Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children for ever… I. WHAT, THEN, ARE THOSE SECRET THINGS WHICH BELONG UNTO THE LORD GOD? A moment's thought will bring many such deep matters to our minds. Look at God Himself, and we are lost at once! Who can understand His nature? Who can comprehend His ways? And look at what we call "His dwelling place!" Oh, who can say what heaven is — what kind of world — what sorts of beings are those angels who inhabit it? And think of that world of wretchedness beneath! But let us turn to our own selves, and we shall find mysteries enough even here. How long are you and I to live? What is to be the hour, the day, the month, the year of our departure from this world? Are we to die suddenly or slowly? by accident or by disease? And it is just the same with respect to those events that may occur in the mean season. Such, then, are some amongst "the secret things" which belong unto the Lord our God. And what, then, should be our conduct with respect to them? Are we to try to lift the curtain up? Alas! fain would our proud hearts teach us so! We are naturally more inclined to know our fortune, as we call it, than to know our duty, and would rather satisfy a forbidden curiosity than search those treasures which God hath laid before our eyes. But it becomes us to be willingly ignorant of what our God hath been unwilling to communicate. III. SO MANY ARE THE THINGS WHICH GOD HATH REVEALED THAT ALL I SHALL ATTEMPT TO DO IS JUST TO TOUCH UPON A FEW OF THEM. I observed that our great God Himself is the greatest of all mysteries to minds like ours. He hath uncovered so much of His perfections to us, He hath so far "laid bare" to us "His holy arm," and made known the thoughts He thinketh with regard to us, that His people may say, in some measure, "we know Him and we have seen Him." Only look at Christ, and say whether the love and mercy of our God are not among "the things revealed" to us! I have said that we know little or nothing about heaven. But observe, our gracious God has revealed to us as much about heaven as "belongs to us and to our children." We observed that the duration of our lives is kept a secret from us. Yes, but our blessed Lord has told us that which does concern us, namely, how to be prepared for death whenever and howsoever it approaches us. We know not what is to happen to us in this life. No; that is a "secret thing belonging to the Lord." But this is a "revealed thing," that "all things work together for good to those that love God." III. And now, FOR THE USE WE ARE TO MAKE OF THESE "THINGS WHICH ARE REVEALED TO US." What says our text of the reasons why they are revealed? "The things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children, that we may do all the words of this law." It is not, then, to fill our heads with notions that God hath revealed to us the things we read of in our Bibles. If He hath told us of the path of life, it is that we might rise up and walk in it. Let us not err, then; let us not mistake knowledge for religion; let us not suppose ourselves enlightened men merely because we can talk well about the Gospel. Better not to know the way of righteousness at all than to know it and be idle. (A. Roberts, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. |
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