Salvation By Grace

29 “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.”

ESV Study Bible Notes:

• Not everything that is true of God has been revealed.
• That there are secret things anticipates the need to trust, obey, and be humble before God.
• What God has revealed is for the sake of obedience

Matthew Henry’s Commentary:

• A full answer is given to that question, Wherefore has the Lord done thus to this land? sufficient to justify God and admonish (correct) us.
• But if any ask further why God would be at such a vast expense of miracles to form such a people, whose apostasy and ruin he plainly foresaw, why he did not by his almighty grace prevent it, or what he intends yet to do with them, let such know that these are questions which cannot be answered, and therefore are not fit to be asked.
• It is presumption in us to pry into the Arcana imperii-the mysteries of government, and to enquire into the reasons of state which it is not for us to know.
  • See Acts 1:7; Jn. 21:22; Col. 2:18.
• Secondly, We are directed and encouraged diligently to enquire into that which God has made known: things revealed belong to us and to our children.
• Note,
  • 1.Though God has kept much of his counsel secret, yet there is enough revealed to satisfy and save us.
    
    • He has kept back nothing that is profitable for us, but that only which it is good for us to be ignorant of.
      
  • 2. We ought to acquaint ourselves, and our children too, with the things of God that are revealed.
    
    • We are not only allowed to search into them, but are concerned to do so.
      
    • They are things which we and ours are nearly interested in.
      
    • They are the rules we are to live by, the grants we are to live upon; and therefore we are to learn them diligently ourselves, and to teach them diligently to our children.
  • 3. All our knowledge must be in order to practice, for this is the end of all divine revelation, not to furnish us with curious subjects of speculation and discourse, with which to entertain ourselves and our friends, but that we may do all the words of this law, and be blessed in our deed.

This entry was posted on June 27, 2009 at 4:10 pm and is filed under * Favorites, Deuteronomy, Trust with tags Mystery of God. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.