Deuteronomy 29:29 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Secret things belong unto the Lord our God That is, the counsels and purposes of God concerning persons or nations, and the reasons of his dispensations toward them, together with the time and manner of inflicting judgments or showing mercy, are hidden in his own bosom, and not to be pried into, much less fathomed, by us. But those which are revealed Namely, that if we rebel against him he will pour out all these judgments upon us, except by true repentance and turning to him we prevent it. Belong to us and to our children Are the proper objects of our inquiries, that thereby we may know our duty, and, by complying with it, may be kept from such terrible calamities as these now mentioned. To explain this a little further: Having mentioned the amazing judgments of God upon the whole land and people of Israel, and foreseeing the utter extirpation which would come upon them for their wickedness, he makes this declaration, either to check the curiosity of such as would be ready to inquire into the time and manner of so great an event, or to satisfy the scruples of those who, perceiving God to deal so severely with his own people, when in the mean time he suffered those nations which were guilty of grosser idolatry and impiety than the generality of the Jews were, to live and prosper in the world, might thence take occasion to deny his providence, or question the equity of his proceedings. The ways and judgments of God, he says, though never unjust, are often hidden from us, unsearchable by our shallow capacity, and matter for our admiration, not our inquiry: but the things which are revealed by God in his word must be attended to and considered, that we may be duly influenced by them. Thus Moses concludes his prophecy of the rejection of the Jews, just as St. Paul concludes his discourse on the same subject, when it began to be fulfilled, exclaiming, in a manner equally pathetical, How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! Romans 11:33.