Voice of the Seven Thunders

Revelation 10:4,7

⁴ As soon as they spoke, I was about to write. But I heard a voice speak from heaven, “Keep secret what the seven thunders have said; do not write it down!”

⁷ But when the seventh angel blows his trumpet, then God will accomplish his secret plan, as he announced to his servants, the prophets.”

Deuteronomy 18 contains the prophetic words of Moses about God raising up a prophet from among you whom we must listen to. This, Peter identifies in Acts 3, is Messianic, referring to Christ. All must listen to Him. This is what the voice of God thundered, “Listen to Him”. 

Seven times to seven churches through seven angels the words of Jesus call for all who will overcome to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.  

An Amazing Call to Victory

Judges 5:13 speaks of the time when not only one shall rule or judge: 

Then him who is left of the honourable ones He caused to rule the people of Jehovah, He caused me to rule among the mighty.

Judgment is given to the people of God.

Ephraim: fruitful

Benjamin: son of my right hand

Machir: bartered

Zebulun : dwelling, habitation

Issachar: reward, recompense

Deborah: bee

Barak: to shine, lightning

Reuben: behold a son

Here is a message taken from the meaning of the names above.

The Messiah is the fruitful Son at the right hand of God. Christ sits there now at the right hand of God. Christ has given His life through His death on the cross and God raised Him from the dead. In doing so, He has provided an eternal dwelling for us who put our trust in Him. We have become His holy habitation. He will return with His reward for those who exercise judgment and recompense for those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

As a bee, Deborah would rather have been avoided, giving a man the prominent role in the text of Judges 5. She wanted the story to be told of Barak. Amid the great salvation God is providing His people, there is no room for pride or drawing attention to people or personalities. As the text of Judges 5 implies, God is powerfully at work behind the scenes causing His righteousness to come down like rain. 

The light of God’s word is what lights our way through the valley. Christ will return shining in all His unmatched glory as the lightning strikes from the east to the west. When He returns, we who believe and have left all for Him will be transformed, putting off the corruptible and on the incorruptible as God's children. 

Into this context comes a warning not to listen to the pastoral voices that play a comforting melody as Reuben did. They were to be listening to the trumpet sounding the alarm. They were to be taking action not being involved in great deliberation as the moment for action passed them by. They were considering acting but doing nothing. 

Other tribes were kept by other snares. Dan was prevented by the care of his ships; Asher, by his havens. The call is to leave behind all that we deem precious, leaving behind all in embracing the voice of Christ spoken in the deepest recesses of the heart where we are called to return and connect to our Creator. 

"So let us lay the warning of that example to heart, and if we are stirred by noble impulses to take our place in the ranks of the fighters for God, let us act on these at once” (Mclaren’s Expositions).

Let us be instead like Zebulun and Naphtali. Notice Naphtali is first mentioned here as part of the leaders who fought. The meaning of Naphtali is instructive. It means wrestling. The wrestling comes when we hear and know we are supposed to take action but those snares mentioned above exert their force against us. We are called to wrestle through to God, cling to Him and become His holy habitation. 

Judges 5:20:

From the heavens the stars fought, From their courses they fought against Sisera.

The great thing is that those dwelling in heaven and shining as the stars fight in their courses and complete the victory. The enemy is defeated by Kishon, a torrential river like a flash flood completely wiping out the adversary. "O my soul, march on with strength" (Judges 5:21).

God’s own, the kings, the victorious, come riding on stampeding stallions. What follows is a statement of curse to the place of Meroz and its inhabitants,  where people think they can hide in secret and hold to leanness when God Himself is calling them to fight when He needed them to fight against the mighty. 

Blessed, on the other hand, is Jael, he who ascends. 

It’s an honor to be called of God. The victory as it was for Jael was and is not far off. The battle came to her just as we find ourselves in it, and we can fight on God’s behalf with what He provides at our disposal. We only need to listen and obey. He does the rest. 

Lightning, Whirlwind, Paths through the Sea, and the Ultimate Preparation

The return of the Lord Jesus Christ is unfolding in ways I could never have imagined. All glory to the King of kings and Lord of lords.

People wonder how believers will be snatched up into the air to then always be with the Lord. Before that happens, we need to be those who are being made ready.

God has given us clues about the process in the things Scripture teaches about the seas. 

In Ecclesiastes 1:6-7 Scripture connects the wind and seas:

⁶ Going unto the south, and turning round unto the north, turning round, turning round, the wind is going, and by its circuits the wind hath returned.⁷ All the streams are going unto the sea, and the sea is not full; unto a place whither the streams are going, thither they are turning back to go.

What is being described is a whirlwind and the flow of water upon the earth. The broad context asserts there is nothing truly new under the sun.

The following Scriptures teach that the Lord Himself makes the way through the seas: 

This is what the LORD says-- he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, (Isaiah 43:16)

Here in Psalm 77:18-19 we see how God uses the whirlwind and paths in the sea to lead His people:

18The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; The lightnings lit up the world; The earth trembled and shook.19Your way was in the sea And Your paths in the mighty waters, And Your footprints may not be known. 20You led Your people like a flock By the hand of Moses and Aaron.

People may feel abandoned, disheartened, and hopeless. They do not see the footprints of the Lord through the seas, yet in safety He leads His people like a flock.

Look at the distinction Exodus 14:20-22 makes between those in the cloud who are following God and those in darkness:

…20So it came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel; and there was the cloud along with the darkness, yet it gave light at night. Thus the one did not come near the other all night. 21Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land, so the waters were divided. 22The sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the dry land, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.…

Although the seas raged, God made a path through them through His whirlwind. He created walls on the left and right for Israel, His rescued ones, to walk through on dry ground.

God is doing it again.

Zion —Connections Between the National Park and True Zion

Amazingly, Zion National Park, like the heavenly Zion, is situated in both a place of ascent and a place of descent. It is located on what is called the Grand Staircase between Bryce Canyon to the north and the Grand Canyon to the south. The true Mount Zion stands between heaven and earth. Christ calls us up to Zion and Christ comes down to stand on the Mount with us.

As Zion is enduring, so the sedimentary rock in Zion they say spans 150 million years. 

Zion for the people of God is the Mount where Jesus gathers with his virgin followers in Revelation 14. In Utah, the Virgin River flows through Zion. 

Those who found the hidden places in the park described vineyards as well as orchards of pomegranates, peaches, and apples. Zion for the believer is the place where God tabernacles over His own and provides all they need coming from Christ the Savior. 

Zion is the New Jerusalem where we come to myriads of angels and to spirits of righteous men made complete (Hebrews 12:22-23). 

Eternal Tabernacles

Luke 16:9 talks about being welcomed into eternal tabernacles

Jesus was speaking to His disciples.

It seems that from the beginning the manager in the parable was looking out for his own interests. If he scattered his boss’s assets, it appears they could have been in the form of loans. This would enable him to live past his present economic condition since it put him in the position to show mercy to those who owed his boss if he was about to lose his job. This kind of thinking, the execution of such a plan, was even commended by the master. Also, Jesus commended the man’s shrewdness evidenced in how he understood and used money to provide himself a home for the future.

Jesus leads us in His heavenly wisdom to be wise in the way we both think about money and use it in the world. Following Christ above all paves the way for us into eternal tabernacles. They welcome us. Jesus wants us to obey Him with the mindset of it preparing for us our eternal home.

Would the manager be returning home or creating a new home? 

The point is his being welcomed. That is also what we desire, to be welcomed. The invitation goes out to all to come and drink freely from the waters of life. Jesus cried out for people to come to Him and drink. I am welcomed. You are welcomed. Every single person who will come is welcomed. 

The man at the pool of Bethesda had no power to even get himself to the waters. Jesus as the water of life came to him. 

The picture is that the only thing we need to do is to want to do God’s will. The question Jesus asks the man applies to us. Do we want to be healed? We are unable to get to the water, so Jesus comes to us.

 

Jesus says, Rise (John 5:8).  

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