And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven say, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down.” – Revelation 10:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 24, 2015): Revelation 10

We don’t need to know everything. It is something that we seem to have forgotten in this media driven world. We don’t need to know, but the reason why we feel we must know is that we have forgotten how to trust. The problem is that public knowledge of some things is extremely detrimental. We can’t know the specifics of a military operation without compromising the operation. We can’t know the rescue plan that is being used to release a group of hostages without compromising the rescue. We can’t even know the plan of attack that the local sports team plans to use against their hated rivals in the next game without compromising the plan and sacrificing the win. We have to trust that those who do know, and who are in a position to devise a plan. But … that is incredibly hard for all of us. We want to know – but we just don’t need to know. We really don’t.

This passage is a hard one for Biblical scholars. The disease of thinking that we need to know everything extends even to them. One question that rattles through the passage is why would John even bother including it in this writing if he can’t give us the details? I mean, doesn’t John know that the best way to keep a secret is to not let anyone know that a secret exists?  Basically, John is simply telling us that there are some things that we can’t know – that we don’t need to know. And that is precisely the point. As uncomfortable as it might make us, there are some things that remains a mystery, at least for today. And there may be some things that may remain outside of our knowledge forever – things that we just don’t need to know.

What we do need to do is to trust. It is all that God has ever asked of us. And the problem with knowledge is that it means that we don’t have to trust, or maybe more to the point, that the only one that we need to trust is ourselves. And maybe that is the real problem with story of Adam and Eve and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In eating from the tree they wanted to become like God, to be able to stop trusting in God and simply trust in themselves. It is the dream that a lot of us seem to have, and it can lead us to nothing else but sin and destruction.

So John incudes this simple statement. You don’t have to know. All you have to be willing to do is to trust. And after all, if God is worthy of following, he is worthy of trusting.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Revelation 11