Things Secret and Revealed
D. Hobbs, M. A. 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… There are two spheres of spiritual things — a secret or hidden sphere and a revealed sphere. Time was, however, when there was only the one sphere, and that the secret one. Away back in the primal ages, when as yet man had not been called into existence, there was no sphere, and could not be, of things revealed. It was not till man had opened his eyes upon this fair earth, and by his side beheld the kindly face of God, that the sphere of things revealed had its beginning. Then did God lift up the tiniest corner of the great curtain which covered the spiritual world, and so gave rise to a new sphere of spiritual things — the revealed. Thence did the sphere of revealed things begin to grow apace. The number of revealed things is growing every day larger, and the number of secret things every day smaller. Not that we can expect the secret things to disappear altogether. I. THESE ARE MANY THINGS WHICH GOD ONLY PARTLY KEEPS SECRET, AND EVIDENTLY WITH NO ULTIMATE INTENTION OF KEEPING SECRET AT ALL. These are such things as the Inspiration of the Scriptures, the Trinity, the Atonement, Prayer, Providence, and the like. In these cases God may be said, generally speaking, to have revealed the fact, but to have kept the explanation secret. Why should we not understand God as saying to us: "Here is the fact of Inspiration; find out the theory of it"; "Here is the fact of the Trinity and the Atonement; search out the explanations of them"; "Here is the fact that prayer is efficacious, and that providence is always beneficent; see if you cannot sweep away the difficulties of the one position, and unravel the mysteries of the other"? The only condition that God seems to lay down is this: that we are to make these inquiries reverently, and that we are to take on trust whatever we cannot explain, remembering that it is the fact of things, and not the theory, which is, after all, the important matter. II. THERE ARE SOME THINGS THAT GOD SEEMS INTENTIONALLY TO KEEP SECRET. These are things which to pry into is apt to bring us some kind of natural punishment rather than reward. 1. His time of bringing any event to pass. 2. The way by which He means to lead His people. It is in mercy that He always keeps this secret. Put it to yourselves, if you could have come all the way you have come in the event of your knowing beforehand what it was to be like. Would you not have shrunk back from entering upon the journey of life? But when you cannot see beyond the first bend of the way — when all beyond this is God's secret — you are emboldened to step out right manfully or right womanfully. III. THERE ARE MANY THINGS WHICH GOD HAS FULLY REVEALED. God has fully revealed all that is necessary both for our weal here and for our wealth hereafter. (D. Hobbs, 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. WEB: The secret things belong to Yahweh 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.