A Revelation Invitation

When he called out, the seven thunders sounded. And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.” (Revelation 10:3b-4 ESV)

When I was a small child, I remember my parents sometimes spelling words to communicate their plans to each other, plans that they wanted hidden from me and my brothers. We knew what they were doing and it tormented us not to know what was going on. Sometimes those plans were revealed. At other times they remained a mystery. In their wisdom they had determined that we just didn’t need to know. Similarly, God does not communicate to us all his plans. Sometimes, we just don’t need to know. He’s our Father and that’s enough.

I have often pondered why the Lord even presented the seven thunders to John if we were never intended to know what they spoke. Why are they even mentioned in John’s narrative? Although we have not been given an answer to that question, there are still things we learn from this moment.

John does reveal that the seven thunders are responding to the call of heaven’s mighty angel. In scripture thunder often expresses the voice of the Lord in all of its power (e.g. Psalm 29). Like thunder (and lightning) his word as an expression of judgment can cause destruction, shake the moral foundation of evil and scatters his enemies, both supernatural and human. Even though the messages of the seven thunders are not revealed, we do hear in them evidence of God’s judgment of divine wrath upon the world. And that judgment is full and complete (thus seven thunders). God’s enemies (and therefore our enemies) will be confounded and routed. Their punishment means salvation for God’s people, his faithful witnesses.

There will always be aspects of God’s sovereign workings that we are not privy to. While the judgment of these seven thunders will be soon upon the world, John is instructed to “seal them up”, that is, not to reveal their message to his readers. It’s not necessarily that their workings are secret, but rather that humanity in its stubborn rebellion has pushed God to a point where he is through warning us. He has had enough. Judgment is at hand.

We have a God who treats evil seriously. We need to trust him even when his justice might seem illusory. He will address our suffering in due time. He is not unaware of injustice whether it be the outrage or abuse we observe in the world or our own personal mistreatment. Nothing escapes his notice, and none of it will go unaddressed. We can count on him.

Lord God, there is so much that I don’t get about how you are working in the world. I often don’t understand why evil persists, why people can be so mistreated, why the weak are so often taken advantage of. I do believe that you are fully aware of the injustice. I do trust that you will right those wrongs. Give me patience as you address these things in the timing of your wisdom. Amen.