Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2838
“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.” Proverbs 25:2.
THE translation of our text, if it had been more literal, would have run thus, “It is the glory of God to covera matter, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.” For the sake of variety in language, our translators sometimes gave two different interpretations to the same word and though that makes the verbiage more smooth, it is generally a great mistake and apt to mislead us. The word, “conceal,” is just the same word that we get in the passage, “Blessed is he… whose sin is covered.” So the text runs thus—I will give it to you again that I may further impress it upon you—“It is the glory of God to cover a matter, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.”
First of all, I will give you the common interpretation which is given to these words and the topic which is suggested to most minds thereby, namely, that it is God’s glory to conceal much of the great Truth which concerns Himself and His dealings with the sons of men. “Clouds and darkness are round about Him.” It is His glory that He is not seen, His glory that He is concealed, while, as for kings, it is their honor “to search out a matter.” This is the general interpretation which almost every expositor gives of this passage, but I am not able wholly to agree with it. However, I will speak upon it for little while.
It is certain that such an explanation as this would have to be taken in a limited sense, for it cannot absolutely and without qualification be the glory of God to conceal a thing, for, if so, He might have concealed everything from us. It is evidently for His glory that some things should be revealed or else, why has He revealed them? He might have dwelt forever in that wondrous solitude in which we suppose He did dwell before He commenced the work of Creation. We know not what He was doing in that past eternity of which it is difficult, if not impossible, for us to conceive—when there was no creation, when not a single star had begun to shine, nor an angel had fled through space on rapid wings. If it were God’s glory to be absolutely concealed, it seems to me that He would have remained alone in the thick darkness that surrounded Him, for He would not have wanted to have a single creature to know His love, to realize His power, or to contemplate His wisdom. It is at once obvious that if this is the true and correct interpretation, “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing,” it must be taken in a very limited sense. If it had been His glory to conceal everything, He would have continued to conceal it, but, as far as I can see, His manifested glory is His glory. The glory of God is not so much to conceal as to revealHimself to those whom He prepares to receive the Revelation!
There are many things which it would not be for God’s glory to conceal. You could not say of everything, “It is the glory of God to congeal this.” Take, for instance, His righteous Law—would it have been for His glory to have left our race utterly ignorant of it? I cannot conceive of such a thing! And then His matchless Redemption He has revealed to us in many wonderful ways. Would He have taken all the pains that He has done to reveal Himself in Christ Jesus if it had been for His glory to conceal Himself in that respect? Would He bid us go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature if it could be for His glory to conceal that? No, it is high treason against the majesty of Heaven for any man to obscure the blessed Revelation of God in Christ Jesus. I am afraid that all of us, preachers of the Word, do that, in some measure, by reason of our infirmity—but God forbid that we should ever willfully keep back a single ray of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ!
There are many great and glorious Truths which do not need that God should conceal them. If we do not perceive them, probably it is because it is not necessary that they should be concealed, for their own inherent glory is their concealment. If I were to take, for instance, the mysterious Doctrine of the Eternal Filiation of the Lord Jesus Christ, or the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son—these wondrous Truths need not be concealed from us because they are, in themselves, such deep mysteries that, however clearly they may be revealed to us, it is not possible for us to understand them! Even the grand Doctrine of the Trinity which is so plainly set forth in the Scriptures—the Trinity in the Unity of the Godhead—need not be concealed as, indeed, it has not been, yet we cannot comprehend it! God need not seek out any method of concealment for, if He were to unveil His face among us, the Glory would be too bright to be beheld! Go and stand, O mortal man, and gaze upon the sun at mid-day! Can you do it? Would not your eyes be thereby blinded? Yet, yon sun is only one of the myriads of servants in the courts of God! Then what must the face of the King, Himself, be? It needs not that He should veil it—His own Glory is, surely, veil enough unto itself!