Commentary - Deuteronomy 29:29

Bird's-eye view

This single verse, standing near the conclusion of the covenant renewal ceremony in Moab, serves as a magnificent guardrail for all sound theology and practical Christian living. Moses has just finished reciting a litany of covenant curses that will befall a rebellious Israel, painting a grim picture of exile and desolation. The natural human response to such a pronouncement is to ask "Why?" or to speculate about the hidden purposes of God. This verse cuts off all such proud and fruitless inquiry at the knees. It establishes a fundamental and non-negotiable distinction between two realms of knowledge: God's exhaustive, secret counsel, and His clear, public revelation. God knows everything; we do not. Our duty is not to pry into the former, but to faithfully obey the latter. This principle protects us from the twin errors of fatalistic paralysis on the one hand ("God has decreed all things, so my actions don't matter") and arrogant presumption on the other ("I can figure out God's secret will for my life"). Our task is simple, though not easy: to take God at His revealed Word and to walk in it.

In essence, this verse is the biblical foundation for the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. God has given us everything we need for life and godliness in His law, in His Word. The "secret things", the precise details of His sovereign decrees, the timing of future events, the unrevealed reasons behind His providential acts, belong to Him alone. They are His business. Our business is what He has placed in our hands, the plain words of this law. The verse is therefore not a discouragement to knowledge, but a channeling of it. It directs our intellectual and spiritual energy away from speculative mysteries and toward concrete, practical obedience. It is a call to humility before the infinite mind of God and a call to action in the world He has made, based on the light He has graciously provided.

Outline

Context In Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 29 is a solemn moment. Israel is poised on the edge of the Promised Land. The generation that came out of Egypt has perished in the wilderness, and Moses is now addressing their children. He is renewing the covenant that God made at Horeb (Sinai) with this new generation. The chapter begins with a recitation of God's mighty acts in Egypt and the wilderness (29:2-8), emphasizing that God has been faithful to His side of the covenant. Moses then calls everyone to stand and enter into this sworn covenant (29:10-15), warning them starkly against the secret idolater whose heart turns away from Yahweh (29:18-21). This leads to a prophecy of the devastating curses and exile that will follow such apostasy, a devastation so complete that foreign nations will ask why Yahweh has done this to His land (29:22-28). It is immediately following this terrifying vision of covenant judgment that we find our verse. Verse 29 functions as the theological conclusion to the whole matter. After hearing of such potential calamity, the people must not be tempted to question God's secret justice or His hidden plan. Rather, they are to be driven back to the clarity of their known duty. The context is one of covenant law, blessings, and especially curses; the verse provides the only sane and faithful response to it all.

Key Issues

Our Job Description

Every Christian needs to have Deuteronomy 29:29 tattooed on the inside of his eyelids. It is our fundamental job description as creatures. God is God, and we are not. This is the first principle of all wisdom. And part of what it means for God to be God is that He knows things we do not and cannot know. He has a plan, a decree, that governs all things from the flight of a gnat to the fall of an empire. These are the "secret things." They are not secret because God is being coy; they are secret because they belong to the counsel of the infinite, triune God, and our three-pound brains would rupture if we tried to contain it.

But God is not a God who hides in the sense of leaving us in the dark. He is a speaking God. He has revealed Himself. He has condescended to speak our language and to give us His law, His Word. These are the "things revealed." This revelation is not a partial, tantalizing glimpse into the secret things. No, the revealed things are a separate category. The decrees are made concerning us, but the covenant is given to us. It is not our job to parse the decrees. It is our job to live in terms of the covenant. This verse establishes the proper relationship between God's sovereignty and our responsibility. We affirm that the decrees are there, but we deny that we should live our lives based on a presumed knowledge of their content. We are to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, because that is what belongs to us.

Verse by Verse Commentary

29 “The secret things belong to Yahweh our God,

Moses begins by drawing a sharp, clear line. There is a category of knowledge that is God's exclusive possession. The Hebrew word for "secret things" refers to that which is hidden, concealed. This is not just about things we haven't discovered yet, like the cure for the common cold. This refers to the eternal decrees of God, the "why" behind every providence, the exhaustive blueprint of history. Why was Pharaoh's heart hardened? Why did God choose Jacob and not Esau? Why does God permit a particular evil? Why will the final judgment happen on one day and not another? These matters are not our concern. They belong to Yahweh. To attempt to pry into them is to commit cosmic trespassing. It is the sin of the Tower of Babel, trying to climb up into heaven to steal what is not ours. Humility begins here, by acknowledging that God's filing cabinet of secret decrees is locked, and He has the only key. And that is a great mercy to us.

but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever,

Here is the glorious contrast. While some things are hidden, other things are gloriously, publicly, and permanently revealed. What are these "things revealed"? In the immediate context, it is "all the words of this law" which Moses has been expounding. By extension, it is the entirety of Holy Scripture, God's propositional, objective, written Word. Notice the characteristics of this revelation. It "belongs to us." It is a gift, a possession, a treasure. It is not something we have to guess at; it has been given. It also belongs "to our sons forever." This is a covenantal statement. The Word of God is a generational inheritance. It is not a private mystical experience for an elite few, but a public trust to be handed down from father to son, from one generation of the covenant community to the next. It is permanent, "forever." God's revealed will does not change. The moral standard He sets, the gospel He proclaims, these are fixed realities upon which we can build our lives, our families, and our cultures.

that we may do all the words of this law.

This final clause is the practical punchline of the entire verse. It answers the question, "Why has God revealed these things to us?" The purpose of divine revelation is not to stuff our heads with theological trivia. It is not so that we can win arguments or feel intellectually superior. God has spoken so that we might obey. The goal of Scripture is action. It is "that we may do." The Bible is a book that demands a response. It is a call to walk, to live, to build, to fight, to love, to worship, all in accordance with the patterns God has laid down. The secret things tempt us to speculation and paralysis. The revealed things command us to obedience and faithfulness. This is where the rubber of our theology is intended to meet the road of our lives. We read the Word not just to know, but to do. And in the doing, we show that we are faithful sons of the covenant, content with what our Father has given us, and trusting Him with what He has wisely kept to Himself.

Application

This verse is intensely practical for the Christian life. First, it frees us from the anxiety of trying to figure out God's secret, providential will. Many Christians tie themselves in knots trying to "discern God's will" for their lives, as though it were a hidden clue in a scavenger hunt. Should I take this job? Marry this person? Move to this city? This verse tells us to stop looking for secret messages written in the clouds. God's will for your life is found in the "things revealed." Are you obeying the commands of Scripture? Are you being a faithful husband, a diligent worker, an honest neighbor, an active member of your church? Do that. Do the revealed will of God, and trust Him to guide your steps through His sovereign providence, which is His business, not yours. Make your decision in wisdom, based on biblical principles, and then get on with it, trusting that the secret things belong to the Lord.

Second, this verse is a mighty bulwark against all forms of theological error. Mysticism and gnosticism are built on the idea of receiving secret knowledge that goes beyond the Bible. Liberal theology is built on subjecting the revealed things to fallen human reason. The charismatic who claims a "word from the Lord" that is on par with Scripture is trespassing into God's domain. The hyper-Calvinist who uses God's secret decrees as an excuse not to evangelize has failed to obey the revealed command to "go and make disciples." The Arminian who cannot reconcile divine sovereignty and human choice is trying to solve a problem that belongs in God's "secret things" filing cabinet. Sound theology, like a sound life, is built squarely and exclusively on the things revealed. Our duty is to believe what God has said, and to obey what God has commanded. Let us be diligent in our study of what belongs to us, and joyfully content to leave the rest to our all-wise and sovereign God.