Stewarding the Mysteries
According To God's Eternal Purpose
"The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law" (Deut 29:29).
"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him” (Ps 25: 14).
The Greek “musterion” translated “mystery,” actually means “secret.” The verb mueoo, “to conceal,” that is, the sound made by closing the lips, to mute;[1] the Greek mustees refers to “one initiated” into “a revealed secret.” A “mystery” has reference to some operation or plan of God previously unrevealed. It does not carry the idea of a secret to be withheld, but of one to be published. It has the idea of information known to those on the inside, but hidden to those who are without (Mark 4:11) and to information which has been kept secret, veiled, even to the point of being considered sacred (Rom 16:25-26).
Donald Rumsfeld: “There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don’t know. Each year we discover a few more unknown unknowns.” Press Conference at NATO Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium, June 6, 2002.
The Manifestation of the Mystery
What is this mystery? What are God’s secrets never revealed?
a. God has some secrets that He never reveals. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, "The secret things belong unto the LORD...." This is where our intelligence ends and God's begins.
b. God has some secrets that He reveals only to special people. Psalm 25:14 tells who these special people are: "The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him." Proverbs 3:32 adds, "His secret is with the righteous." There are some things that only God knows, and some things that He only reveals to the righteous--those who believe in God, those who are committed to Him, those in whom the Holy Spirit dwells in this age, the children of God. The second half of Deuteronomy 29:29b clarifies that the “secret things belong unto the Lord,” but “the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever.” This involves observing “all the words of this law.” God’s revelation belongs to our children forever.
Deut 6:6-7 - And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up (NKJV).
Josh 8:34-35 - And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were living among them (NKJV cf. Neh 8:1-2).
c. God has some secrets which He hid in the past but has revealed to all the saints in the New Testament. These are the mysteries. So when you see the word mystery in the Bible, it refers to something that was never revealed in the Old Testament to anybody, but is now revealed in the New Testament to everybody who is a Christian.
Job 11:7 - "Can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty? (NKJV).
Rom 11:33-36 - 33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! 34 "For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?" 35 'Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?" 36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen (NKJV).
Col 2:18-19 - 18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God (NKJV).
The term mystery, moreover, refers not only to a previously hidden truth that is now revealed, but also contains a supernatural element that still remains even with the revelation.
Verse 26 looks something like this: "Even the things hidden from the Old Testament saints, which have been hidden from times and generations, but are now made manifest to the New Testament saints." You say, "What is this mystery which is now revealed?"
There are many things that God keeps as a secret from us. There are many things that God reveals to us. God forbids us from speculating about the secret things. At the same time, He encourages us to seek to know Him better. He encourages us to enter into the glories that He has revealed. He wants us to appropriate what He has freely given. We walk well below our privilege because we fail to appropriate our blessing. When we have been faithful in little, He will bless us with more.
God's secrets, counsels and purposes are not known to man apart from His special revelation in Scripture or by his prophets (Dan. 2:18-23; 27-30).
Dan 2:18-23 - 18 that they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. 19 Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven. 20 Daniel answered and said: "Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. 21 And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. 22 He reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him. 23 "I thank You and praise You, O God of my fathers; You have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of You, for You have made known to us the king's demand" (NKJV).
Dan 2:27-30 - 27 Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, "The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king. 28 But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions of your head upon your bed, were these: 29 As for you, O king, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed, about what would come to pass after this; and He who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be. 30 But as for me, this secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living, but for our sakes who make known the interpretation to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your heart (NKJV).
In most cases in the New Testament the secrets refer to church truth which was not known in Old Testament times, but has been revealed in the New Testament (cf. Eph. 3:1-9).
1 Peter 1:10-12 Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, 11 searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12 To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven — things which angels desire to look into (NKJV).
The mysteries revealed in the New Testament are the mysteries of the Old Testament, but in the New Testament God’s people have the mysteries revealed, making the Old Testament meaningful. Paul is not talking about secret teaching, rites, or ceremony hidden from the masses and only revealed to an exclusive group of people, such as the mystical use of mystery in the Babylonian mystery religions. Paul’s use of the term “mystery” is merely something that was hidden in the past and is now revealed.
[1] “Mystery” Fausset's Bible Dictionary, Electronic Database Copyright © 1998, 2003, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc.
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