The hidden things belong to Jehovah our God; but the revealed ones are ours and our children's for ever, to do all the words of this law.
Moses ends his covenant address by drawing a line: some things God keeps to Himself, and the rest He gives to His people and their children. So what were the "secret things," and what should we do with the part God has given?
Where the Verse Stands
Moses has just set the words of the covenant before Israel. One writer sees the last verse pointing past that demand, to what God would do when the people failed:
When the people had altogether and publicly failed, grace can bring out from God Himself the only suited remedy... grace, though in a distant and puzzling way, hints at an unrevealed secret. When the people have utterly failed on the ground of law, God will not fail to find ways and means of justifying them by faith. It is not just words that can bring them all into the land for a time. He also has means, still secret, by which He can justify them in the face of all their faults.
What "Secret" and "Revealed" Mean Here
Both halves of the verse have a definite content:
The things "revealed" are what we have had before us in the preceding chapter of this book. The things "secret," on the other hand, are those resources of grace which God had in store. He would unfold them once the people had utterly failed to "do all the words of this law." The revealed things are what Israel ought to have done, but did not do. The secret things are what God would do, despite Israel's sad and shameful failure.
Secrets Opened in the Next Chapters
Some of what was hidden opens up later in Deuteronomy itself:
The chapters which follow throw this into greater prominence. They unfold the secret things which were to happen after the people had completely failed to keep the law. Chapter 30 does this, and chapter 32 does it even more strikingly, by speaking of righteousness by faith. For the discussion about righteousness by the law ended with chapter 29. Chapter 30 assumes the people are in a position where gaining righteousness by the law was impossible.
Secrets Kept Then, Told Now
The New Testament word "mystery" reaches back to this verse:
God's mysteries mean those secret things which are now revealed, in contrast with what Israel had of old (Deut. 29:29). They are not, as people commonly suppose, things that cannot be understood. They are truths reserved by God in Old Testament times, now displayed in Christ on high and made known by the Spirit in the New Testament.
One reserved truth concerned a people God would gather out of the nations. Israel at Moab never heard of it, and never had to answer for it:
God was not revealing to them, for instance, what He would do when they were in a state of rebellion. But now it is revealed that God is taking out of the Gentile nations a special people called "the Church of God." This was a mystery "hid in God" (Eph. 3:9) and only revealed through Paul after the death and resurrection of Christ. But Israel was responsible only for the revelation God had then given them, therefore to obey the law.
A Verse Often Turned the Wrong Way
People often quote this sentence to shut down study, as though deep truth were off-limits. One writer answers that use directly:
People constantly use this verse to hinder the progress of souls in the knowledge of "the deep things of God"... Understood rightly, it gives no warrant at all for that common use. It encourages the heart to search into those things which, though "secret" to Israel on the plains of Moab, are fully and clearly "revealed" to us for our profit, comfort and building up.
The Opposite Danger
There is a second fault, and it is common: digging at what God kept back while neglecting what He gave:
He must pry into most holy things with unholy hands, while he neglects the things God encourages him to investigate and inquire into. "Search the Scriptures" is the command of God to him, but in this, sadly, he has no interest... The desire for a forbidden thing was a large part of our first parents' sin. There are "secret things" which belong to the Lord our God, but there is an abundance He has revealed, and of this, sadly, we all know too little.
Summary
- Belongs to God — the secret things were what God would do once Israel had failed under the law. He kept those resources of grace in store.
- Belongs to us — the revealed things were the covenant words just spoken. Israel had to answer only for the light it already had.
- Belongs to obedience — God gives what He reveals for a purpose — to do the words of the law, not just discuss them.
- Belongs to now — what was secret at Moab is now told in Christ. A "mystery" is a truth once reserved, now made known by the Spirit.
- Belongs to searchers — the verse never bans study. It warns against chasing the hidden and neglecting the plain.