THE SECRET THINGS AND THE REVEALED THINGS—Dt. 29:29
If you could know the future, would you do things differently?
***I was playing basketball with my brother, and I noticed an older guy who seemed to play every day. I asked my brother what he did for a living, and my brother informed me that he hadn’t worked in years. It seems that he bought stock in a small company called Microsoft, and he did pretty well in his investment. If we could only know the future…**
Would you want to know all that the future will bring, even this year? Would you want to know what will happen to your health, or the ones you love, this year? Would you want to know the challenges you will face, and the opportunities and joys that will come to you? Would you want to know what will happen in the world this year—in the stock market, or the world at large?
If you did know any of those things, would you do anything differently? Do you have any control over what will happen in your life this coming year?
Moses is speaking to God’s people, the Israelites, shortly before they enter the Promised Land. He reminds them of what God has done for them in the past few years, and then he challenges them to trust and obey God in the future. In the middle of his sermon, we find this:
Read Deuteronomy 29:29.
THERE ARE THINGS THAT ARE SECRET; they are not revealed to us in advance.
We can’t know many events in our future: our health, actions of other people, or how our circumstances might change. On a global scale, we can’t know whether there will be prosperity or recession, war or peace, hurricanes or pandemics.
We might want to know what is coming, and take control! The desire to know and control the future is as old as Moses.
Read Deuteronomy 29:16-18.
Why would God’s people be tempted to worship idols? It was an attempt to control the unknown! Pagan rituals were a kind of sympathetic magic, bringing rain and healthy babies. Divination, using the innards of animals, promised guidance and insight. Sacrifices attempted to appease the gods, heading off catastrophe. There was a social element as well: Worshipping with pagan neighbors fostered peace.
It all sounds so strange to us. Yet the desire to control the unknown remains. We depend on science and technology to solve the world’s problems. We depend on medicine to keep us healthy. We depend on government and political solutions to provide stability and control. We depend on work and investments for security.
None of these are bad things, and of course we should plan for the future and act wisely. These things can become false gods, however. Science and technology can be misused. Politicians can be worshipped, and power can be used for evil. Work can become all-consuming, and wealth can be hoarded.
False gods cannot secure the unknown, leading to disappointment and disillusionment. We are irritated when doctors can’t heal us. We are devastated by destructive storms or pandemics. We are at a loss when the stock market tanks or a job is lost. We are frustrated by corruption in government and the failure of political solutions.
The most dangerous false god is not those things, however, but ourselves. We can easily think that we have everything under control. When things go as we planned, we claim the credit for being so wise and resourceful. When things don’t go our way, we blame other people for disrupting our plans.
The Apostle James warns us about putting ourselves in the place of God: (James 4:13-16) “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.”
“The secret things belong to the Lord our God.” And you are not God!
Does that mean that we should not make plans for the future, or that it doesn’t matter what we do? Should we just sit back and let tomorrow come to us? No!
THERE ARE THINGS THAT ARE REVEALED TO US, and we should act on them. Read Deuteronomy 29:29.
Moses specifically refers to the “the words of this law.” God gave the law to guide his people.
The Ten Commandments are a good example of what the law reveals. The law doesn’t reveal to us the stress we might have in the coming year, but it does reveal that by keeping the Sabbath of rest and worship, we will have resources to handle the stress. The law does not reveal struggles we might have in our family this year, but it does set the boundaries of marital faithfulness and honoring parents. The law does not reveal the challenges we might face in business dealings, but it does reveal that honesty must guide us. The law does not reveal how people will treat us, but it does tell us that we should “not kill,” or as Jesus explained, not try to destroy people. The law will not reveal whether we will prosper this year, but it does reveal that we will be happier and healthier if we do not covet.
God’s law is broader than the Ten Commandments; it has social implications. When we take the time to read Exodus and Leviticus, as well as Deuteronomy, we find commandments about how to treat servants, balancing property rights with opportunity for all, and public health. We see that God commands his people to help the poor, and to give the less fortunate a path out of poverty. Some of these commandments are specific to the time in which they were given, and do not apply to us. Yet the principles are revealed to us!
There are many economic and political issues in the world today, and we don’t know what the coming year will bring. God has not revealed “the secret things”—the solutions to all of the problems in the world. Yet he has revealed to us principles and priorities that should guide us. Micah 6:8 says, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” God has revealed that justice, compassion, and care for those in need are not optional for God’s people.
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”
In Moses’ sermon, the law is more than a list of commandments. The “words of the law” are the expression of the covenant God made with his people. The covenant began with God reaching out to Abraham, but Moses begins his sermon by describing how God brought his people out of Egypt. He tells how God protected them, and brought them to the place they were at, and he goes on to tell them that if they are faithful to God and his revealed will, God will bless them greatly. Just a few verses give us the drift: Read Deuteronomy 29:12-15, 30:19-20.
God revealed to his people that if they rejected his ways, he would punish them. He also said that if they would return to him in repentance, he would be gracious and bless them. These were not secret things, but revealed; God told them straight-up what would happen if they rejected him and his love. Yet his goal was very clear: Read Deuteronomy 30:19-20.
“Choose life.” The Lord is your life, and he offers blessings for this year, the rest of your life, and forever. Choose to love God. Choose to listen to what he says in the Bible and in your heart. Stay in step with the Spirit of God, and follow the way of life.
What is way to life? In Moses’ sermon, it sounds so simple: Read Deuteronomy 30:11-16. Keep God’s law, and you will be blessed. Yet we know that it is not so simple! After all, who can keep God’s law perfectly? When Jesus was asked which commandment was the greatest, he echoed Moses: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.” Who of us can do that perfectly?
In Moses’ sermon, it sounds so simple: Read Deuteronomy 30:11-16. Keep God’s law, and you will be blessed. Yet we know that it is not so simple! After all, who can keep God’s law perfectly? When Jesus was asked which commandment was the greatest, he echoed Moses: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.” Who of us can do that perfectly?
The Apostle Paul was familiar with this text, and he read it in the light of Jesus. He understood that the Old Covenant was fulfilled in the New Covenant, through faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord. He quoted Moses in Romans 10:6-12, saying, “The righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’”(that is, to bring Christ down)“or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”
As we enter this new year, there are many things we do not know. Our assurance is that the Lord knows! “The secret things belong to the Lord…”
What we do know is that through Jesus Christ, we have a relationship with the Lord—the Lord who knows the secret things. “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” If we live in obedience and trust, the Lord will be with us, and we can face this new year with confidence and hope.
