Think about something that is bitter-sweet. In
Revelation chapter 10, we see a big angel with a little book that is sweet and
sour to John. And even though the little book is opened and unsealed, we can
only guess how bitter-sweet its contents will be.
The Big Angel
1I saw still another mighty
angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. And a rainbow was on his
head, his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire.
The “mighty angel” coming down from heaven has
characteristics and descriptions similar to Jesus, but this is not Christ. A
rainbow was around God’s throne (Revelation 4:3), Jesus’s face at the
transfiguration shined like the sun (Matthew 17:2), and Jesus’s feet were like
bronze glowing in a fiery furnace (Revelation 1:15). Jesus Christ, however,
does not return to the earth until later so this angel is not Jesus.
If this mighty angel were Christ, the question
would arise, why wouldn’t John specifically identify Him as Christ? Many
believe that Jesus Christ, the second person of the godhead, appeared in Old
Testament times as “the Angel of the
Lord.” However, after His incarnation, He was never referred to as such again,
and certainly not as merely “another …
angel.” Instead, this mighty angel has the attributes and power of heaven, but
he is still a messenger and a representative of God.
This vision is spiritually seen by John and it is for
John’s benefit. This mighty angel is the second of three “mighty” or “strong” (Greek:
ischuros) angels whom John sees in this
apocalyptic book (the first is in Revelation 5:2, the second is recorded here
in chapter 10, and the third is in Revelation 18:21). In another trilogy of
angelic beings, this is the first of three angels who come down from heaven (see
also Revelation 18:1 and 20:1).
The clothing of the angel with a cloud identifies
power and judgment. The rainbow signifies God’s promise, his face shining like
the sun signifies the glory of the Lord and God’s purity. His feet being like
pillars of fire indicates the solid foundation of God’s holy judgment.
Being on the sea and on the land signifies God’s
total and final judgment which will permeate the entire earth. Artists
frequently paint this angel as being huge in stature, but other than the angel
standing on both land and sea, John does not indicate this. These descriptions
however are secondary to the fact of what the angel holds in his hand: the little book.
The Little Book
2He had a little book open in
his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land,
The “little book” (Greek: biblaridion) is a different word than what was used in the opening
of the seven seals. This one is open, not sealed. Just as we do not know the
contents of the seven thunders (Revelation 10:3-4) , we do not know the contents
of the little scroll. However, we do know the results of it: it is sweet to the taste, but bitter to the stomach. Christians
greatly look forward to Christ’s return, which will be sweet, especially for
those who become believers during the Tribulation. However, when John begins to
truly digest the enormity of the upcoming “days of the voice of the seventh
angel,” such calamitous and catastrophic judgment makes John nauseous.
Zephaniah 1:14 describes the noise of the Day of
the Lord. Those days, which I believe are the final three and a half years of
the Tribulation, will be “a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a
day of devastation and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of
clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet and alarm against the fortified
cities and against the high towers.” Because of the horrendous sins of the
world, “their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like
refuse. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in
the day of the Lord's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire
of His jealousy, for He will make speedy riddance of all those who dwell in the
land.” (Zephaniah 1:15-18)
The Loud Cry
3 and cried with a loud voice,
as when a lion roars. When he cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices. 4 Now when the seven thunders
uttered their voices, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven
saying to me, “Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not
write them.” 5The angel whom
I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised up his hand to heaven 6 and swore by Him who lives
forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth
and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that
there should be delay no longer, 7 but in the
days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the
mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.
The loud cry of this angel is compared to a lion’s roar. Amos 3:8 says, “A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?”
Proverbs 19:12 says, “The king's wrath is like the roaring of a lion, But his favor is like
dew on the grass.”
Isaiah 31:4 proclaims, "As a lion roars, and a young lion over his prey…so the Lord of
hosts will come down to fight for Mount Zion and for its hill.”
This loud voice is a signal for great terror. The
seven thunders, which some refer to Psalm 29:3-9 as the thunderous voice of the
Lord, and its seven attributes were revealed to John, but a voice from heaven (the
first of seven times that John will hear the voice from heaven as he did in
John 4:1) commands John not to write them.
The Seven Thunders
The seven thunders apparently utter seven things
which will be revealed in the end times but is not for us to know now. The
mighty angel swears by God (again, another affirmation that this is not Jesus
Christ) that there should be no more delay. (Now, in the King James version,
this word “chronos” is translated as “there should be time no longer” but this does not mean
that chronological time itself shall end, but rather like the phrase we use
today, “time is running out.”)
Notice that the sounding of the seventh angel will
take place for several days and at the sounding, God’s mystery will be
finished. That mystery is said to have been “declared” to His servants. A mystery
in the Bible frequently means “truth hidden to the world but revealed to His
servants the prophets and to the church.”
The mystery is to be “evangelized” or declared
(the Greek is “euengelisen,”; the
same word from which we get the word “gospel” and “evangelism”. Thus, the
mystery of salvation is not yet completed, but it is drawing to a close. The evangelistic
word is used again in Revelation 14:6, when another angel flies in heaven and
has the “everlasting gospel” (euangelion)
to preach (euangelisai). God is still
longsuffering, wanting people to be saved.
Some, most notably Marvin Rosenthal, have used
this text and other places as evidence of a supposed “pre-wrath rapture”, a recent
theory which emerged in the late 1980s. In other words, some believe that the
church, or God’s mystery, has been in the world through this part of the book
of Revelation, but would soon be taken out, at the final trumpet judgment. If
this were so, the church would only be spared of God’s final wrath or the seven
bowl judgments. However, this “pre-wrath rapture” is not likely, because we see
that the “sounding” will take place over several days (Revelation 10: 7). Like
the seventh seal which contained the seven trumpets, the seventh trumpet will include
the seven bowl judgments.
8 Then the voice
which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the little book
which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.”
9 So I went to
the angel and said to him, “Give me the little book.” And he said to me, “Take
and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as
honey in your mouth.” 10 Then I took
the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as
honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter.
11 And he said to me, “You must
prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”
The same
voice, presumably God’s voice since it speaks from heaven, which he heard in
verse 4 speaks again. Up until this point, John has apparently been observing these
events from the perspective of heaven, but now he is on the earth as he goes to
the angel who is standing on the land and sea. John later states in chapter 13 that
he was standing on the sand of the sea. These two passages are significant when
John measures of the temple, which strongly indicates he is measuring the earthly
temple and not a heavenly temple.
The example
of eating a scroll was also used in Ezekiel 2:8-3:14. In Ezekiel’s case, the
scroll was filled with lamentations, expressions of mourning and woe and though
it was sweet to the taste, it resulted in Ezekiel’s bitter prophecy against his
own people of
Whether John
and Ezekiel literally ate the scrolls is not nearly as important as the fact
that they spiritually digested God’s message and then prophesied to the people.
The last part of this chapter uses the phrase “peoples, nations, tongues”
but adds the word “kings”. The “peoples, nations, tongues” phrase was
used seven times in Revelation 5:9, 7:9, 11:9, 13:7, and 14:6, adding the word “tribes”
(that is, the 12 tribes of Israel), and in Revelation 17:15, adding the word “multitudes”.
But here, God
and possibly also the angel tell John that he will prophesy again. There is no
record of John ever testifying “before” kings. However, this book of Revelation
has been read by peoples, nations, tongues, and kings for nearly 2,000 years.
 |
Numerous charts like this one have been
made to help diagram the events of Revelation and coincide it with Daniel’s 70th
week. Revelation 10 and 11 are seen as the mid-point of the
book. |
