Another surprise…

And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.” Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?” You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”? (Isaiah 29:13–16)

The problem of a high IQ is thinking that they know all they need to know and even thinking that their knowledge and plans are hidden from God. As one commentator says, trying to conceal their thoughts from God indicates that they know that their thoughts and plans are sinful, yet as the psalmist writes: “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” (Psalm 73:11). 

Sometimes I wonder about those who are so set against God that they are certain of their plans and their destiny and certain God knows nothing about them nor cares. However, the psalmist later says: 

But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:16–26)

He knows all hearts and can do anything He pleases. When I am upset at the hard hearts around me, He can soften and remind anyone who He is. No one is exempt from His power to reach into that stubborn place and gently change it.

Jesus, discouragement comes easy to my eyes, but You are able to encourage my heart by faith in what I cannot see. Someday You will answer the cries of my heart. In the meantime, keep my focus on Your promises and Your power lest I lose hope and take those ‘wise’ people off my prayer list.

God Knows Secrets

Both OT and NT mention magicians and secret arts, but the thought for today is how God knows the SECRET things; nothing is hidden from Him. In Jeremiah 23:23–24, He says: “Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth?”

A major example is the sin of David with Bathsheba. After it happened and she bore him a son, the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to rebuke David. No one knew the details of this sin, but through Nathan, the Lord told David what would happen: “For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.” God knew David’s secret.

During the time of the kings, “The people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right . . . . wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger, and they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this.” He warned them, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.” He knew their secret sins.

The psalmists knew this about God. They said, “If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.” In Psalm 90:8, Moses wrote: “You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.”

Our secret sins are not the only thing God knows about us. David and the prophets wrote that He knew their frame when it was formed in secret before they were even born.

They also realized that humans have secret places that God not only knows but wants those places filled with truth. David wrote, “Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart” and “The secret counsel of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.” The prophet Amos testified, “For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.”

God knows my secrets but He keeps my secrets. I know this by experience and because He tells us to keep the secrets of others. Proverbs 11:13 says this: “Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered.” Keeping secrets is being like God.

Jesus wants us to serve Him in secret rather than to build our public image. He says when we pray or fast or give, to do it in secret, and “your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Those who follow Jesus are privileged to “know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven” while He uses parables to point to those truths for those outside it. He “said nothing in secret” yet being able to understand those sayings is by the power of the Holy Spirit. When we share the good news and the secrets of the kingdom, we rely on God’s Spirit to reveal those truths to those who hear them.

The OT says in Ecclesiastes 12:14 that “God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” In the NT, “God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.” Secrets cannot escape God’s attention. He will judge them as well as everything else that is said or done.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Every day God feeds me truth from His Word. Sometimes it seems that He whispers secrets into my ears, secrets about myself and secrets about Him. Occasionally He shows me truth about others, not so I can tell anyone else but He wants me to pray for them.

Another vital secret is shared by Paul in Philippians 4:12–13. He says, “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” For me, tough situations and challenges often bring out excuses, procrastination, and just plain disobedience, but knowing that He will give me all I need to do all that He wants is a huge secret for living as His child.