Of course, we've been looking for the last couple of weeks at what we find in Revelation 10 and 11, which we can call the trumpet interlude. So this happens right between the sixth and the seventh trumpet judgments, or at least this is sort of a section that's kind of cordoned off from those parts. And it seems to be especially devoted to the ministry of God's prophets and by extension God's people, both in the past and into the future. Of course, we have the prophecy of John in the past, and then the prophecy of the two witnesses in the future, and also the people of God that they represent. Of course, the first part, Chapter 10 focuses on John and involves a renewal of his commission and call as God's prophet. Obviously, he's been God's prophet for some time now. If this was written back in the 90s of the first century, then he has been a follower of Christ, and a disciple of Christ, and a prophet of Christ for close to 70 years now. So obviously this is ministry of the past, and this is going to be a continual renewal until the day he dies, but especially focused on Revelation. This renewal will come by way of, and we spent most of our time looking at this last Sunday, another mighty angel that we met there in verses one through three. Another mighty angel. One of the questions that I think that was asked last week was, does this idea of a mighty angel appear anywhere else in scripture? Especially in the Old Testament, I think this is what Tim was addressing, or especially in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, which is known as the Septuagint, And if so, could that possibly give us a clue as to who this mighty angel might be? Well, the only verse that I could find that comes close to what we have in Revelation dealing with a strong or mighty angel is Psalm 103, verse 20. You don't need to turn there. I think I have it here up on the screen. I'll read the whole verse, but just the part that deals with the angels is up here, but it says, Bless the Lord, ye his angels that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening to the voice of the Lord. Now, there's a lot of times where the angel of the Lord appears in the Old Testament. There's a lot of times when other angels appear in the Old Testament. There's only one time where we find those angels described as strong angels. And here, it's really, I think, describing all of the angels, not anyone in particular. In the Septuagint, which again is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, the word translated here, strength, to excel in strength, is a Greek word related to mighty and strong in revelation. If you remember from last week, the word uh... mighty angel was skewer also was an adjective uh... this is actually a noun excuse so similar wording similar sound uh... it's related to it uh... but in songs obviously someone a three verse twenty it describes not jesus it describes true angels as the ministers of god they are the ones that excel in strength they are as the greek is excuse they are truly But there is another suggestion as to who this other mighty angel that we find here in chapter 10 could be. I've read that some consider it might have been the angel Gabriel. His name in Hebrew can mean warrior of God, because the Hebrew word for warrior is also the Hebrew word for might and power. strength, which is gabar. There really is no Greek equivalent to Gabriel. I mean, that's what you find in the New Testament as well, so that might be another connection point. Certainly, Gabriel is found in the book of Daniel, and some of what we find in Revelation 10 actually points back to the book of Daniel, and so that's why some have seen this other mighty angel to perhaps be the angel Gabriel as well. Might be, we're just not told, obviously. But whether this angel is great Gabriel or some other angel, it is probably still best, I think, to see him as a true angel who represents Jesus in the way that he looks and sounds. So, I think that's sort of the main purpose of this other mighty angel. He looks like Jesus, he sounds like Jesus, because he represents Jesus doesn't mean that he truly is Jesus. Though, as I mentioned before, there are others that disagree with that idea. But I think that hopefully gives us a truer picture of who this mighty angel might be. This angel is given authority by Jesus in order to grant Jesus' authority to John in order to fulfill his ministry. So really, in verses 1 and 2 of this chapter, we explore the glory and the beauty of this angel. But then we come to verse 3. And when this mighty angel cried with a loud voice, he does so, John says, as when a lion roars. And with that cry, John hears something else that I think has continued to mystify believers throughout the last 2,000 years in reading and studying Revelation. Because in the rest of verse three and into verse four, John hears seven thunders, right? Seven thunders. Or the seven thunders, if you translate the article, the, that is found in most Greek manuscripts. There's a few that don't have the Greek article, but I think the vast majority of them, and certainly the oldest ones of them, have that Greek article. Most of those who would study the manuscripts believe that it should be the seven thunders. And so what do we find happening? Again, after this other mighty angel, right? Cries with a loud voice is when a lion roars. John continues there in verse three. And when he had cried, seven thunders, or the seven thunders, uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, John says, I was about to write, and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. And that is all we know about the Seven Thunders, at least from these verses. Obviously, there's a lot of background to these Seven Thunders, which we'll look at, but this is one of the big questions of Revelation. Who are these Seven Thunders? What are these Seven Thunders? What are they saying and why? Obviously, we have no idea what they're saying, but we might be able to ascertain, based on some of the other things that we learn about thunder in Revelation throughout the Bible, we might be able to understand why they are given to us in this passage. So this morning, we're going to look more into the seven thunders. The first thing we need to remember is, and this is still connected to the other mighty angel, we need to remember the signal to the seven thunders. The signal to the seven thunders. This is one of the ways that we describe this cry of the mighty angel there in the first part of verse three. It was as possibly a signal. Again, we don't know what the precise relationship is between this angel's voice and then the voice of the seven thunders, but there does seem to be some kind of connection, obviously there in verse three, and He cried, and when he had cried. So there's some relationship between the voice of the angel and the voice of these seven thunders. And so some have seen this angel's cry as a command to the seven thunders. And those who kind of consider it this way really hold that this angel is Jesus. And so Jesus has the right and the capacity to actually make a command. up into heaven, and whatever happens in heaven will follow after his command. So they would hold that these thunders are a response to the command of that long, lingering cry and roar of the angel. And again, that would be an appropriate way to look at this if the angel is in fact Jesus. So some see it as a command from the angel to the voices, and the voices respond. But another way of looking at this is that the seven thunders are a confirmation of the angel's cry. not just a command or not a command, but a confirmation. And this, I think, would be appropriate if this angel truly is another angel, because they would actually join their voices to the voice of the angel in order to express their sympathy with this angel and with his message. I like how Richard Lenski puts it, put it there in your lesson guide. It's as if God seconds and confirms the shout. It's kind of like what we do at our members meetings, right? You know, we have a motion, you know, someone make the motion, Someone second, we have to wait, someone seconds, you know, that's kind of the idea here. So this other angel roars something with his loud voice, and then these other thunders, these thunders echo and confirm whatever he cried out. And so I think that's probably the best way of looking at it. But what was the angel's message when he cried with a loud voice? We're not specifically told, though it might be what we find in verses six and seven where he, you know, makes his oath to heaven, where he swears his oath to heaven, or it might be something altogether different. It could just be that signal. It could just be a long lingering roar of this angel. So it's something that we don't know. Like the message of the seven thunders, we won't know. But there might be a clue in how John describes the angel's cry also there in verse three. And we spent a little time looking at this as well. As when a lion roareth, Last time, we looked at how the word translated, roareth, actually refers to the bellowing of an ox, or even the mooing of a cow. If you remember the Greek word, I have it transliterated up here for you, it's moo-ka-a-ma, all right? That's just the way cows sound, right? So why would John hear and describe a lion, a voice like a lion, that is mooing like a cow? Well, I mentioned last time that it probably refers to just a long, lingering roar. A long, lingering roar. But there might be more to the meaning of that as well. That is related to his message. Because obviously lions are known for their might and their majesty and their strength and their power, right? But when you think about the lowing of a cow, it's a rather mournful sound. You know, sometimes you can, you know, if you live near a dairy farm or if you have some neighbors that have cows, you can step outside in the morning, you can just kind of hear that. And you know it's a cow, but it's a very, very melancholy, mournful sound. It's possible that this cry of the angel actually introduces his message as one as mighty, but also mournful. Now, if you think back to what we read in Revelation 10, remember that little scroll? That little scroll that is in this angel's hand? Well, later on in this chapter, John is to eat that scroll. And in his mouth it is sweet, but in his belly it turns bitter. And so obviously we have perhaps a connection there, right? We've got a mighty but mournful message from this angel that leads to a very sweet but bitter message that John is going to ingest and then give to this world. If this angel represents the Lord Jesus Christ, which I think it does, truly Jesus is the line of the tribe of Judah, and everything that Jesus says is mighty and powerful because it just comes from his word, and yet, Doesn't Jesus also sympathize in the mournful judgment of this world? In wrath, God remembers mercy, but we also know that God is a merciful God, and I think we sense that even perhaps in the sound of this mighty angel. I personally think that at the signal of the angel's cry, The seven thunders uttered their voices to confirm his message to John. And certainly that leads us to the sound. The sound of the seven thunders. So there, verse three, we're first introduced to the seven thunders, because when this mighty angel cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. Now, the word for voice in Revelation does not always mean a voice, like someone speaking. Sometimes it can just mean sound. The Greek word is phonei, and it has the, you know, if you probably knew, had parents, or maybe even yourself, had a phonograph, right? So it's phoning, it's just a sound. But here I think we can see that these sounds that they made really were intelligible. They really were words, and we'll see that here in a moment. And of course, the fact that they have this Greek article before them that I mentioned before, it would refer to the seven angels, or the seven thunders. And this might indicate that the seven thunders were something known in the past. That is, perhaps John and the readers that he was writing to knew what the seven thunders meant and what they referred to. Obviously, we're a little bit in the dark on that, but it could very well be possible that they knew what John was talking about, because a lot of times when you have something with an article, it points back to something that they already know. And it's very possible that they knew what these seven thunders were, even though we may not know, and so we have to Give an educated guess. We have to do our best to try to understand what these seven thunders are, what they're doing, and what they mean. So just what can these seven thunders be? To learn about them, we need to look at the use of thunder in Revelation and in the rest of the scripture. And what is thunder? Thunder is very powerful, right? You hear the collapse of thunder in a thunderstorm. They are very powerful. And so the voices, the sounds of these seven thunders are as powerful as thunder itself. Thunder is found all throughout the book of Revelation, really kind of spattered all throughout. I have all of the places where you can find thunder in Revelation, so you can look at these yourselves. But it's found nine times. The very first time, there in chapter 4, verse 5, is where John described God's throne in heaven. And if you remember, not only was there thunder there, but also there were there were flashes of lightning that were coming from there. Revelation four or five says that out of the throne. So this is the heavenly throne preceded lightnings and thunderings and voices. And so we have kind of the same thing going on here. However, Thunders are then found several times that are associated with the events of the second coming of Christ. We find this in chapter 8, verse 5, chapter 11, verse 19, and chapter 16, verse 18. Now, obviously, chapter 6, verse 1 was another voice that sounded like thunder, okay? It was the voice of one of those living ones. But in chapter 8, verse 5, chapter 11, verse 19, chapter 16, verse 18, It all take they all take us to the second coming of the Lord But let me read verse verse 5 chapter 8 because if you remember the angel back just before the trumpets were revealed. The angel took a censer, filled it with fire from the altar, cast it into the earth, and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake." And so, three other, or two other times, you're going to find the same expression, maybe a little bit more added to it, that takes us right to the cusp of the second coming of the Lord in the clouds. We won't take the time to look at all of those verses, but when thunder is found in Revelation, it is clearly connected with the power of God's presence. And so the thunder that we find in the throne room vision is carried over into all of these other scenes throughout Revelation. It's first found in heaven, and then anytime you find that thunder, it continues on from that throne. So it is a reflection of God's presence. This is also something that we find in the Old Testament, especially if you remember when God met with his people on Mount Sinai. In Exodus 19, verse 16, when God was going to give his law, it says that it came to pass on the third day in the morning there were thunders and lightnings. In fact, so much so that the mountain quaked, even as a trumpet blared exceeding loud. So thunder is often associated with the power of God's presence. And it all begins there in the throne room of God himself. But in addition to this, thunder is also related to the power of God's judgment. This is something that you'll find all throughout scripture. In fact, the very first place in the Bible where thunder is found, at least the way our Bibles are from Genesis to Revelation, if Job was written earlier, there are other places that you find God's judgment in thunder also there. But in Exodus 9.23, when God was judging Egypt with the 10 plagues, The seventh plague, God sent out thunder and hail, and then the fire ran along the ground. So we have thunder, we have lightning, we have hail, we have fire, because the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. And that starts a theme. That starts a theme that thunder is so often associated not just with God's presence, but especially with God's judgment. 1 Samuel 2, verse 10. This is in Hannah's prayer. Remember, Hannah was praying for God to give her a baby, and God gives her that baby in Samuel. Well, in her prayer of praise to the Lord, she says this. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Out of heaven shall he thunder upon them. So again, thunder is a picture of the judgment of God. In 1 Samuel 7, 10, there was real thunder that announced God's judgment on the Philistines. The Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines and discomfited them, and they were smitten before Israel." So what does thunder represent in the Bible? The power of God's presence. The power of God's judgments. But especially, we also find it in several places, thunder is joined with the power of God's own voice. The power of God's own voice. In Job 40, verse 9, there's a question that God poses to Job. God asked Job this question. Do you have an arm like God, or can you thunder with a voice like Him? Can you thunder with a voice like Him? So you see the connection, the relationship there. Psalm 18.13 says, The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave His voice. A lot of times in Psalms you see parallelism in just two different lines, so one line helps explain the other one. And so the Lord thundered in heaven is related to the Highest giving His voice. So the thunders are connected to His voice. But there is a very significant passage that connects God's voice with thunder. So let's open our Bibles now to Psalm 29. Keep your finger here in Revelation 10, we'll come back to it. But let's go to Psalm 29. Because this might be a clue as to why these voices or these thunders are even numerated seven, all right? In Psalm 29, verse three, it says that the God of glory, what? Thundereth, right? The God of glory thundereth. But then there are seven descriptions of God's powerful voice that is like thunder. So obviously, remember, the God of glory thunders. And we've already seen other places where his voice is like thunder. But then in beginning of verse three, going on through verse nine, we learn something about the voice of the Lord. Look at verse three. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters. Verse four, the voice of the Lord is powerful. Verse four, also, the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. Then you have verse five, the voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars. Then in verse seven, you have the voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. You can already kind of get a picture here, not just of thunder, but of lightning, too. I mean, have you ever seen a tree that had been hit by lightning, struck by lightning and broke? Maybe cut right down the middle? But then in verse eight, we have the voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness. And then in verse nine, the voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve. Of course, that just strikes, talks about fear. So seven times we have the voice of the Lord described as something. So if you count those up, the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Lord is like these things or does these things seven times. But in verse three, we see that the God of glory thundereth with his voice. It might be that these seven thunders refer to the full and complete power of God's voice that is represented even here in Psalm 29. There's quite a few people that suggest that. There are some that say, well, Not really convinced about it. Just gonna put it out there. I don't totally necessarily see it as referring to Psalm 29. It might be. But it is interesting that there are seven times where the voice of the Lord is described as something. In Psalm 29, that voice is described as thunder. But ultimately, what does the number seven reveal to us? We found the number seven all throughout Revelation. It's not a perfect number. It is a number of completion and fullness. And so I think when we're talking about this thunder, it certainly is related to God. God's presence, God's judgment, God's voice, but in its fullness, in its completeness. If you remember, John describes the seven spirits in chapter 3, verse 1, chapter 4, verse 5, chapter 5, verse 6. But we know that there's only one Holy Spirit, right? And so you describe the Holy Spirit as the sevenfold Spirit of God because there are seven different ways and more in which the Holy Spirit manifests Himself. And so this might be the same idea going on here, where it's really God's voice, but it's describing in a number seven the complete fullness and power of His voice. So it might involve not just His judgments, but also His presence and His voice. So based on what we've just looked at, the seven thunders seem to refer primarily to the powerful voice of God in all of its fullness that represents God's presence and judgment to John. So I think you have to include all three of those ideas. The seven thunders refer to the powerful voice of God in all of its fullness that represents his presence and his judgment to John. And that seems to be confirmed when we also see that they are perceived. They're also perceived. In verse three, we're told that these seven thunders uttered their voices, but we know that they didn't just make sounds, they actually spoke. They actually spoke. The Greek word for utter is laleo, it's a very common word for speaking, so it's not just a sound that they made, they are words that they're bringing to John. This is certainly made clear from John's reaction there in verse four, because when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, it's actually parallel to what we found in verse three, almost word for word. When the seven thunders had spoken with their voices, I was about to write. And he wasn't just going to write, the seven thunders uttered their sounds. He was going to write what sounds they uttered, which means that they were intelligible to him. It means that they were words to him. He could understand them. So they were perceived. Greg Beal describes it this way. What the seven thunders said, he, John, understood their significance in some way. He understood it and he was going to write it down. And yet, He doesn't, and we know why, and so we don't have it. He is about to write those words. Now, in several places in Revelation, John is told to write what he sees and hears. In fact, that's why we have the book of Revelation, right? In chapter 1, verse 11, it all begins when God says, Jesus says, what you see, write in a book. That's why we have Revelation, because John obeyed. Then in in Revelation 119, he's told write the things which you have seen which is referring to the image of Jesus Right the glorified Jesus the things which are which probably refer to the seven churches and the things that shall be hereafter Which of course is so much of the rest of Revelation 12 times John is commanded to write. And every time, it is to the benefit and the blessing of God's people and his churches. In fact, most of the commands to write are found in chapters two and three. Remember when he says to the church of Smyrna, the church of Ephesus, the church of Laodicea, write. And so most of the time when John is commanded by God in some way to write, it's for our benefit. But this time, verse four, He tells us, I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, seal up those things, which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. The only place in Revelation where John is commanded not to write, not to inform his readers, not to inform us of what was said. So that leads us to the sealing of the seven thunders, the sealing of the seven thunders. So after hearing this voice of the mighty angel and hearing the voices of the seven thunders, now he hears another voice. And where is this voice from? From heaven, that's right, from heaven. This is the first time in Revelation where a voice is described as being from heaven. Now, obviously, there are other voices that are in heaven, but this is the first time where it's described this way, a voice from heaven. It's found a few more times, starting here in chapter 10, but then we find it in chapter 11, verse 2, and it goes on until chapter 21. Every time you hear a voice from heaven, And it's said that way. It's a very commanding voice. And obviously it commands John here to write not what he hears. In fact, there in chapter 14, verse 13, you can turn there if you'd like. We're not going to take the time to read it. This voice from heaven may even be identified as the voice of the Holy Spirit. The voice of the Holy Spirit. There's a connection there. There might be some parallelism there as well. If that's the case, if this voice of heaven, voice from heaven, is identified as the Holy Spirit, something amazing takes place here in Revelation 10. We actually have the voice of all three members of the Trinity represented here in the recommissioning of John as God's prophet. because the voice of the mighty angel speaks for the Lord Jesus. Obviously, some think he is the Lord Jesus, but either way, he represents the Lord Jesus, so he had the voice of Christ in some way. The voice of the seven thunders, we've already seen that those thundering voices are related to the voice of God, which could refer to the voice of God the Father who sits on the throne. And then if the voice from heaven here speaks for the Holy Spirit, the triune God is present in the renewal of John's commission. And I think the point is to encourage John, to show him that God is on his side, and that he does not have to fear what man will do to him, even though the message that he will bring is mighty but mournful, and is sweet yet also bitter. But before he can record the words he hears, this voice from heaven first tells John to seal up what he heard and understood from the seven thunders. This is a very interesting way to describe something that John was not to record. Because elsewhere, when we find the word for seal, we find it used in different ways to seal the message. In chapters 5 and 6, remember the scroll that Jesus, as the Lamb of God, took from the one sitting on the throne? What did it have on the scroll? Seven seals. It's actually related to the same word here. So the seven seals of that scroll were actually used to close something off. if you've ever gotten a letter that has a seal on it, right? It's supposed to close something off, and sometimes if you just lick the envelope, you seal the envelope, and that's the idea here. In Daniel 12, verse 4, that's what Daniel was supposed to do when he received his message. There were some things that God wanted him to seal up until the time of the end, and the time of the end is the book of Revelation. This is when those seals that were closing off the book that Daniel was given are removed by the Lord Jesus. But how is John to seal up the message of the seven thunders? How is he supposed to do that? After all, he's not writing them down to seal them up. He's just told to seal them up. But there is another way, a second way that the seals in Revelation are used, and that is in chapter 7. Another word that is related is that God placed something on the forehead of his servants, and that was called a seal. Same word, either a noun or verb form, is the same thing here. And he used that seal to set them apart. And so that's another way that seals are used, to either to close something up, or to set something apart as belonging to you. That might be closer to what is meant when John is told to seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered. Not to necessarily close them up like a book, but rather to set them aside and to set them apart in a very special way. But again, John does not have anything physical or tangible to seal up. So what could it mean for him? It may be that John was meant to seal up the message he got from the seven thunders in a non-physical way, even in a way where he seals it up in his mind and in his heart. It's like if I were to tell you, you know, if there's a particular verse that has meant something to you, you know what you need to do? You need to seal that up in your mind and in your heart, right? And maybe that's what God is telling him. Maybe this voice from heaven is telling him. Maybe the spirit is telling him. You need to keep this in your mind and keep this in your heart. This is not meant to be recorded. This is meant for you. This might be what God was also telling the prophet Isaiah to do in Isaiah 8, 16, when the Lord says, bind up the testimony and seal the law among my disciples. So there's precedent for this idea of sealing, not necessarily closing something up or setting something apart, but rather making it in part of you, making it part of your heart and life. Again, what's he gonna do with that book? He's gonna eat it and ingest it. Maybe there's a similarity there. Fact is, God did not want John to ignore the words that he heard from the seven thunders. God did not want John to forget the message of the seven thunders. Instead, he wanted him to seal them up, just like perhaps he would a treasure. But not only was he to seal them, he was also then to conceal them. Again, write them not. There are some who think that to write them not is really the explanation of what the Spirit or the sound from heaven is. said or means when he said seal. So the word and can also mean even at times. So he could be saying seal up, even, write not. Could be the same thing. I personally don't see it that way. I see it as two different things. But either way, whether he was supposed to seal up in his mind and heart, he still wasn't supposed to write. Don't write down what these seven thunders say. Now even though we're not told, do you think John obeyed? Pretty sure, pretty sure that he did everything that he was commanded to by this voice from heaven. He did seal it up, and he didn't write it. He obeyed, because he is a prophet of God. But what then is the significance of the seven thunders? What is the significance of the seven thunders? And I know I went through points one through three fairly quickly, hopefully setting the groundwork so that we can spend a little bit more time here on the significance of the seven thunders. What's the point of them being mentioned here in Revelation 10 if their message was not meant to be recorded or revealed to us by John? Why have them? What's the point? Well, even though we do not know what their message was, we may be able to understand why they spoke. And so there are several ways that people have seen and understood the seven thunders. One way is that through the seven thunders, God, so they would say it's God's voice, God was revealing to John more of his judgments that would be unleashed on the world. Obviously we have the seven seal judgments, we have the seven trumpet judgments, we have the seven bold judgments that are to come. And so the seven thunder judgments would just be another series of judgments that are going to be or were to be unleashed on the sinful world. But instead of going through with them, God is actually canceling them out. And that's indicated by John being told, seal them and conceal them. God was planning on doing these judgments, extra judgments, but because he told John, seal them up, don't write them, then it means that he's not going to do them. He's going to cancel them out. And that would mean that there's no further delay in the carrying out of the rest of God's plan of judgment and wrath. So you've got the seven seals. They're in the past. You've got almost all seven of the trumpets. They're pretty much in the past. And instead of having more judgments, the seven thunders, they're going to be canceled out. We're going to get right into the seven bowls so that God's plan can be completed. So there's no further delay. Some see this cancellation as an act of God's mercy, so that there's no further judgments on sinful men. Others see this cancellation as an act of judgment itself, because God knows that even with more judgment, no one else will repent. So why do that, right? Because no one else will repent. Quite a few hold to this understanding of the seven thunders being canceled, or judgments being canceled. But it doesn't seem to address why God told John to seal their message up. Because there are other places throughout scripture where you find that sealing of even a book, and the intent is for those seals to eventually be removed, right? So even though Daniel was told, seal up your book, they were meant to be removed by this time. And so it would be a strange way for God saying, okay, I'm gonna cancel judgments that I did have planned, seal them up, and yet they'll never be revealed or exposed again. It does seem like a strange way to put that. But that leads to perhaps the more popular understanding of what these seven thunders are, and that is, again, God is revealing to John another series of his judgments through the seven thunders that will come to pass. But they are concealed. They're concealed until the time comes for them to be revealed. So we have the seven seals. We know something about them. We have the seven trumpets. We know something about them. We have the seven bowls. We know something about them. But we don't know anything about these seven thunders. they will be revealed not in word but in action. I like how Thomas Schreider puts it. He says, it is best to conclude then that the contents of some of the judgments are sealed and hidden. God doesn't disclose the full dimension of what will occur in the future because some of God's judgments are concealed until the day they become reality. And again, this perhaps is the understanding of most interpreters of Revelation that I've read. And yet, it doesn't seem to line up with the other series of judgments that we find. If you remember, when we've looked at the outline of Revelation, the seventh seal, so you have all six seals, then the seventh seal leads to the revelation of the seven trumpets. So really, the trumpets flow from the seventh seal. And as we will see, the seventh trumpet will then lead to the seven bowls. If this were just another one of the series, you would think that it would flow directly from the seventh trumpet that is sounded later on here in chapter 11, but it's not. Where do the seven thunders show up? They actually show up in the interlude before the seventh trumpet. So it kind of breaks the pattern here, kind of breaks the pattern. That doesn't mean that maybe there are more judgments to come during the trumpet judgments. That's certainly possible. But it does kind of break the pattern of what we find in the book of Revelation. And yet, this could very well be a reason why they were not to be revealed to us. There is another way in seeing them, and that is the remaining judgments. Again, still thinking in terms just of God's judgments. Seven thunders, God's judgments. is that the remaining judgments are condensed into a summary that reveals God's power and will lead to the sounds of thunder at the coming of Christ. In context, basically, they are a summary of the bold judgments to come. In fact, if you look at verse 7 of chapter 10, in the days of the voice of the seventh angel. So basically, that would be a summary of what is going to come. One writer puts it this way. In all other passages in which thunders occur, they form a premonition of judgments of divine wrath. And that then is probably the significance here. Such judgments are about to follow among the events of the seventh trumpet judgment. So basically, the seven thunders is just a summary of the seventh trumpet, which includes the seven bowls. And that's kind of the idea. We saw some precedence to this back in the trumpets, where when the golden censer was cast into the earth, that seems to be a summary of all of the trumpet judgments. It could be that these seven thunders are just a summary of the bowls of wrath. But there is another way of looking at the seven thunders, and that is, instead of it just being a further presentation of judgments to come, whether you know them or don't know about them, the seven thunders may also be seen as God's personal counsel to John as his prophet. Now remember, thunder is often found in the context of judgment, right? We saw that over and over again. But it's not always in the context of judgment. Remember when the Lord Jesus, back in John chapter 12, when we looked at this in our series through John, and Jesus actually says to his father in prayer, Father, glorify thy name. And the father answers. There came a voice from heaven saying, I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again. But then in John 12, 29, it says that the people thereof that stood by heard the voice. They heard what the Father said from heaven to Jesus, and they said that it thundered. Others said an angel spoke to him. So when God the Father was speaking to Jesus, was it about judgment? No, it was to encourage Jesus, is to bless Jesus. It was, yes, a voice of power, but it was meant to convey strength to his own son. And it may be that the seven thunders of God's voice were meant to serve John in a similar way that God's voice was meant to serve Jesus. You see, God knows exactly what John needs in order to fulfill his mission. His mission is there in verse 11, the end of this chapter. Thou must prophesy again before many peoples and nations and tongues and kings." And so, obviously, John's probably like, wow, that's quite a job. Maybe these seven thunders is revealing God's powerful voice to strengthen and enable John, particularly, in order to do his work, to do his mission. Obviously, chapter 10 is about the recommissioning of John to do that work. Also, further, at the end of Revelation, in Revelation 22, verse 10, the opposite of Daniel occurs. God told Daniel, seal up. In Revelation 22, God tells John, seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book. God says, John, I don't want you to seal up the prophecy of the book. But, here in chapter 10, verse 4, John is told to what? Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered. So, seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book. seal up the sayings of the seven thunders. It may be that the message of God to John through the seven thunders is not even related to prophecy in this book. It might not have anything to do with judgment yet to come. Again, it might've just been an enabling, strengthening voice to John, his prophet, to do what God wanted him to do. If the seven thunders represent the full voice of Almighty God, they could indicate to John that he has the complete power of God and His word at his disposal. And so John is told to seal them up and conceal them for his own use. Now, obviously, will we get to know what these are? Absolutely, someday. We'll know what these seven thunders said to John in heaven. But I wonder if God is, through these thunders, enabling and equipping John for his unique ministry as his prophet. Leon Morris makes a similar suggestion when he says this. It is better. I thought that was interesting because Tom Schreiner said it's better. He holds one view. I think there was another one I came across that it's probably better. Funny how they all think it's better. Well, I guess I do too, but he says, it's better to think of the thunders as conveying a revelation to John. Clearly he understood them, but which he was not to pass on to others. It might be similar to what Paul describes in second Corinthians 12, four, when he says that he was caught up into paradise, he heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Maybe that's what's going on here. God is giving John his own words for his own unique ministry as the last living apostle of Jesus Christ to deliver these messages to the world. But obviously, with those four ideas, and I think there's some minor ideas out there as well, it's clear we have no way of knowing what the true words were or the true significance is. And that's okay. Whether God meant to cancel those judgments or conceal them or condense them down into a summary or counsel John through them, again, Leon Morris writes this, God has kept some things back from us. And that's really the big message of these seven thunders. And you know why? It's to teach us humility and grace when it comes to studying Revelation in the end times. I can't be dogmatic as to what the seven thunders mean, what the true significance is. I've looked at all of these, I've weighed all of these options, I've considered the exegesis of the passage, and I kind of leaned toward this was just a message from God to John, to encourage him and equip him and enable him for his coming ministry, his additional ministry. There might have been some connection to his judgment as well, but that's kind of where I'm leaning. It's certainly a minority position, but I think that ultimately it teaches us humility and grace when we come and approach these things that we really don't fully understand. And yet it also teaches us trust and dependence on the Lord who really knows the end from the beginning. I may not fully understand this, God does. And I'm just gonna rest that these seven thunders were exactly where God placed them in Revelation 10, because that's where he wanted them. And ultimately, it was for John's use. Whether it was dealing with judgment, or his presence, or the power of his voice, whatever, it does specifically deal with John, and he didn't want us to know it until the time comes. But then, of course, after hearing God's message through these seven thunders, John's focus again turns to Verse five, the mighty angel, the mighty angel. And we'll look at that.