Proverbs 25:2. It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.
Intelligence and the ability to learn is one of God’s greatest gifts to us. What would you say you enjoy learning about? Is there anything that you like to study? Kings had the luxury of access to information. Libraries. Envoys. Visitors from foreign lands. Spies. It is glorious for a king to know things, to have knowledge and understanding of how the world works. Nobody wants a stupid or ignorant king ruling their nation. The king must know all that is going on in their country and in the surrounding world.
By contrast it is the glory of God to conceal things. I think it’s pretty obvious that God hides things from us. He hasn’t told us everything here is to know, thank God! Imagine how overwhelmed we would be if we tried to know everything that God knows. His thoughts are far beyond our thoughts. His wisdom is higher than the universe above us. God is unsearchable. God knows everything, but we don’t know everything about God. And that’s OK.
But the proverb is making a different point – God conceals things so that we can search them out.
Solomon himself asked God for wisdom. The wisdom needed to know God and lead his great people. He could have asked for wealth, power, and territory, but he didn’t. He wanted to know God. The hidden God. The concealed God. He wanted to be able to search God out. If God had revealed it about himself, Solomon wanted to know it and apply it to his kingdom. That’s what the book of Proverbs is, a book about knowing God, about searching out God’s ways, about knowing God to the degree that God has revealed himself.
Christ is the final and complete revelation of God to us. Jesus is the invisible God made visible. The hidden God revealed. The concealed God exposed. This too is his glory.
Hebrews 1:1-3. 1Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Jesus is the final word of God.Everything we need to know and can know about God, ourselves, and the world around us is found in Christ. On the cross, the Father concealed himself from the Son. The Father hidden. Jesus forsaken. Yet, God’s glory revealed. It was the glory of God to conceal himself in the darkness of that great and terrible day. God’s hiddenness was our salvation. The crucified King, Jesus, had to search out the plan and promise of God. His cry of dereliction – My God, My God, why have you forsaken me – became a declaration of faith – into your hands I commit my spirit.
In Christ, God is never concealed from us. No, we will not know everything God knows, but we can know everything about God that he has revealed, his salvation, his love, his justice, his holiness, his nature, all in knowing Christ.
Kings and queens, search out Christ today. Let knowing him more and more be your glory and your grace.
You: Do you search for God? In what ways?
You in Christ: What does our union with Christ reveal to us about God?
Christ in you: How might you search out Christ today?
Pray: Father, I want to know you. I want to know Christ. Keep me searching. Thank you for revealing yourself through Jesus Christ. Amen.
To Live is Christ 