Have you ever zoomed way in on a map, maybe all the way down to your own house, and then slowly zoomed out until you are looking at the earth from space? The closer you zoom in, the more details you see. Streets, trees, rooftops, even footpaths you never noticed before. But the farther you zoom out, the more you realize how much there is that you do not see and do not know. As many of us know, studying the Bible is a lot like that.
The more we learn, the more we realize how much more there is to learn. And instead of discouraging us, that realization should actually produce humility, confidence, and wonder.
When it comes to studying the Bible, there are some foundational principles: We have to hold fast to the authority of God’s Word, relying on the Holy Spirit, interpreting Scripture with Scripture, reading the Bible with a Christ-centered lens, practicing sound exegesis by drawing out the meaning rather than importing our own ideas, trusting the clarity of Scripture, and receiving help from the teachers God has given to the church.
Flowing out of those foundations, God has also given us tools: Prayer comes first, asking God for help and illumination. He has also given us Bible translations, cross references, lexicons, timelines, surveys, commentaries, and dictionaries. All of these are gifts meant to serve our growth in faith.
With all that taken together, there is still always this fascinating space in the total area of all we don’t know that really contains two types of the unknown: what we can’t yet know (things that won’t be revealed either this side of eternity or ever), and what we just haven’t yet learned (things God has revealed in His Word but perhaps hasn’t revealed to us personally yet). Discerning between those things isn’t always easy or obvious.
Deuteronomy 29:29 says:
“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.”
There is a lot packed into that single verse. To understand it properly, we need to zoom out and see its context.
Deuteronomy chapters 28 and 29 outline blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience under the covenant God made with Israel. Hundreds of years later, those warnings came true. Babylon invaded, Jerusalem was destroyed, and the people were carried into exile, exactly as Deuteronomy had warned.
When we read about Israel’s suffering, exile, and devastation, we should remember these chapters. Israel was not experiencing random cruelty. They had agreed to the covenant, its promises, and its consequences. Disobedience was not minor failure. It involved abandoning the Lord for false gods, which included child sacrifice and ritual prostitution. Rejecting God meant rejecting His protection.
Israel had been redeemed from Egypt with signs and wonders, preserved in the wilderness, and brought to the edge of the Promised Land. God promised faithfulness and called them to respond in faithfulness. They agreed. Deuteronomy 29:29 addresses the deep tension that followed when judgment eventually came.
Israel and The Mystery of Irrefragable Promise
The question Israel struggled with was this: How could a people chosen by God, who were promised blessing, and bound by everlasting promises experience destruction and exile?
This verse is actually addressing a deep mystery. As Eugene Merrill put it:
“How could Israel, the recipient of the everlasting promises to the forefathers, be destroyed and deported?” (Merrill, Deuteronomy, NAC, 385. Emphasis added).
He explains further in another commentary:
“How can it be that God could call a people to himself and, with irrefragable promise… “[by the way, irrefragable means “not able to be refuted or disproved; indisputable”
The promise was secure. So, he continues, how could God… “…pledge to them an everlasting fidelity, only to write them off, even for a time? Of course, from the standpoint of a total biblical eschatology, no such thing will happen, for God will lead wayward Israel to repentance and full restoration” (Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, 638).
Israel did not fully understand how both could be true at the same time. Moses’ point in Deuteronomy 29:29 was not to explain every mystery, but to remind them that what God had revealed was sufficient for faithful living.
Another scholar, J. A. Thompson put it this way: “Sufficient is revealed in Yahweh’s covenant with Israel, to provide her with a sure guide for living in the present, and to this she is called.” (TOTC, 309. Emphasis added).
Paul and The Mystery of Irrevocable Grace
The same theme appears in Romans 11, where the apostle Paul reflects on Israel’s disobedience and God’s mercy. He writes that the gifts and calling of God are “irrevocable.” In other words, they are not returnable, reversible, or subject to cancellation.
Some gifts cannot be sent back. No one unsubscribes from sunlight or returns the air they breathe. When a king adopted a child into his family, the papers were not torn up. Once the seal was set, the relationship was permanent.
Paul knows how overwhelming this truth is, which is why he erupts in praise:
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways.”
Matthew Henry beautifully connects both Deuteronomy 29 and Romans 11.
“Moses ends his prophecy of the Jews’ rejection, just as St. Paul ends his discourse on the same subject, when it began to be fulfilled, [Ro 11:33]. We are forbidden curiously to inquire into the secret counsels of God, …. But we are directed and encouraged, diligently to seek into that which God has made known. He has kept back nothing that is profitable for us, but only that of which it is good for us to be ignorant. The end of all Divine revelation is, not to furnish curious subjects of speculation and discourse, but that we may do all the words of this law, and be blessed in our deed. This, the Bible plainly reveals; further than this, man cannot profitably go. By this light he may live and die comfortably, and be happy for ever.”
What This Means for Us
There were mysteries then, and there are mysteries now. That can be frustrating, but it can also fill us with wonder. We learn things today, and we will learn things forever, not just about the future but about the past.
We will never be omniscient. That means for all eternity we will continue to be able to learn more of God’s glory, grace, and wisdom. Scripture teaches that pain and sorrow will be removed, but not memory itself. In fact, remembrance plays huge a role in eternal joy.
There are lots of Scriptures that tell about how painful memories will be wiped away but there are even more Scriptures that promise us how much we will remember. For example, we’re told God’s Word will never pass away (in Matt. 24:35), and God’s Word itself records sin and evil, but it’s record is preserved there apparently for our eternal good. Scripture shows that remembrance, even of at least some evil, will be part of our eternal joy: for example in Revelation 7 the redeemed recall tribulation and being rescued from it (Rev. 7:14–17), the saints sing of the Lamb who was slain (Rev. 5:9–12). How can you sing about Jesus being slain or feel anything about that if you don’t remember what that means? In Jesus’ parable in Luke 16 Abraham tells the rich man to “remember” his life (Luke 16:25), and in John 20 Christ’s risen and glorified body still bore the scars of His crucifixion (John 20:27). Psalm 111:4 affirms that God causes His wondrous works to be remembered. So meeting Abraham, Moses, and others in heaven would be meaningless without memory of their (sinful) life. Heaven is not the loss of remembrance, even of at least some sin and evil, but the removal of the pain and sorrow so that every memory we do have, fuels our eternal joy and worship of God.
This also helps us think rightly about mystery. Almost every time the word “mystery” appears in the New Testament, it refers to something that has already been revealed. Even the book of Revelation is not about increasing confusion, but uncovering truth. The word “apocalypse” literally means revelation or revealing.
In it’s pages the greatest mystery has already been revealed: Jesus Christ is the Lord God! He is fully God and fully man. He died for sinners, rose again, reigns forever, and will return. Christ has already won. And the end of the story is not hidden: He wins.
Unknowable Vs. Mysterious
We should be careful not to quickly label something as “unknowable” if God has revealed it in Scripture. Sometimes the problem is not that Scripture is unclear, but that we resist what it says because it’s difficult to understand or hard to accept.
About these things, Martin Luther put it this way:
“Scripture makes the straightforward affirmation that the Trinity, the Incarnation and the unpardonable sin are facts. There is nothing obscure or ambiguous about that. You imagine Scripture tells how they are what they are; but it does not, nor need we know.”
In Scripture, have everything we need to know, for now. The apostle Peter captures this balance perfectly when he writes that, “[God’s] divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence…” (2 Peter 1:3)
Resting, Obeying and Continuing to Learn
To summarize: The secret things belong to the Lord, and that is good for us. The revealed things belong to us, and they are enough. More will be revealed to us in this life, and even more will be revealed to us, in the future, about future things, but also about eternity past! May we humbly rest in what it seems God has hidden, for now. May we faithfully receive and obey what He has clearly revealed. And may we joyfully stay curious, and keep learning of His glory, both today, and forever! Amen? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
Adorn the Gospel 