CONCEALED THINGS
Alistair M Brown
I desire to say a word for edification as to what the passage in Proverbs speaks of as things that are concealed, and then as to searching out things. There is a strong connection between things that God has concealed and “those that are not seen”, the unseen things that we have read of, the “Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard” in the reference in 1 Corinthians.
It is interesting that the men of Hezekiah transcribed these proverbs of Solomon. Solomon was known for his wisdom, and Hezekiah must have had a particular appreciation of these proverbs. Perhaps they had not been available before, but he and his men searched them out and transcribed them, and the king saw to it that they were written down. Hezekiah is a very interesting person: his history is given three times in Scripture, in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and Isaiah. There must be something quite special about him that the Spirit of God has recorded his history three times. A feature of Hezekiah is that he gathered up what had been before in Israel, but had been forgotten about. His father, Ahaz, was not a good king at all. He had neglected (and that would be putting it mildly) the house of God. He had shut up and corrupted the temple, and all sorts of bad things had happened in the kingdom of Judah.
When Hezekiah came to the throne the first thing he did was to open up the house of God and cleanse it - he ordered his servants to cleanse it, 2 Chron 29. During the reign of Ahaz, divine things had gone out of the view of the people of Judah. But Hezekiah cared about the things of God, he cared about the house and its holiness, and wanted to restore it to the standard that was due to God. He also cared about the service of God, and he restored that also, “according to the commandment of David” (2 Chron 29: 25), including the instruments of music. It seems that these things had been lost sight of, and Hezekiah restored them. He had regard to things that had become concealed. Of course God had not concealed them - it was the unfaithfulness of the king and of the people of Judah. Hezekiah also had God’s thoughts about the people. He was concerned that the people of Israel should join with the people of Judah in holding the passover, 2 Chron 30:1-11. You can read all of this; it is a very interesting study. There were things that had gone out of the sight of the people of Judah. Hezekiah searched them out and he was true to them. He did not depart from God’s thoughts about His people.
I just mention all that as background to Hezekiah’s men transcribing these proverbs of Solomon, and the first was this one: “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing; but the glory of kings is to search out a thing”. It is not saying that God is hiding things so that the people cannot know about them. God has in mind that everything that He has revealed about Himself - and He has revealed everything that can be known of Himself, in His well-beloved Son - should be searched out by lovers of Him who want to know about them. Hezekiah was one such; I know he failed at the end, but I think Hezekiah was a lover of God who searched out diligently the things that had been before in Israel and he sought to recover the people of Judah and of Israel to them. When God conceals a thing, or if he allows things to become concealed, it is for His glory. He conceals things so that they might be searched out, not to make them difficult to access, but so that we might be exercised about them.
The New Testament speaks about the mystery. There is “the mystery of the glad tidings” (Eph 6: 19), for example, and the great mystery of the assembly, Eph 5: 32. The apostle Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write these things. In Scripture, the idea of mystery is not that things are mysterious and therefore unknowable. It is that, with the key to the mystery, believers are able to understand what God is saying. You may feel, dear young person or any of us, that some things are hard to understand and are mysterious, but God has provided the key to them so that we can know everything about Himself that He has chosen to reveal. This Bible and all of Christianity is to do with God making Himself known, and providing the means whereby we might know Him.
He has given faith. The gift of faith is available to every one, and I trust that all in this room who are able to understand have received the gift of faith. What a giver God is; He gives faith so that we might believe in Him and believe in His well-beloved Son. God loves that. It says in Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, “without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that draws near to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them who seek him out”, v 6. A person who seeks out God is marked by faith and desires to know God; faith stirs up that desire in your soul, and you become one who seeks out God. You become a searcher, one who searches out a thing. God of course is much greater than any thing. But the things that God has prepared, referred to in 1 Corinthians 2, are to be sought out. Things concealed by God are searched out by kings. In Christianity, it is people of faith who search out such things. I think “kings” would refer to nobility and dignity, and also to wisdom. These should be features of kings, and through faith and the Spirit that is what believers become. They become dignified and wise. One of the great results of the gift of the Holy Spirit is wisdom. We are given resources by God Himself that we may be able to search out the things that God has concealed. They are precious, wonderful things that God has prepared for those that love Him, and has concealed. They are not material things. God of course provides things that He does not conceal - His providential mercies, the provision He makes for us to have houses to live in and food to eat, all of which we are thankful for. These are not things that God has hidden. The things that God has hidden are not material; they are precious things that are so valuable that God conceals them and makes them available to people of faith, to believers, who have the Holy Spirit. I say that to help us to see that material things, although they are needed and we are thankful for them, are not the precious things that God has concealed. What is precious to God should be precious to us. I would encourage myself and all of us to regard the concealed things as the most precious.
We come to that in 1 Corinthians 2. It is a remarkable passage, particularly when you consider what the apostle goes on to say to these believers in Corinth. Things were happening in Corinth that should never happen in any Christian company. But Paul writes here about the things “which God has prepared for them that love him”. That was an appeal to the hearts, and no doubt the consciences too, of the Corinthians. The apostle sets before them the greatest things - things that they perhaps were not thinking about too much. You would gather that some of the Corinthians at least were taken up with earthly things. We understand that Corinth was a wealthy city, and some of them would have been taken up with material things. Paul sets before them the things that “God has prepared for them that love him”. He speaks of “God’s wisdom in a mystery”. The apostle was acknowledging that the wonderful things of God were not open to every one, but God wanted the Corinthians to take them on, and to be interested in them. Paul goes on to help them as to how that would be.
The apostle’s reference to “God’s wisdom in a mystery” is to be contemplated. We speak about these things in a meeting like this, but it also repays our time to think about what the scripture says, and the thoughts that scripture brings before our hearts. “God’s wisdom in a mystery” does not mean that God’s wisdom is shut up from us and therefore unknowable. God has revealed His wisdom in the Lord Jesus, “who has been made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption”, 1 Cor 1: 30. He has been made to us everything that we need, and one of the things that He has been made to us is wisdom. And the Holy Spirit has been given to us also, the One who, as the Lord Jesus said, “shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all the things which I have said to you” (John 14: 26), and “shall guide you into all the truth”, John 16: 13. That is the resource that the believer has in the Holy Spirit; He guides us into things that have been concealed. They are concealed from the wisdom of the world, but made known to those to whom Christ has been made wisdom. What a blessed matter that is. We are put in touch with the greatest possible things, things that are not material but unseen and eternal, as we get in our scripture in 2 Corinthians. They are things we will enjoy eternally. My desire is that we should enjoy them now: we are given the resources in Christ and in the Spirit to enjoy them and to rejoice in them now. I say that with complete conviction. The extent to which I have entered into these things myself is another matter; but I would desire to be increased in capacity to understand by the Spirit the great things of God and the things that God has prepared. As believers we know something of them, however small our capacity may be.
We all know that God wants us to come into the joy of our sins forgiven. That is to begin with. What a wonderful matter that is, not to be troubled by conscience because you have placed your faith in the One who has sacrificed Himself for us; He has delivered Himself up for us. We have our guilt lifted from us because it has been borne by Another who has so fully satisfied God in offering Himself. That is an unseen thing. An unbeliever does not know about the joy of sins forgiven and of peace with God, but the believer does. Then the Holy Spirit is given that we might enjoy these blessings and appreciate that they have come from the heart of God, who loves us; and because He loves us; He desires to bless us and to have us near Him. That is what God has in mind for every one of us; indeed He has it in mind for all men. God “desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”, 1 Tim 2: 4. No one is left out, and there are no second-class citizens - God has all in mind for the greatest of blessing. These matters are spoken of so appealingly by the apostle, no doubt to stir up the Corinthians to see that although it appears they were largely occupied with material things there were very, very much greater things in view. We have responsibilities as regards material things; we are not to ignore them and we are not to live as hermits, and they have their place. But the great things of God, the things that God has prepared for those that love Him, are much greater.
The apostle goes on to say, “which God has prepared for them that love Him, but God has revealed to us by his Spirit”. That corresponds to what we read in Proverbs as to the glory of kings to search things out. Believers search things out by seeking the help of the Holy Spirit, motivated by love for our Lord Jesus and interest in what He has secured for us by the sacrifice of Himself. That goes beyond the relief of our need. It goes as far as the satisfaction of the heart of the blessed God Himself. What God has in mind, among these things which He has prepared for those that love Him, is that we should be companions of Christ, we should be with Him as His brethren, enjoying the blessing of kinship with Him. And not only that - how often we say ‘and not only that’ as to the blessings that God has prepared for us: there is more and more - God has in mind the blessing of sonship, for every believer; what a matter it is! Such a thing never came into man’s heart. If you want proof that Christianity is a wonderful divine matter, of God, you can find it in the things that never entered into man’s heart, but God has prepared. Not only have these things entered into God’s heart, He has prepared them for us so that we might enjoy them. In the giving of Christ, God has secured the things He has prepared, and in the giving of the Holy Spirit, He enables us to enjoy them, livingly. You might think, this is for the eternal day when we will know what it is to be sons set free in the presence of the Father Himself. Brethren and friends, they are for our enjoyment now. The Holy Spirit is with us now, as He will be eternally. He is in the hearts of believers, enabling us to search out and understand and enjoy these wonderful things that God has prepared for those who love Him. What a matter it is to love God. It is not difficult to love One who so desires to bless and has given so much in order to bring about our blessing.
The reference to “the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God” is very fine: things that have been wonderfully hidden in the depths of God are searched out by the Spirit and made available to us. It has also been remarked that the Spirit also searches the depths of God in the hearts of the saints. He helps us to share thoughts about the Lord Jesus - impressions that you might have are made available to me, and impressions that I might have become available to you. How important it is to appreciate the hidden things, the unseen things, in our hearts. The Spirit helps us to enjoy them individually, but He also draws out impressions from our hearts and makes them available to one another. How blessed the work of the Spirit is, to search all things and to reveal them, to make them known. The passage goes on, “who of men hath known the things of a man …?”. The apostle has been speaking about the things of God, and he then applies the thought to us: “who of men hath known the things of a man except the spirit of the man …?”. He is saying, ‘You are living, your natural spirit knows all about you, your interests; it knows your motivations and indeed is the source of motivation and affection and all these things’. Then he says, “thus also the things of God knows no one except the Spirit of God”. The Spirit of God is the One who indwells the believer. What a blessing that is. We have been given the Spirit of God that we may know the things which have been freely given to us.
I challenge myself as to what I know about this in practice. I think we know enough to desire more. That is a great feature of the things that God reveals to us: He reveals things and the effect is that we desire to know more. All things are available to us in the Spirit. Our appreciation and understanding of them, our capacity for them, is increased on the principle of desire and obedience. It is interesting that these are the features in the believer on the basis of which we receive the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is given on the basis of asking. The Lord says that in Luke 11: a father knows how to give good gifts to his children; “how much rather shall the Father who is of heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (v 13), and Peter refers in Acts to “the Holy Spirit also, which God has given to those that obey him”, chap 5: 32. What great principles these are; they are moral matters, of interest and desire expressed in requesting, and of subjection expressed in obedience. How important this is; the way to understand the things that God has prepared for us is through the desire to know them and through subjection. The service of the Holy Spirit is current: “the Spirit, communicating spiritual things by spiritual means”. He is doing that now; it continues.
I need to be more sensitive to hear and to understand what the Holy Spirit would communicate to us. That means preparing ourselves morally and spiritually to receive the Spirit’s communications. He helps in that too.
The Scriptures describe immense revelations that were unique; they were special. Think of what was revealed to Daniel, a man greatly beloved (Dan 10: 11): that was a wonderful revelation. Paul the apostle had an immense revelation in being “caught up to the third heaven” (2 Cor 12: 2), and “heard unspeakable things said which it is not allowed to man to utter”, v 4. John the apostle wrote the book of the Revelation, which requires application and the Holy Spirit’s help to appreciate and understand it as we should. These were special revelations. But then Paul prayed for the brethren in Ephesus “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of him, being enlightened in the eyes of your heart, so that ye should know what is the hope of his calling, and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints”, chap 1: 17-18. The word “spirit” there implies what is characteristic in the believer, although of course by the indwelling Holy Spirit. It was not special to the Ephesians; it would be the desire of each heart to be given the spirit of wisdom and revelation; to know what things these are, to be conscious by the Spirit of divine things made known in our hearts. The more we go in for these things, the more the Spirit will be free to reveal them to us, and the more we will prove what it is to be given the “spirit of wisdom and revelation”.
We read in 2 Corinthians 4: 17, 18. There are things bearing on the spirits and on the bodies of the brethren that we all feel; we feel for one another. That is a great principle: “if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it”, 1 Cor 12: 26. We are to feel and carry one another’s burdens, particularly in prayer, something that I challenge myself about. The apostle speaks here of “our momentary and light affliction”. He could speak in that way of his own suffering. Paul’s afflictions were very far from being momentary and light from the viewpoint of any one considering things naturally. We know something of what he suffered. But what he says is that these afflictions work “in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory”. He had suffered for Christ, but in the certainty that these afflictions work “in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory”. We do not suffer afflictions as Paul did, but I think this emphasises the overcoming spirit among believers, overcoming what would hold them back, overcoming limitations in health and all these things. That is all taken account of as we overcome for Christ’s sake and for the testimony.
I wanted to draw attention to these words: “while we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen”. I challenge myself as to how much that is true of me: am I really looking at “the things that are not seen”? What is my attention fixed on, what is it that interests me, what is it that draws out my heart? I need to look more at the things that are not seen; the things that God has in mind, blessedly, for our enjoyment. We will know these things in their fulness when we reach eternal conditions, when there is absolutely no hindrance, nothing of the flesh or even of nature to weaken, distract or hold back. But what a blessing there is in knowing more of these things that are not seen now. The apostle adds, “the things that are seen are for a time”, so we keep them in their place, “but those that are not seen eternal”. There is no limit to what is eternal. I would just leave that thought in the hearts of each one of us. What blessings God has for us. They are hidden from the world’s wisdom, and the world’s eyes. They are hidden from the natural man, who cannot understand them, but they are available and are revealed to us by the Spirit who gives us the power and the motivation to go in for them. It requires commitment on our part, and then God loves to pour in a blessing. I think He takes account of anything that is done for Christ in a sacrificial way. God takes account of that and He blesses it a hundred-fold, certainly, and more than that. His blessing is known in the making known of things that are not seen but are eternal, and which we are to enjoy now.
For the Lord’s name’s sake.
Cullen
11th October 2025