Secret Things, Again

A very neat aspect of living in the Christian era is that we are privileged to know some of the mystery that Moses only had inklings of when inscribing Deuteronomy. My guess is that some of the "secret things" referred to in Deuteronomy 29:29 are things relating to our salvation through Christ's death and resurrection. God winked at the ignorance of the Israelites during the Old Testament period. This ignorance was also partly due to an unrevealed mystery which we can now know. And which now increases our responsibility to walk as God would walk were he a human on earth.

Secret Things vs Things Revealed

Poor blogger. Facebook is much inferior, and yet receives more attention. It's like the cuter, younger child. Irresponsible and yet attractive. Hmph.

A couple weeks ago I was making tracks out of the locker room at the YMCA when I "ran into" a middle aged woman. We began to talk... discussing her religious views (she attends a Unitarian church) and mine.

She is an agnostic -- she seems to believe in God, but states it is arrogant for humans to describe his nature. She, along with the Unitarian church, studies aspects of various religions, and I think church meetings consist largely of discussions of ethics.

I expressed to her that I believe we cannot know everything there is to know about God. If we did, we would be God. Nevertheless, I believe God has revealed wisdom for our knowing and for application to our lives. He desires that we act in accordance with his revelations.

I believed and believe this to be true. As a Christian I want the physical creation, the laws of nature, moral laws, government, Christian principles, Old Testament principles to add up some how. I want a "string theory" of moral, physical and spiritual existence. I don't want to throw up my hands in despair and state that I cannot know and therefore I will not attempt to know as much as I can. And yet I don't want to be frustrated by my inability to make everything completely jive.

Well, then I came upon a verse as I studied for my weekly Bible study with Bible Study Fellowship. It's a great verse, and states with authority what I can try to explain with many beating-around-the-bush paragraphs.

"The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law." Deuteronomy 29:29 (NASB)

Paraphrase: there are truths that we will not understand, that we may never fathom, in our earthly existence. However, God has told us everything we need to know in order to live the lives he desires for us; to live, to love, to serve, to spread the news, to experience true joy and true peace, to give Him glory. We are blessed to know, and we are responsible to act based on the knowing. There is certainty and therefore comfort in this.