The Hidden Things

Several years ago, I wrote an article called “Daily Bible Reading.” I confessed to having abandoned my reading habit because I was getting depressed with the depiction of God as a God of wrath. (See also “The Goodness of Wrath.”) It is hard to imagine a way to bring modern people to worship a wrathful deity. As I wrote then, “The idea that God is sovereign, and humans must bow to His will is distasteful to pagans in any age.” Besides the distastefulness of wrath to moderns, there are many other things about God that are hard for them to understand.

I am fascinated by Moses’ address to the Israelites just before they crossed the Jordan into the promised land. God had revealed to Moses that He knew His people were going to become unfaithful and fall into idolatrous worship. He promised He would punish them and send them into captivity, but that He would preserve a remnant to fulfill His covenant promise. Moses told the people, “The hidden things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.” In other words, don’t try to figure God out; just do what He says.

A bit later Moses made this statement: “See, today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and adversity. For I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess.” In the King James Version that first sentence is rendered, “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil.” Obey Me and all will be well; disobey Me and things will get nasty.

Our self-made, self-important generation doesn’t like the idea of humility, especially when it includes the hidden motivation of a God who makes “evil” happen. The truth is that evil is not a thing at all; evil is the absence of something: goodness. As I have explained before, the Hebrew word for evil is not necessarily a moral judgement; it simply describes a situation where God’s goodness is absent. When Israel fell into idolatry, God’s presence was removed, and all manner of bad things happened. That was their fault, not God’s.

In my study today, I learned something interesting about the word “humility” in the New Testament Greek. “The Greek word for  humility is a compound word. The first part means “low.” In a metaphorical sense it was used to mean “poor” or “unimportant.” The second part of the word means ‘to think’ or ‘to judge.’ The combined meaning is to think of yourself as lowly or unimportant.”

I learned that this word never appears in classical Greek. It had to be coined by Christians. The Greeks and Romans had no word for humility because they despised that attitude. Many people in our day have the same opinion. Humility is considered weakness. This requirement of Christian living is a mystery to non-believers, but it should not be a “hidden thing” to Christians. We are told to, “Humble yourself in the sight of God, and He will lift you up.”

The clearest expression of this is found in Paul’s letter to the Philippians. He says, “⁵ Think this in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider being equal with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself taking the form of a slave, becoming in the likeness of people. And being found in appearance like a man, he humbled himself becoming obedient to the point of death, that is, death on a cross. Therefore, also God exalted him and graciously granted him the name above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.”

 

There is no hiding the fact that we are to adopt the same attitude that Jesus had. His incarnation and death on the cross are the ultimate demonstration of humility. His unconditional love for all humankind is a result of His humility which we are also called to imitate. God’s reasons for allowing adversity in our lives may remain hidden until we join Him in glory. However, Moses’ words to the Israelites apply equally to us. “See, today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and adversity. For I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands… so that… the Lord your God may bless you… But if your heart turns away and you do not listen… you will certainly perish.”

The world around us is certainly perishing. The reason why God is allowing that to happen may remain hidden to some. No one who reads the Bible with an open heart will wonder why. If the hallmark of our lives is humility and love, those around us will have the opportunity to uncover some of the things that were hidden from them. They may make the decision to place their faith in the God who never hides His love. Why He loves us may be hidden, but how He loves is there for all to see. We just have to show them.

Related Posts: Necessary Obedience; Blessings of Obedience