Acting on the Information

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I guess it’s just human nature to want to be a “know-it-all.” I’m not talking about the person who thinks he has the answers to every question, the solution to every problem and the opinion that is better than anyone else’s. I mean the person who needs to know what’s going on and is driven crazy when we think information is being withheld. Eve fell into the trap being laid by Satan when she thought that God was holding out on her and Adam by forbidding them to eat of the fruit from one single tree (Genesis 3:4, 5).

I’m not sure why the Israelites would have thought that God was withholding information from them. By the time we get to Deuteronomy 29, Moses has unloaded (or uploaded) a pile of information that God considers essential for His people as they look forward to their new homeland—and he isn’t finished yet!

He has just delivered a stinging warning about the consequences of disobedience when he adds this interesting statement: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of the law” (29:29).

What? God keeping information to Himself? Yes. As the saying goes, some information is offered on a “need-to-know” basis and God decides who needs to know.

In the world where it seems that that person with the most information wins, we hate not knowing. Google is god!

The point is, Israel had lots of information and God already knew that the nation would not take that information to heart and do what He had commanded. Why give them more information if they weren’t going to use what they already had?

If we read through all the instructions that God gave His people through His servant, we easily can become overwhelmed. Moses’ reminder hides a sharp point. What they heard was their responsibility, and that of their children “forever” and they were to follow those instructions. They didn’t need any more information. They needed to act on the information they had.

The same lesson applies to us today. Knowing more is good, but only as an addition to knowledge already being acted upon. If we refuse to do what God has already asked us to do, we can’t expect that He will tell us anything more—or different—from what He has already said.