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Traveling by train with her father from Amsterdam to Haarlem one day, Corrie began reading a poem to him. Corrie ten Boom was about ten, at the time. When she asked her father, 'What does 'sex sin' mean?'
She describes what happened next: He turned to look at me, as he always did when answering a question, but, to my surprise, he said nothing.
At last, he stood up, lifting his traveling case from the rack over our heads, and set it on the floor.
Will you carry it off the train, Corrie? He asked.
I stood up and tugged at it. It was crammed with watches and spare parts he had purchased that morning.
"It's too heavy," I said.
"Yes," he said.
And it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load.
It's the same way, Corrie, with knowledge.
Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger, you can bear it. For now, you must trust me to carry it for you."
And I was satisfied. More than satisfied--wonderfully at peace.
There were answers to this and all my hard questions; for now, I was content to leave them in my father's keeping.
God is mysterious not simply because he is God, but because we are children. And in his love our childhood is protected.
What a difference it would make if we viewed both childhood and God's mysteries as a source of wonder and even comfort. There is a Creator, and we are among the created. There are answers to all things safely in our Father's keeping.
Which brings us to the mysteries of Revelation and in particular Revelation chapter 8, the breaking of the seventh and final seal. Some mysteries God has made known to us. But God is our Creator, and we are among the created. There are answers to all things, but they are safely in our Father's keeping. While some knowledge may be too heavy to bear, now, such as 'sex sin' was for 10-year-old Corrie as we mature and grow stronger in faith, one day we will be able to bear the full knowledge of all that God is and all that he has in store for those of us who love Him, and those who have rejected Him.
Until then there is a wonder and a comfort for those of us who choose to walk with Him as the seventh and final seal is broken, and the rest of Revelation unfolds.
After six thunderous seals of judgment on an unrepentant world in chapter 6 and a dramatic interlude in chapter 7 where God's servants are assembled for a spiritual battle and sealed for protection against God's wrath, and after a multitude, too many to count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language as well as countless angels and heavenly creatures praising the Lamb upon the throne, the seventh seal is broken. And what happens? Silence. There is silence for half an hour. The silence jarring. It shocks us into attention with its ironies.
When incense and sacrifice were offered in the temple in Jerusalem those praying loudly were expected to remain silent, so the priest's prayers could be heard by all.
This silence John experiences here is something far greater. This silence comes from a sense of awe. Having praised God and stood in his holy presence around the throne in heaven, nothing else needs to be said. All of heaven waits in silence in awe of the holiness and glory of God. God wants to prepare us for what is to come. Both is Mercy and His wrath. Otherwise, we might not be able to bear it.
Job bore great suffering without just cause. And he bore this faithfully, refusing to blame God. But when he finally questioned God about why he had to suffer when he had no wrong. God's only answer was to question Job, who was he, a creature, to question God, his Creator? And with a great sense of awe Job realized who he was, nothing but an unworthy and humble creation of an infinitely greater and holier Creator.
The Lord said to Job, "Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!
Then Job answered the LORD; "I am unworthy -how can I reply you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer--twice, but I will say no more."
When the Day of the Lord comes every mouth will be silenced in awe of God.
Paul tells us in Romans 9:19, "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. That the world will one day be silenced before God offers encouragement and comfort to those of us who hear the pompous noise of this world, the arrogance of politicians, the hostility of academic institutions, and other elites who ridicule or ignore God. These and others all will be silenced. Have you ever heard someone declare, "When I get to heaven, I will tell God a thing or two?" It comes from those determined to blame God for the injustices of the world while trivializing the effects of sin. Because of God's mercy their tongues may spew criticism now, but on the day of justice they will be silenced along with all the others who act unjustly.
This silence is a moment of reverent awe. Heaven is telling us, "Be still and know God" (Ps. 46:10). But that is so hard to do in this crazy, noisy world we live in today. How can anyone be still? There are so many things to worry about. Some years ago, a speedboat driver suffered a racing accident. He said he had been at near top speeds when his boat veered slightly and hit a wave at a dangerous angle. The combined force of his speed and the size and angle of the wave sent the boat spinning crazily into the air. He was thrown from his seat and propelled deeply into the water--so deep, in fact, that he had no idea which direction the surface was. He had to remain calm and wait for the buoyancy of his life vest to begin pulling him up. Once he discovered which way was up, he could swim for the surface.
Sometimes we find ourselves surrounded by confusing options, too deeply immersed in our problems to know which way is up. When this happens, we, too, can remain calm, waiting for God's gentle tug to pull us in the proper direction. Our "life vest" may be other Christians, Scripture, or some other leading from the holy Spirit, but the key is recognizing our dependency upon God and trusting him.
Taken as a whole, the seven seals give a partial answer to the problem of why a good and powerful God does not act immediately to end human suffering. They demonstrate that the origin of suffering and evil is complex.
There are several degrees of separation from God, who once held the scroll; to the slain Lamb, who takes it and breaks the seals to the cherubim, who give the command, "Come"; to the four summoned riders who unleash each disaster; to the human agents who perpetuate the suffering caused by empire, violence, economic injustice, and death.
In one sense, the seals affirm that God is in control of human history, that nothing happens outside his authority, and that suffering cannot affect our world unless he allows for it.
On the other hand, to say that God is directly punishing sinners by causing them to become blind (John 9:2-3) or receive cancer or lose their jobs and homes is to fail to understand the complexities of evil, much like Job's friends do.
The degrees of separation in the agency of the seals demonstrate that God is not the direct cause of suffering. By his providential will, he allows sin to run its course, but for a redemptive purpose.
His hope is that when you and I experience the consequences of sin, whether directly because of our personal actions or indirectly because we live in a fallen world where bad things happen, all of us will turn to Christ for deliverance.
I read recently about a preacher and a barber who were walking through city slums. "If God was as kind as you say, he wouldn't permit all this poverty, disease and squalor," the barber said. "He wouldn't allow these poor street people to get addicted. I cannot believe in a God who permits these things."
The minister was silent until they met a man whose hair was hanging down his neck and had a half inch of stubble on his face.
"You can't be a good barber, or you wouldn't permit a man like this to continue living here without a haircut and a shave," the preacher said.
Indignant, the barber answered, "Why blame me for that man's condition?
He has never come to my shop. If he had, I could have fixed him up and given him a look like a gentleman!"
"Then don't blame God for allowing people to continue in their evil ways," the preacher said. He calls them to come and be saved."
Mysteriously, God does not stop evil by suspending the human freedom that contributes to it but rather turns evil into an unwitting actor of his design. God is mysterious not simply because he is God, but because we are his children. And in his love our childhood is protected. What a difference it would make if we viewed both childhood and God's mysteries as a source of wonder and even comfort; There is a Creator, and we are among the created. There are answers to all things safely in our Father's keeping.
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Rev. Charles Eldredge is pastor of Maitland Church of the Brethren, Lewistown, PA where he is currently serving in his 28th year. He graduated from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass.