To Encourage You

Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”

You’ve probably heard the phrase “to be hidden in plain sight.” It’s an idiom that means that something can remain unseen despite being right in front of your face.  I think that idea comes to my wife when I can’t find something I’m looking for but when she looks, she finds it immediately and shows me how it was right there in front of me.  It happens all the time!    

It’s this phrase, “hidden in plain sight,” that comes to my mind when I read the passage above from Jeremiah 33.  Here God is speaking to Jeremiah while he is in prison, and he promises Him that there are things he doesn’t know, great things, hidden things, that God is willing and able to show him if he will just ask.  He’s telling Jeremiah that there was much more than met the eye about his difficult circumstances, and those things would only be revealed as they came to him by the Word of the Lord. 

Do you realize that this truth applies to every one of us?  You see, God’s ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts as the heavens are above the earth (Isaiah 55:8-9).  But that doesn’t mean that we can never understand anything about Him.  In fact, the Bible is full of encouragement to draw near to God, to learn of Him, and to grow in our knowledge of Him.  So how do we do this? 

Well, first, we must realize that we have a need to know. We need to realize that there are things that we don’t know that are very great things, awesome things, wonderful things, but they are bound up in the heart of God.  And they are hidden in plain sight, i.e., they are hidden within the words He has given us in the pages of the Scriptures.  Although anyone can read the words on the pages of this book, because its source is the Holy Spirit, only those to whom God has given His Spirit can comprehend it (1 Corinthians 2:10-16). The gift of His Spirit is given only to those who have put their faith in Him. Jesus put it this way when the disciples asked “’Why do you speak to (the people) in parables?’ And he answered them, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.” But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear’” (Matthew 13:10-16). 

In other words, Jesus is telling them that even though He taught the crowds, it was only to His true followers that the meaning of His teaching would be revealed.  Yet, even for believers, the truth of God’s Word can be hidden in plain sight.  That’s why He’s told us to meditate on his Word day and night (Psalm 1:2).  His Word is something we are to delight in. It’s not to be approached casually, lightly, or with little thought. It’s not something that we should do as a habit and nothing more, as if we are fulfilling an obligation by reading our chapter for the day. Rather, God’s promise is that if we call on Him, seek Him, and search for Him with all our heart it is then that we will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13). It is then that He will open our eyes to great and hidden things that we have not known – and there’s so much He would have us to know if we really and truly want to know it. 

May God help us to approach His Word prayerfully, longingly, and with a desire to see great and awesome things that we have not yet seen. They’re there for us if we want to see them – but they’re hidden in plain sight, hidden in a way that the God Who knows all longs to point out to us, if we really want to know.