Things God Will Not Tell Us

“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.” [1]

You should always be suspicious of the one who claims superior knowledge. Should he claim to know the deep secrets of God, RUN! Don’t debate the issue, just run! There are things that God has chosen not to reveal. You don’t know the time of your death, nor the means by which you’ll die. You have no control over those events. No person knows the timing of Christ’s return, though we are assured that He shall return. We cannot know the state of an individual’s heart, though we are responsible to be discerning. How a person lives does expose their character, but character can change.

There is so much about God, about what He does, that we do not know. What we do know about God is what He has chosen to reveal. However, God has hidden from us much about which we might be curious. How could it be otherwise? God is infinite; we are finite. God has called all things into being; we are able only to think His thoughts after Him. We cannot anticipate what God will do—much less imagine why He chooses to do the things He does. If we attempt to reason through the challenge of knowing God’s actions, we discover, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God.”

THE SECRET THINGS — I’ve already mentioned some things that God has not revealed—the timing of your death, the means by which you shall die, the timing of Christ’s return, and the state of another’s heart. There is so much that we don’t know, so much that we cannot know. God knows, but He has not revealed to us those matters. Undoubtedly, there are many other things that we cannot know. And we should take time to consider why it is important not to know some things.

Among the Proverbs is one which speaks of things the writer does not understand.

“Three things are too wonderful for me;

four I do not understand:

the way of an eagle in the sky,

the way of a serpent on a rock,

the way of a ship on the high seas,

and the way of a man with a virgin.”

[PROVERBS 30:18-19]

To be certain, these are facets of life that still puzzle us. “The way of an eagle in the sky” speaks of the manner in which the bird knows the updrafts and currents that allow it to move effortlessly through the sky. Perhaps we can explain in part what is going on, but we don’t really understand how the bird knows where those currents are nor how to take advantage of the updrafts. Apparently, God has performed some pretty amazing work in creating these marvellous birds.

Agur son of Jakeh also speaks of “the way of a serpent on a rock.” We can describe scoots on a snake and the sinuous movement as it passes over the rocks, but we don’t fully understand how these marvellous creatures manage to move as they do. My wife showed me a picture of a snake on the side of a house from which a cousin had just emerged. How the rat snake managed to climb up a seemingly smooth surface to hang around as it did seem beyond comprehension.

The writer speaks of how difficult it is to understand “the way of a ship on the high seas.” We have a somewhat better understanding of ocean currents and oceanic thermoclines, but we are not yet able to predict with any degree of accuracy how these currents move or describe the changing thermoclines.

Then Agur confesses his mystification at “the way of a man with a virgin.” Why do women think as they do and how to they work through the challenges they face? What leads a woman to fall in love with a man that is unworthy of her love, and how does she manage to transform a rough man into someone of whom she can be proud? I suggest that this is still a mystery.

It is somewhat like the old story of the man who found a bottle on the seashore. He rubbed the bottle to remove some of the grime that had accumulated over the years, and LO and BEHOLD! A genie appeared. As the story goes, the genie offered to fulfil any wish the man might make.

The man pondered this opportunity for a bit, and at last he said, “You know, I’ve always wanted to go to Hawaii, but I’m afraid of flying and I don’t like being on ships. Build me a bridge that will allow me to drive to Hawaii.”