The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29)In Deuteronomy 29, Moses has just finished telling the Israelites about how bad it will be if they refuse to follow YHVH God. Things will be bad for them and all the nations will see it. Then in Deuteronomy 30, he tells them that they must choose between life or death.
In between the chapters is this odd little verse. It says in essence that some things God does are impossible to understand. Only he can understand them because they are secret things.
However, he does say also that the things revealed are available not only to the people of God then, but to their children forever.
But there that little verse is. The secret things belong to the Lord our God.
There are some things that are not to be understood by us. The nature of God is one. We do not know how God is. We know the ideas he gives us about the Father, Son and Spirit. But we also know that those are nothing more than analogies. He is not literally a Father in most senses.
Of course, he is in one sense in that he implanted that child in Mary. And his Son is that in the sense that he was born to Mary. And the Greek word for Spirit, pneuma, means nothing more than breath.
But God himself is not a Father. The Word existed long before he became a Son and will exist long after the need for his Sonship is passed. God does not breathe, so really, the Spirit is not necessarily real.
But yet they are too. How?
We can explain it to our kids all day long, but it will make no real difference. And that is mainly because we cannot explain God.
Insofar as we have him inside us, we can understand his nature, but we can never understand him. He is too great and too other.
That is why he sent Jesus to us. He wanted to have a touching place with the human race, so he sent Jesus. Jesus was human lie we are so he can touch us. Yet he was also sinless like God so he can touch God. Through him we can touch God.
They are secret, yes. But that doesn’t mean that it renders God so far away that we cannot be in contact with him. He is still God and he loves us and lives within us.
How. I don’t know. And I don’t really care. It is so and I accept it as such.
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