Theological discussions are enjoyable for me. Not the kind where we draw hard and fast lines that divide and create conflict. But discussions that seek to understand the heart of God and the word of God. But there are many times when I will say, “I don’t know the answer to that dilemma. It is above my pay grade.”

For instance, how do you explain a God who has no beginning and no end. OK, I get the no end piece but what do you do to explain that God has always existed and never had a beginning? Or how do you adequately explain how God is one, and yet exists in three co-equal persons. Three in One. I have heard many explanations, some of which are helpful to a point but the mystery of the Trinity remains. I cannot explain it. That, too, is above my pay grade. 

Then there are things we read in Scripture which can baffle us. Take Pharaoh, for example, who refused to let the people go until the final of the ten plagues. The Scriptures say that God hardened his heart so that God’s power would become known through the plagues. But the text also says that Pharaoh hardened his heart. So which is it? Actually both, but try to explain that.

As Moses was reminding the people of God’s covenant with them as they prepared to enter the promised land in Deuteronomy 29:29, he slips in an intriguing truth. Here it is: “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.”

There are many things that God has revealed to us through Scripture. Everything we need for faith and godly living is found in the Bible which is a good reason to read it regularly. The more we study His Word to us, the better we can follow and the wiser we can live. 

But always remember. God is God and we are not. There are things we will never be able to understand or explain. They are simply too infinite for finite people like us to understand. The secret things belong to the Lord our God. We don’t need to understand those things. But, “the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of his law.” The revealed things we do need to know so  that we can follow them and therefore follow God. Our challenge is not to figure out the secret things. It is to know well those things that God has revealed to us. How well are you doing the latter? That is our daily challenge.

Father, I thank you that there are things we don’t understand because that reveals how great you are and some things so far above our comprehension. I leave those things to you. But help me to pay daily attention to what you have revealed to us through your Word so that I can follow all the words of your revelation to us. Amen.