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Accompanying the loud roar of this angel are
“seven thunders,” which are heard. These
thunders were, apparently, not just the unintelligible rumbling of
thunder that we are familiar with. There was a Message
contained in the roaring, in the rumbling, of these seven thunders
[“When he (the mighty angel) cried out, seven
thunders uttered their voices,” verse
3b]. Whether it was something that was specifically
audible, or whether it was simply something that John understood,
being in the spirit, we don’t know.
Nevertheless, there was something that the
thunders had to say, if you will. What did they say?
Wouldn’t we like to know?!? We don’t know, and
there’s no need in speculating about what the Message might
have been. John will say, “I was ready to write this
down.” Remember, that was John’s job; that was
John’s function in all of this. Go back to the very
beginning of the book of Revelation, and
John’s instruction is, “Write down the things that you
will see,” [Revelation 1:10-11, 19:
“I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard
behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, 11 saying, ‘I
am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,’ and,
‘What you see, write in a book and send it
to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to
Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to
Laodicea.’…Write the things which you have
seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take
place after this.”].
And HERE, John heard something;
he was going to record it; he was going to write it down, but he
was forbidden. A voice from heaven forbid
him to write down what the seven thunders uttered [“Now
when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about
to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying
to me, ‘Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered,
and do not write them,’” verse
4]. “Sealing” is the equivalent of not
writing. Some commentators suggest that there may be an
allusion here to Daniel, chapter 12 [verse
4a: “But you, Daniel, shut up the
words, and seal the book until the time of the
end….”].
Sometimes, a revelation is given that is not
possible to pass on to mankind. You remember that in
2 Corinthians, chapter 12, Paul conveys an
experience—he speaks of it in the third person as though it
were someone else, but most scholars believe that Paul was speaking
of himself. He was “caught up into the third
heaven,” or “caught up into paradise,” depending
on your translation. He saw
things there, and he heard words,
he said, that were not lawful for a man to utter, and Paul did not
reveal those words [2 Corinthians 12:2-4:
“I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago —
whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do
not know, God knows — such a one was caught up to the
third heaven. 3 And I know such a man — whether in
the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows —
4 how he was caught up into Paradise and heard
inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to
utter.”].
Perhaps what Paul saw, mankind could not
comprehend. Perhaps what those “seven
thunders” uttered, man could not receive.
The Angel and His Oath (verses
5-7)
Now, the prophet (that is John) sees the angel
lift his hand—some translations say, “right
hand,” and that’s a good translation. John sees
the angel raise his right hand in the sign of an oath and he
“…swore by Him Who lives forever and ever, Who
created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the
things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it,
that there should be delay no longer, but in the days of the
sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the
mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants
the prophets,” [verses 5 through
7].
Once again, there are some variations in the
translation. They are all fundamentally correct. But
the Message there is that God will end things at
some time, whether your translation says, “there will be no
more time,” or, “there will be no more
delay.” In fact, let me just read one translation that
I think is extremely clear. This is from Dr. Hugo
McCord’s translation of the New Testament, which I like very
much. Let me read that section of Scripture as he translates
it: Revelation 10:5-7: “Then the
angel whom I saw standing on the sea and the earth raised his right
hand toward heaven and swore by Him Who lives forever and ever, Who
created heaven and the things in it, the earth and all things in
it, and the sea and the things in it, there will be no more
delay, in the days when the seventh angel sounds, the mystery of
God will be complete according to the Gospel, which He had
proclaimed to His Own slaves the
prophets.”
Time is growing short; the end is in
sight. This will be, from the standpoint of what
John will experience, when that seventh trumpet
sounds. John will see and share with us the end of
things.
As one writer said, “The whole scene is
intended to affirm the fact that God will
complete His purpose.” The promise is, that in
the days of the voice of the seventh angel, and when he is about to
sound “the mystery of God,” it will be
finished.
The word “mystery” is frequently
seen in the New Testament. Its meaning is not so much like a
mystery that we cannot understand, or that we can’t
comprehend, or that is not revealed to us; but, rather, the word,
as it’s used in the New Testament as it concerns God’s
purpose, indicates something that is
hidden, or, something that is only
partially revealed. But the mystery of God
will be fully and completely
revealed one day. The mystery here is connected with the Good
Tidings that God has declared to His servants, the prophets.
Certainly the prophets of old are included here. God declared
Good News to them. You remember that everything that
transpired, everything that took place, everything that was
written, that we now call the “Old Testament,”
points toward the coming of Jesus Christ.
And the things that are revealed, then, in the New Testament can be
considered prophecy. We don’t often refer to them as
such, but those who wrote the New Testament—men like Paul and
Peter, and so on—were, in fact, prophets, in a manner of
speaking. So, God has declared His Glad Tidings, His Good
News, His Gospel, to His servants, the prophets.
Because God has revealed, or given, His
revelation to His prophets, they have conveyed this to the
church. The church—those who are part of the family of
God, those who have had their sins forgiven, those who have the
hope of eternal life—can, thus, walk in that hope and in the
light of the revelation of God’s Will. God is faithful,
and He can be relied upon to carry out what He has purposed
and what He has promised. This served, I’m
confident, as great encouragement and great
consolation to Christians of the 1st
Century and into the 2nd and 3rd
Centuries. It should, as well, be of comfort and consolation
to us today. God can be relied upon to follow through, to
carry out, what He has purposed and what He has
promised.
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