“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.” Deuteronomy 29:29 ESV
Here it comes. As soon as I tell somebody I’m a missionary and ask about their thoughts on God, the crazy questions come. Did Adam have a belly button? Who created God? Were there dinosaurs on the ark? Do all dogs really go to heaven? Who did Cain and Able marry? After a while it really gets a bit comical observing the people that are seeking for the one true God trying to fully figure out the one true God before they commit to trust the one true God. But when the rubber hits the road, do you really want a God you can fully figure out in the few minutes between your morning coffee and your way out the door? You see, no matter whether you like it or not, the God that designed, created, and daily runs His universe has not told us everything.
And it’s really none of our business. Why do we as humans think that somehow, we deserve to know everything that God does, did, and will do? In fact, if you think about it, this is the foundational element of why every single person that has ever lived is in this nasty sin mess in the first place…the deepest desire to know and think like God was the root of the first sin:
“But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” Genesis 3:4-6 ESV (italics mine)
The ability to think like God is something that is, and forever will be, well beyond the grasp of the 3-pound peashooters that reside in the cranial cavities of all homo sapiens. So then why do we effort ourselves so in just the opposite direction? And the irony of this is that all the while, God carefully observes man attempting to near His intellectual plateau. In fact, that is the crux of our study verse above. God knows and we don’t. And what God does want us to know He reveals to us through His Word, the Holy Bible, the Scriptures. And just why exactly did God reveal to us what He did in the Bible? Well, He gave us every single bit of pertinent and relevant information that we needed for one reason. That we could do what He says and live the life that He created for us. A life void of the danger and destruction of our own sin. A life instead lived in God’s fullness, goodness, peace, joy, harmony, and purpose. In a nutshell, God desires the abundant life that Christ mentions in John 10:10. He wants for all of His children a peace-filled life with a level of peace that surpasses all human understanding He mentions in Philippians 4:7. But, and it’s a big but…you must first know what God’s Word says and then you must actually do it. And this folks, is where most of the world gets lost in the weeds.
As I’m studying through the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, it seems it should really be called “Do-teronomy” for the crazy amount of times God uses the word “do.” The other day I went back and performed a simple word count and discovered that the first 13 chapters of “Do-teronomy” uses the word “do” a whopping 40 times! Yes, you read that right, 40 times in a short 13 chapters for an average of 3.07 times per chapter. Friends, do you think that God wants us to know there is a difference between just knowing His Word and doing His Word? James thought so…(James 1:22)
I challenge you today to not get caught up spending valuable time questioning what the animals ate on the ark, but instead start focusing on what you have been given. God, in a miracle that must astound all of us, left us a collection of His very Words. And they are clearly printed in black ink on white paper and bound into the best-selling book the world has ever witnessed. Folks, read and do the black parts. Don’t get so caught up in the white parts that you miss the simple recipe that God has given you to bake the abundant life He desires for you. And when you do get to the end of your human understanding concerning His Word, reach for the beginning of your faith. For this is the reason God gifted us faith. To fill the gap of human intellectual and emotional deficiency with the assurance that God is in control just as He always has been, and always will be.
Drop the burdensome questions that lie at the altar of your own limited human understanding and instead choose to simply believe faithfully in the promises God has issued in His Word. Simply read the Word, study the Word, and do the Word…and leave the secrets to God…they are all His.
Blessings to each of you ~ Dan
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
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