God’s Secret Things

September 24, 2020

Church Family,

In Deuteronomy 29, Moses is renewing the terms of God’s relationship with his people. Why is it being renewed? The reason being that now at the end of their 40-year wilderness wandering, everyone over the age of 20 when they departed Egypt had died. The children of the Exodus were now middle-aged, between 40 and 60 years old.

In the midst of the renewal service, Moses reminds the people that “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belongs to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29).

Two categories of God’s wisdom are mentioned, the revealed and the secret. God’s people were responsible for God’s revealed wisdom found in his word (his Law). God’s people were not responsible for God’s unrevealed wisdom. Why? Simply put, it was beyond them. They didn’t know what it was. They were to trust him with the unknowable.

Thirty-five-hundred years later it is the same. We have God’s revealed word. We are to know it and do it. And the many other things regarding his wisdom that is beyond us, we are to walk by faith trusting his sovereignty and the manner in which he providentially carries it out.

All generations have their “COVID Moment”. Just think of the past 100+ years. World War I was awful. The Great Depression ruined many. World War II affected everyone. Hurricanes, fires, and floods arrive out of nowhere, devastating many.

How many times has God heard the “why” question? How many times today has he heard it? Let’s just say exponentially more than all the parents of the world who have a five-year old.

There seems to be an extra amount of “secret things” going on these days. The virus, societal unrest, and political landscape dominate the news cycle as well as conversations around the watercooler and dinner table. We don’t know what God is doing, but he is doing, and it is his doing.

But back to his revealed will. That’s in black and white. It is the letters and words found in the chapters and verses of our Bible. In the midst of all the unknowable, there is plenty that we do know.

Enough certainly, to keep us busy. We are to walk by faith regarding all the rest.

God’s Blessings,

Pastor Rich

Volunteer for Bible Day Camp now