Our Job, and Not Our Job Text: Deuteronomy 29:29
Introduction: The Itch for God's Inbox
We live in an age of information addiction. We have devices in our pockets that give us access to more data than any generation in human history could have imagined. And with this firehose of information comes a particular kind of arrogance, a peculiar spiritual malady. We begin to think that if we just had a little more data, if we could just run one more search, if we could just see around the next corner, then we could finally get control of our lives. We want to know the future. We want to understand the intricate details of divine providence. We want access to God's inbox, to read His sent mail, to see His calendar for next quarter. We want to know the why behind every tough providence, the detailed blueprint for our lives, and the secret counsel of the Almighty.
And when we don't get it, we get anxious. Or we get demanding. Or we get paralyzed. We spend so much time trying to figure out what God has not told us that we completely neglect to do what He has plainly commanded us. We are like a soldier who is given a clear order to take a hill, but who refuses to move until the general gives him a complete briefing on the grand strategy for the entire war, including contingency plans for the next three years. That is not a good soldier; it is a disobedient soldier.
Our text today is a foundational piece of biblical wisdom. It is a guardrail for the human soul, a principle that, if grasped, will save you from a world of grief, anxiety, and fruitless speculation. It draws a sharp, clean line in the sand. On one side of the line is God's business. On the other side of the line is our business. The secret to a fruitful Christian life is knowing the difference, and then dedicating yourself with gusto to your side of the line.
The Text
"The secret things belong to Yahweh our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may do all the words of this law."
(Deuteronomy 29:29)
God's Prerogative: The Secret Things
The first half of the verse establishes a fundamental reality about God and our relationship to Him.
"The secret things belong to Yahweh our God..."
There are things that God has not revealed. This is not because He is a cosmic trickster, or because He is withholding information we desperately need in order to obey Him. He keeps things secret because He is God and we are not. This flows directly from the Creator/creature distinction, the most basic truth in the universe. God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. We are finite, temporal, and dusty. For us to demand to know all that God knows would be like a cartoon character demanding to know the mind of the animator, or a character in a play demanding to see the playwright's script for the next act. The difference in the kinds of reality is infinite.
What are these secret things? They include the details of God's sovereign decrees. Who will be saved? When will Christ return? Why did God permit this specific tragedy to strike my family? How do God's absolute sovereignty and my genuine responsibility work together in the deep mechanics of reality? The Bible teaches both of these truths with great force, and so we must believe both. Charles Spurgeon was once asked how he reconciled these two truths, and he famously replied that he never reconciled friends. The secret of how they are reconciled in the mind of God belongs to Him. Our job is to believe what He has revealed.
This truth is a great mercy. God has cordoned off an entire realm of inquiry and labeled it "Not Your Job." This frees us from the crushing burden of needing to have it all figured out. You do not have to know the secret things. You are not responsible for the secret things. They belong to Yahweh. They are His property. Trying to pry into them is a form of spiritual trespassing. It is the original sin of the Garden all over again, the desire to be "like God, knowing" what we were not meant to know. This leads not to wisdom, but to anxiety, presumption, and ultimately, shipwrecked faith.
Our Inheritance: The Things Revealed
But God has not left us in the dark. The verse immediately pivots from what is God's to what is ours.
"...but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever..."
While God's secret will is His own, His revealed will is ours. It is a gift. It is an inheritance, passed down from one generation to the next, "to us and to our sons forever." And what is this revealed will? It is the Scriptures. It is the Law and the Prophets. It is the Gospels and the Epistles. God has spoken, and His speech was not a mumble. He has given us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). The Bible is not a book of hints or a collection of religious suggestions. It is God's clear, authoritative, and sufficient Word.
We are not left to guess about what God requires of us. He has told us. He has revealed His character. He has revealed our sin. He has revealed the path of salvation through His Son. He has revealed how we are to worship, how we are to live in families, how we are to conduct our business, and how we are to build communities. The things revealed are not a small consolation prize for not getting to know the secret things. They are a vast and rich treasure. The problem is not that God has been stingy with revelation; the problem is that we are lazy with what He has given us. We have Bibles gathering dust on our shelves while we spend our days anxiously trying to read the tea leaves of providence.
Notice the permanence of this revelation: it belongs to us "forever." God's moral law does not change. His promises are not fickle. The truth He has revealed is an anchor for our souls in every generation. We do not need new revelations, new prophecies, or secret insights. What we need is to be faithful stewards of the revelation we already possess.
The Purpose of Revelation: Obedience
The verse does not end by simply drawing a distinction between secret and revealed things. It gives us the purpose, the grand point of it all.
"...that we may do all the words of this law."
Here is the punchline. God reveals things to us for a intensely practical purpose: so that we might obey. Revelation is not for speculation; it is for application. God did not give us the Bible to make us smart; He gave it to us to make us holy. The goal of all theology, all Bible study, all preaching, is a changed life. It is obedience from the heart.
This is where the modern church often gets it backwards. We treat the Bible like a textbook for an exam, and the test is all about what we know. But God treats the Bible like a manual for living, and the test is all about what we do. The Pharisees knew the Scriptures inside and out, but their knowledge was a dead thing. It did not lead to love for God and neighbor, but to pride and hypocrisy. True knowledge of God's revealed will always, always results in a desire to "do all the words of this law."
This is not legalism. This is covenant faithfulness. The law that Moses is speaking of here is the covenant document that outlines Israel's relationship with Yahweh. For us, who live on this side of the cross, our obedience flows from a heart transformed by grace. We obey not in order to be saved, but because we have been saved. The whole law is fulfilled in Christ, and when we are united to Him by faith, the Holy Spirit writes that law on our hearts, empowering us and inclining us to walk in His ways.
Conclusion: Stop Speculating and Start Walking
So what is the application for us? It is profoundly simple. Stop worrying about the secret things. Leave them with God. His shoulders are broad enough to carry them. Your job is not to manage the universe. Your job is not to figure out God's eternal decrees. Your job is to focus on the things revealed.
Are you anxious about the future? Stop trying to predict it and start obeying God in the present. The revealed will of God is that you "do not be anxious about tomorrow" (Matthew 6:34). Your job is to trust and obey today.
Are you wrestling with a difficult providence, a suffering that makes no sense? Stop demanding that God give you a detailed explanation. The secret reasons belong to Him. The revealed will is that you "give thanks in all circumstances" (1 Thessalonians 5:18) and trust that He "works all things together for good" (Romans 8:28). Your job is to believe His promise and praise Him in the storm.
Are you paralyzed by some big decision, waiting for a sign from heaven? God has already revealed His will for your character. He has told you to be wise, to seek counsel, to be righteous, to be loving, to be faithful (Proverbs 11:14; Micah 6:8). Make your decision in line with the clear teaching of Scripture and trust the secret things of providence to God.
The greatest "thing revealed" is the person and work of Jesus Christ. God has not kept the plan of salvation a secret. He has revealed it fully and finally in His Son. The central command, the first thing we must do, is to repent of our sins and believe in Him. That is the front door to a life of happy obedience. The secret things belong to God, but the cross has been revealed to us. And our duty, our glorious and joyful duty, is to look to that cross, trust in the Savior who hung there, and then get up and begin to do all the words of His law.