Today’s reading is Revelation 9:1-10:11.

In Revelation 10:4, John wrote: “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.’”

WHAT?!

I want to know what they said. How could God not let us know? Why even tantalize us by letting us know the seven thunders actually said something and then not tell us? I’m reminded of a line from The Princess Bride. “Get used to disappointment.”

What this reminds me is God’s Word doesn’t tell us everything. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” The Preacher’s point was God has made us curious about everything. However, He simply hasn’t given us all the answers.

However, while He didn’t reveal what the seven thunders said, He did reveal what was needed. I may never know exactly where the Garden of Eden was, what Jesus wrote in the sand, or what the seven thunders said. But I can know what I need to serve God, be forgiven, and dwell in heaven. 

It’s okay to be curious. It’s okay to study and strive to learn as much as we possibly can even about things that aren’t explicitly revealed. However, in the end we have to come to grips with the fact that God simply hasn’t told us everything. But He has told us what we need to know. Our responsibility is to keep what He has said and not get bogged down in what He hasn’t.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What did you get out of today’s reading?

Acts 27:9-10 used to give me a great deal of trouble.

“Since much time had passed, and the voyage was now dangerous because even the Fast was already over, Paul advised them, saying, ‘Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives’” (ESV)

After all, here was Paul, an inspired apostle, saying there would be great loss of life on this ship. But, in the end, no life was lost. Acts 27:44 says, “And so it was that all were brought safely to land” (ESV).

This actually teaches me something about apostleship and inspiration. I don’t know why I have ever referred to the apostles as the “inspired apostles” as if somehow everything they said came directly from God. The Bible never calls them that. And yet, I have heard that taught and I have said it myself. This passage, however, demonstrates that the apostles were not inspired. The Bible teaches that the Scriptures the apostles wrote were inspired in II Timothy 3:16-17, but it never says the apostles themselves were inspired.

When Paul told the captain there would be no loss of life, he wasn’t speaking for God. His every word was not inspired. Only what God wanted him to write down as Scripture was. Therefore, God did not fail here. Paul did not fail. Paul was simply relying on his knowledge of sea travel to make this statement. Of course, it would have been true had God not intervened.

When Paul later told his shipmates no loss of life would come, that was true because that came from the angel of God.

Anyway, the whole point of this is to clarify our language. Paul wasn’t an inspired apostle. Neither were any of the other apostles. Rather, God used the apostles and prophets to record His inspired word. We had better listen to it.

Keep the faith and keep reading.

ELC