GOD'S RIGHT TO MYSTERY

Proverbs 25.2-3
GOD'S RIGHT TO MYSTERY
"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings."

WE ALL HAVE AN INQUISITIVE NATURE. NO doubt, it is an asset to our education and growth. How can we learn if we do not ask questions and seek out answers? Such a spirit of inquiry is essential to life. This is even more so for someone in position of authority, such as the king. When he makes policies for his people or sits in judgement of wrong-doers, he has to enquire and find out the full facts of each case.

In fact, this book, Proverbs, is the result of King Solomon's investigation, as "he pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs" (Eccl 12.9). It is the glory of kings "to search out a matter" (v.2). Yet, we go on to read, "As the heavens are high and the earth deep, so the hearts of kings are unsearchable" (v.3). A king does not reveal everything he knows to his subjects. Even if he does, they would not fully understand the many complexities of the affairs of the state.

If this is true of the king and the people, how much more of God and us! There will always be mystery, and things that we cannot fully understand about God and his ways. As commentator Charles Bridges says of these verses, "What glory indeed could belong to a God, whose name, and ways, and works were open to the view, and within the comprehension of worms of the earth? What he has brought to light, only shows how much is concealed."

The thought of how little and imperfectly we know, and how much and perfectly more God knows, serves to preserve and enhance God's glory. "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" (Deut 29.29). What is revealed is for our understanding and obedience; what is concealed is for His glory.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) is considered the greatest figure in German literature. His greatest masterpiece is the lengthy philosophical drama, Faust, which he began in his student days and completed in his old age. Its central theme is the man's search for answers to happiness and salvation. It was Goethe the great thinker and philosopher who wrote, "The greatest happiness of the thinking man is to have fathomed what can be fathomed, and to quietly reverence what is unfathomable."

If we are struggling with doubts, or questioning God on some personal tragedy, let us learn to leave the answers to God. It is His glory to know all the answers and at times to conceal them.

Am I asking for secrets which belong to God, and not to me?