He has graciously disclosed.

        Pastor John