In this message, Pastor Matt encourages us to trust the Lord, even when we do not have all the answers to our questions about his ways.
The Secret Things Belong to the Lord
Scripture Reading:
“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
A Personal Memory of Loss
Thank you for giving my wife and me almost a month away. The past year has been difficult, and the time to pray, evaluate, and refocus was invaluable.
On the first day of our trip, we visited the Karlstad graveyard to see the grave of our first daughter, Emma. It is always sad to go back, but it is not like it was in those initial days. Time does not heal every wound; there are fewer tears now, just a low longing for what might have been.
As we continued our trip, we drove the same highway we took to deliver her in 2004, and the same road we traveled when she became critically ill ten days later. I believe there were over a thousand godly people praying for Emma during her illness. Yet despite those prayers, tears, and the desperate longings of two heartsick parents, on December 29, 2004, our daughter passed away at twelve days old.
Loss brings a sobering perspective. While she was having heart surgery at the Mayo Clinic, we stayed at the Ronald McDonald House in Rochester, Minnesota. As sad as our situation was, I met a family there whose eleven-year-old child had been battling cancer for years.
I do not know all the deepest trials each of you face, though I know many in this room are hurting. Some trials may seem larger, others smaller, but all of them leave us with bruised hearts. They leave us looking up to heaven asking: “Why, Lord? Why did this happen this way?”
Too often, we cry out for answers only to encounter a deafening silence. We search the Scriptures and find few direct explanations for our specific pain, and we can grow frustrated by well-meaning but unhelpful pat responses from fellow believers. Today, I want to look at Deuteronomy 29:29 to consider why God so often seems silent, and to find comfort in why He does not give us every answer we demand.
Why Was This Written?
As a church, we have been studying Deuteronomy this year. Chapter 29 ends with severe warnings about idolatry, curses, and exile. Right in the middle of these solemn warnings stands verse 29, like a sudden shot out of the blue. It serves as an eternal warning against idle speculation and an encouragement to remain attentive to what God has said.
To understand this verse, we must ask two questions:
- Why did Moses write this?
- Why did the Holy Spirit inspire it for us?
Moses wrote to instruct the Israelites and all who entered into covenant with God. The Holy Spirit inspired these words for our instruction today as well.
Moses gives this principle immediately following stern warnings of judgment. In verse 27, it says:
“Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, bringing upon it all the curses written in this book. And the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as they are this day.”
The weight of hardship described in Deuteronomy causes people to look up and ask “Why?” It is like Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof looking to heaven and saying, “I know, Lord, that we are Your chosen people. But once in a while, couldn’t You choose someone else?”
Moses reminds the people that the hidden things belong to God because he wants them to know that even when life feels like a curse, they must simply trust and obey. When there are no immediate answers to life’s crushing load, they can trust God even in His silence.
For us today, the Holy Spirit uses this passage to reassure us that when life feels overwhelming, God remains trustworthy and good. Faith is following God even when He does not give you every answer. It is trusting Him when you cannot comprehend why He allows a young mother to suffer from cancer, or why grief strikes your home. When you cannot see or understand the reasons, you can still know that God is good.
The Human Need for Meaning
We are naturally meaning-seeking creatures. We constantly try to connect dots, sometimes where none exist—like baseball players attributing a hitting streak to lucky socks rather than keeping their eye on the ball. When hardship strikes, we instinctively search for a direct cause: “This must have happened because I did that.”
Yet Moses tells us that the secret things belong to the Lord. Things happen that are far beyond our finite understanding.
At first glance, Deuteronomy might seem to present a simple worldview: obey God and be blessed; disobey God and be cursed. While that covenant structure applied to Israel as a nation—leading to their eventual exile for idolatry—it does not mean individual suffering is always a direct punishment for personal sin.
In fact, verse 19 warns against the individual who presumes safety while walking in stubbornness, assuming they are exempt from hardship. Furthermore, righteous individuals often get caught up in broader suffering. Consider the prophet Jeremiah: he faithfully proclaimed God’s word, yet he was thrown into a pit, dragged to Egypt, and endured intense hardship through no fault of his own.
Consider the raw cry of Psalm 44:
“You have sold your people for a trifle, demanding no high price for them. You have made us the taunt of our neighbors… All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you, and we have not been false to your covenant.”
Moses gave Israel verse 29 because he knew there would be questions about suffering that have no easy answers in this life. When you lose a job, struggle with singleness, experience a broken marriage, watch a child wander from the faith, or endure the loss of a loved one—and there is no obvious cause or hidden sin to blame—we must learn to trust God in the silence.
To be clear: When bad things happen, it is wise to examine ourselves. If you wake up every morning with a headache because you were drinking the night before, you are experiencing the direct consequences of your actions. But where no direct link exists, we must remember that God holds sovereign reasons that He has not explained to us—reasons kept hidden ultimately for our good.
Human analogies fall short when speaking of the infinite God, but as parents, we know there are truths we withhold from young children because they are not yet ready to process them. Not every piece of knowledge is suitable or beneficial for us right now. God’s ways are infinitely higher than ours. The fact that we cannot see a good reason for our suffering does not mean one does not exist.
God is never capricious, unkind, or unloving to His people. As Romans 8:28 promises, for those who love God, all things work together for good. Part of His care for us includes withholding answers that would not be helpful for us to carry. Just as God kept the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil from Adam and Eve for their protection, He calls us in our moments of ignorance simply to trust Him.
The Revealed Things Belong to Us
There is a glorious second half to Deuteronomy 29:29:
“…but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
God has given us everything we need to know for life and godliness. His Word is rich, deep, and wise. We ought to study it and treasure it.
I am currently working on a doctorate. For much of my pastoral life, I thought I had a comprehensive grasp of the Bible. But as C.S. Lewis once described, it is like walking down a valley you think you know well, only to turn a corner, look back, and realize you haven’t seen even a quarter of it. I have come to recognize the vastness of my own ignorance because God’s Word goes so much deeper than we expect.
As 2 Peter 1:3 reminds us, His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. God may not have answered every curiosity we bring to the text, but He has answered what we need to follow Him faithfully.
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
— 2 Timothy 3:16–17
There will always be a gap between what we know and what we wish we knew. That gap is where faith lives. Faith is reaching up to take our Heavenly Father’s hand, trusting His guidance even when we cannot see the path ahead.
Christ: The Complete Revelation of God
While some hidden things belong to the Lord, Jesus Christ is the complete revelation of God to us. In Him, we find the ultimate answer to the problem of human pain—not merely an intellectual explanation, but a Person who entered directly into our suffering.
Jesus walked the path of human sorrow, overcame it, and offers true sympathy:
- When you face poverty or lack, remember Christ, who had “nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20).
- When people reject or mock you, remember that Christ was rejected, mocked, and maligned by His own.
- When you face social or political injustice, remember that the sinless Son of God was unjustly condemned.
- When friends betray you, remember that Jesus was betrayed by one of His closest companions.
- When you are tempted or harassed by the enemy, remember that Christ was tempted in the wilderness.
- When your family misunderstands you, remember that Jesus’ family at one time thought He was out of His mind.
- When you face physical weakness, decay, or the shadow of death, remember that Christ endured the agony of the cross and entered the grave.
The secret things belong to the Lord, but in Christ, the Word made flesh, God has revealed His heart to us. Jesus walked through the deepest depths of suffering, gained victory over the grave, resurrected on the third day, and ascended to the Father. He has beaten down the path before us.
We do not need every hidden answer when we are holding the hand of the One who has conquered death.
Trusting Him in the Dark
I pray this message serves as preparation for your heart. On the days when everything feels dark, you do not need full intellectual explanations—you need to know Christ in His suffering and power.
I still remember December 29, twenty-two years ago, when the doctor walked into the waiting room and told us our twelve-day-old daughter was gone. In that devastating moment, God met us in a unique way. The words of Scripture rested quietly on my heart: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).
God took my hand. He knows what it is to see a Son die, and He proved Himself faithful even when I did not understand why.
Closing Prayer
Oh Lord, help us to trust You simply. Take our hand when You have not revealed where we are going or why, anchored in the truth that You are our good and loving Father.
Meet the broken hearts here today. Help them to reach out to You, to see You, and to know that You are entirely trustworthy—even in the things You have kept hidden. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.