Sunday School Notes: Revelation 10:3-4

³ And he [the mighty angel] cried out with a loud voice just like a lion roars. And when he called out, the seven thunders spoke their own sounds. ⁴ And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal what things the seven thunders spoke, and do not write them.”

Last week we talked about the “mighty angel,” and how John’s description of him sounds a lot like descriptions of Christ. Some think this is actually the Lord, but I lean toward it being at least an angelic representative of God, or perhaps even an “angel of the Lord” like the ones that appeared in the Old Testament (e.g., to Moses at the burning bush). The most important thing about the mighty angel, however, is what those descriptions tell us about God: He is the covenant protector of His people, and He is sovereign Lord of all creation.

The angel now cries out with a loud voice, “like a lion’s roar.” This is the first time an angel has “spoken” but not with words that can be communicated on paper. John’s description of the angel’s voice as like a lion may have significance. Revelation 5:2 introduces us to a mighty angel, and 5:5 makes mention of the coming of the Lion of Judah. But lion roars have also been associated with the Lord, for example in Amos 3:4, 7 in the context of judgment, and Hosea 11:10. So either John a roaring lion is the best description John can give to the angel’s voice, or it is another indication that this angel is a divine representative.

Then “the seven thunders” reply to the angelic roar. The use of the definite article here (the seven thunders) seems to suggest these thunders are not new to us. But there is no other explicit reference to “seven thunders” either here, or in the rest of Scripture. These leaves us with a couple of possibilities. First, the definite article doesn’t mean what we supposed it to mean here. The Greek article is a lot more flexible than the English article, and its presence can convey a number of meanings. In fact, it is often used to take an a noun or adjective and make it into an actual thing. For example, “rich” becomes “the rich”; “good” becomes “the good.” It can also indicate something in distinction from other things: “the pot” as distinct from other pots; “the thunder” as opposed to other thunders. It can also denote something familiar (“the bishop’s wife” as opposed to any bishop’s wife). It’s possible the use of the definite article here is simply drawing attention to the distinct nature of these seven thunders.

It’s also possible that “the seven thunders” alludes to a seven-fold manifestation of God’s thunderous voice in the Old Testament. One such passage is Psalm 29, which says “the God of glory thunders,” and mentions “the voice of the Lord” seven times. We are, perhaps, supposed to understand the seven thunders in this way: the Lord is speaking. Recall also Revelation 6:1, where the four creatures spoke with a voice of thunder at the opening of the first seal. I believe what we have in these “thunders” is divine communication.

Perhaps the most startling thing about these verses, however, is that when John goes to write down what the seven thunders say, he is told not to. The first thing this tells us is that John could understand what the thunders were saying. It is an intelligible, communicable message that John could put into words on papyrus. Second, note that the voice tells John to “seal” what the thunders have said. Clearly, this isn’t a physical sealing since John hasn’t written anything. But you don’t seal an empty scroll. The scroll in chapter 5 had writing on the front and back. So John has heard what the thunders said, but he is being told to mentally “seal” those words. He is not to communicate them verbally, either by mouth or by pen.

But why should the Lord prevent John from writing these things? This is the Book of Revelation, not the Book of Concealment. Up to now, John has been given free rein to write down whatever he hears–indeed, there are times he was given a divine command to write things down (e.g., 1:11). What’s different about the message of the seven thunders?

Various commentators over the years have offered suggestions why the Lord had John “seal” these things. One view says God is deliberately holding back information, maybe because He wants to maintain some mystery about the End Times, or He wants to cultivate faith by leaving some things hidden, or He simply doesn’t feel obliged to tell us everything. My problem with this perspective is it seems to go against the purpose of Revelation. This isn’t a puzzle book, like the Sudoku and crossword puzzles in a newspaper. Revelation is a book of hope and encouragement to Christ’s church, showing them that no matter how bad things get (and they’re going to get bad), God is on His throne, and He has His people in the palm of His hand. They are sealed and secure in Christ.

Another perspective holds that the seven thunders are another set of judgments following the seals and the trumpets that God was going to unleash, but decided not to. Maybe He decided that He had done enough, and didn’t want to delay the End any more (see 10:6). Perhaps He planned another set of judgments, but seeing the hard-heartedness of the unrepentant (9:20-21), He decided there was no point after the trumpets had failed to turn them. My problem with this view is it undermines God’s sovereignty. If we’ve seen anything in Revelation, it’s the hand of God behind all that happens. God is not “winging it.” He has a plan that He is executing in the fullness of time, and all things are happening and will happen in accordance with that plan. The decrees of God are not dependent upon man’s positive or negative reaction to what God does.

I think the view that the seven thunders represent another set of judgments has merit, though not that He aborted a plan to enact them. We need to consider is Leviticus 26:14-28. Here, God pronounces judgment on unrepentant Israel. In verses 18, 21, 24, and 28, He makes reference to disciplining or striking Israel “seven-fold” for their sins. That’s four times God says He will strike Israel seven-fold. Perhaps Revelation echoes this in the presentation of four seven-fold judgments upon the unrepentant world. The first seven-fold judgment is in the seals, the second in the trumpets, and the fourth in the bowls. What’s the third? The thunders.

But why not write about the seven thunders, just as John had written about the seven seals and the seven trumpets? At first I accepted the view that the Lord didn’t think it necessary to describe the judgments of the thunders since they would be much the same as the seals and the trumpets–why belabor the point? But then someone in the group observed the escalating nature of these first three judgments: seals (written), trumpets (from the mouth via an instrument), then thunders (the voice of God directly). Someone else coupled that with the idea that, since God is speaking directly, the things described by the thunders are too high and holy for us to know. John was privileged to hear them, but he was not permitted to record them or speak of them, maybe in the same way Paul speaks of his vision of the third heaven, which was something he said no-one could talk about (2 Corinthians 12:2-4).

So, the seven thunders are one of four seven-fold judgments, echoing the pattern of Leviticus 26:14-28. But these judgments are sealed, not to be spoken of, because they are beyond us, more than we need to know.

In Daniel 12:4, Daniel is told to seal the book and not to reveal its contents until the time is right. Is that the same as the sealing of the judgments of the seven thunders? I don’t think so, because Daniel didn’t understand all that he heard, whereas John clearly did. Also those things in the book were to be revealed at the right time, which we understand to be at Christ’s coming. So that book is no longer sealed.

We’ll pick up with verse 5 next time.