Deuteronomy 29:29 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

The secret things belong unto the Lord our God. — The immediate connection of these words with the context is not clear. Rashi connects the “secret things” with the “imagination of the evil heart of the secret idolater” of Deuteronomy 29:19. (The “secret faults” of Psalms 19:12 is the same expression.) His note runs thus: “And if thou say, What can we do? wilt Thou punish the many for the devices of the one? as it is said (Deuteronomy 29:18), ‘lest there be among you man or woman,’ and afterwards (Deuteronomy 29:22), ‘they shall see the plagues of that land;’ and yet, Is there any man that knoweth the secrets of his fellow? It is not that I shall punish you for those secrets; they belong to the Lord our God, and He will exact them from the individual sinner; but the things that are disclosed belong to us and to our children, to ‘put away the evil from the midst of us.’ And if judgment is not executed among them, the many will be punished.” But it is impossible not to feel that there is more behind the words of this passage than this. We must remember that Moses was delivering to Israel not law only but prophecy. And further, we may be certain that there was more in this latter portion of his prophecy than he could understand. May not this be one of the occasions concerning which the apostle says of the prophets, that they “searched what or what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify”? All those curses were to come upon Israel, and yet, after that, there was still a covenant with them, embracing every generation to the world’s end. Must not Moses have longed to know what would befall his people in the latter days? and if we ourselves, “upon whom the ends of the world are come,” do not yet see the future of Israel distinctly, are not the words appropriate still? “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children for ever.” To the very end, what better way is there than this? “Lord, I have hoped for Thy salvation, and done Thy commandments” (Psalms 119:166).