Secrets and Mysteries

When the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write. But I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Keep secret^[b] what the seven thunders said, and do not write it down.”~ Revelation 10

 

So, it goes like this;

 

Me, just about to put down the phone - "Okay,  call you later".
My son - "what was that about Dad?"
Me - "I can't tell you.  Well I can,  but I am not going to tell you!"
My son - "Why can't you tell me?"
Me - "If I told you why. I might as well have told you?"
My son - "but why can't you?"

And round and round we go.

So there could be a number of reasons why I couldn't share certain thoughts or conversations with my ten year old and he will never understand why not. Well, not now,  at least. It could be something personal that I couldn't trust him to be discreet about. It could be something too adult for him or it could be for many other reasons.

Sometimes I can give him the parameters,  such as "it's personal",  or "it's adult stuff" but invariably that just stokes the fires of curiosity.

But I know that some things are not good for him to know,  in a way that I cannot explain Without giving him specifics that would actually create the repercussions that I am trying to avoid.

He doesn't like it,  and believe me,  he is persistent,  but in the end he has to trust me that I know what I am doing (ahem) and I cannot yield.

There are also times in which it is appropriate and, indeed,  necessary to share information with a trusted individual that it is essential that they do not pass on.

John is in such a position.

He sees the seventh angel,  astride the sea and the land,  with a rainbow on his head and pillars of fire for feet.

This angel is the seventh in a series of angels trumpeting various disasters.

Seven is the number of completion.
This angel is heralding the end and the revelation of the mystery of God.

And this mighty angel (as he is described) roars,  and as he does,  John records that seven thunders utter their voices.

John tells us,  teasingly tantalising,  that he was about to write down what they said,  but I voice from heaven stops him in his tracks.

In the version I have quoted (NLT) at the top of this blog,  John is told to

Keep secret what the seven thunders said.

In the NKJV he is told to seal up the things that they uttered. The seal concept brings the same kind of seriousness to this secrecy as the seals on the scroll opened by the Lamb do. It is a royal seal,  and it is forbidden for us to know.

There is a strong biblical precedent for the withholding of key knowledge.

Paul speaks of being caught up into the seventh heaven,  but of not being permitted to speak of what he saw.

And Jesus himself,  who prophesied many of the elements of the end times which shape our understanding,  was not permitted himself to know the day or the hour.

And not knowing,  not understanding is hard.  It is really hard.

Bad things happen.  We want to know why.

 
Why was this promise not kept?
Why did they have to die?
Why can't I know?
Why do I have to blindly trust when everything around me screams out that you have abandoned me?

Why,  oh my God,  hast thou forsaken me?

And this thirst for answers is right there at the beginning. This is the blessing and the curse of the human race.

We need to understand.
We need to touch the flames to experience them.
We need to prod the sleeping lion with a stick.

It was the tree of knowledge that was our original downfall.

And we feel we have a right to know.  We are owed understanding.

And the scriptures promise the trusting faithful,  that then we will know in full, even as we are fully known.

One day.
On that day.

But can I suggest,  that we need at times,  to lay down our right to understand and trust our heavenly father,  that when he says,  I can't tell you, that it is only for the best of reasons.

We need to acknowledge his sovereignty even in this.

Sometimes, like Job discovered,  we need to simply bow before him and acknowledge.. Yes be still..... And know,  acknowledge,  he is God.

And God is good all the time.
We believe in the sun, even when it is obscured by the cloud,

And so we too,
Trust God's love,
Even when questions obscure it and mystery seems to hide it.

Amen.