There is an obscure verse in the Old Testament, from the book of Deuteronomy, that has helped guide me through challenging times. This verse was shared with me by a mentor while I was in seminary, and goes like this:
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29)
Upon the initial reading, you may not think there is much to this verse. But as I continued to meditate on this verse over the course of a few years while at seminary as the Lord frequently brought it to my mind, and then found myself coming back to it multiple times since seminary, I find it’s significance in my life to be profound.
This verse was first impressed upon my heart while I was struggling with some concepts of the faith while at seminary. As I wrestled with those questions over an extended amount of time, God continued to bring this verse to my mind as a guiding light through those struggles and questions. In this process, God seemed to be reminding me that my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways…for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9). Maybe I’m a slow learner and a little hard-headed, but it took a few years for me to realize that there are secret things in this life that I will never have answers to. There are things that are not meant for me to know. That’s why faith is such an important aspect of our relationship with God. Those secret things belong to God, who is fully capable of handling them on His own, whether or not I fully understand them or can make sense of them in my limited, incapable mind.
But there are more than just the secret things. There are things that God has revealed to us, that belong to us and that we have a responsibility for. Part of that responsibility is to be obedient to those things. As I was pondering some of the complexities of the Word and questions I had (those secret things that belong to God), my mentor at the time challenged me to not get bogged down with those things so much that I lose sight of what God has clearly commanded in scripture. Yes, there are things about God, about his universe, and things revealed in scripture that are mind boggling if you spend much time dwelling on them. But for every one of those “secret” things that I could spend hours at a time pondering, there is a “revealed” thing that I fail to perfectly follow. My mentor challenged me to begin writing out a list of the things in scripture that are clearly revealed, clearly black and white, that there is no question about what God is telling us to do, and before your list gets very long, you’ll realize that just the things that have been revealed are too much for you. So make sure you spend more time living out the things “revealed” than pondering the “secret” things, because that is more than enough.
Another responsibility we have with the “revealed” things is to teach and model them to our children, that they may carry on in obedience to God forever, as they continue to pass these things down to their children. So the question I should be pondering is “Am I being obedient to the clear commands in scripture in my personal life, and am I teaching and modeling these to those around me that God has put into my life?” It is not all wrong to contemplate the complexities of some of these “secret” things, but don’t allow that to be the main focus. Let your mental and physical energy be used up more by obeying those things which God has clearly revealed; things which we still fail to obey on a daily basis.
In Christ Alone,
Caleb Hecox