How many stories and movies have been written about people hunting for buried or sunken treasure? How many people have purchased metal detectors to search for lost coins or ancient artifacts in abandoned fields. Something in us identifies with Indiana Jones or Captain Jack Sparrow or real life treasure hunters digging through Egyptian pyramids to find the next “King Tut tomb” or those diving for lost Spanish galleons hoping to find a king’s ransom in gold. There is a hankering in each of us that hungers to discover something as big as a lost city or some small, unnoticed treasure sitting in the dark corner of a dusty antique shop off the beaten path.
This desire is such a universal phenomenon in the hearts of men and women that God must have placed it there. Solomon declared, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings” (Prov. 25:2). The proverb suggests that God hides some things in order for us to discover them like parents placing Easter eggs in unlikely locations. When he commanded Adam and Eve to subdue the earth and take dominion over it, I believe part of that command included the idea of discovery…new lands, new technologies, new scientific principles, new strategies for solving problems, etc.
When we discover something new, unearth a treasure, or solve a baffling problem we feel immense excitement and pleasure. God’s intention was that we would all search for truth. There are two kinds of truth in the universe. The first is discovered truth. That is the province of science. How did God make things, how do they work, how do we work, how can we partner with God’s design to do good in an earth plagued by war, disease and poverty? Good science discovers the things God hid in his creation for us to search out. There is no contradiction between good science and faith. All truth belongs to God and if it is true, it is God’s truth. Scientific discoveries guided by godly principles bring amazing blessings to this damaged world.
The second kind of truth cannot be found in a lab or examined under a microscope. It is revealed truth that comes to us by the Holy Spirit. This truth cannot be found apart from God, but is a treasure that exceeds all the gold and silver in all the sunken ships and ancient tombs in the world. The writer of proverbs declared, “My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding” (Prov. 2:1-6).
The Holy Spirit counsels us to seek revelation about God and from God as we would seek hidden treasure. Jesus likened the kingdom of God to a man finding a treasure in a field and then selling all that he had to buy the field and obtain the treasure. God wants us to give into the hunger within us to find hidden riches as long as we remember that he is the greatest treasure. Our bible study, our prayer, our worship and our spiritual discernment should have the expectation of discovery and the payoff of delight when we discover something new about God, his word, or his kingdom. There is nothing better than an “Aha!” moment with God when his truth is written on our heart as a revelation of the Spirit rather than a pondering of our own intellect. Perhaps, our constant prayer should be that God reveal the treasures that he has hidden in the spiritual realm, so that we might grow closer to him, experience the excitement of discovery, and walk in is understanding and knowledge of life. May we all be treasure hunters as well as disciples.
This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. Jeremiah 33:2-3