The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. (Psalm 25:14)
For years I have shared with people the notion that God likes to play Hide-N-Seek. I base this idea on several passages, namely one penned by David’s son, Solomon. He said, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter” (Proverbs 25:2). In short, God hides things; but not to keep them from us but to see who is interested and diligent enough to search them out. More specifically the “matter” that He conceals and that kings search out is, in Hebrew, דבר d’var; a word that means … well, a word. He conceals a word in order to provoke us to search out that word.
Jewish commentators interpret David’s statement here to mean that God only reveals Himself, through His Word, to those who fear Him, which is also to say those who love Him. He makes Himself known to those who want to know Him, evidenced by the fact that they seek His face, study His Word and strive to walk out His precepts and instructions in emulation of Him. David adds that, those who seek Him in this manner are not disappointed — God shows them His covenant. It’s like a person who has been given a map that leads to treasure, (and in this case, the map is the Bible); if the person keeps studying, keeps searching and keeps digging, they will eventually unearth the treasure.
Clearly, God has many secrets; but His secrets are not kept from us if we are willing to seek His face. As it is written, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29). It seems to me that He purposely hides things (words) from us to see just how serious we are about pursuing Him; how dedicated are we to drawing nearer to Him. And if we are committed, He reveals those things we need to know in order to understand Him and His covenant. As David said: those who fear Him will come to know Him far more intimately than the person who takes a half-hearted approach to seeking the Creator. So then, let us ask ourselves this question — which one of these people are we?
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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