Revelation Chapter 10

Revelation 10:1

Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire.

When people think of mighty angels, a lot of the time this is what they envision due to how majestic and noticeable he is. This angel has in a lot of ways the appearance of the Lord. In Ezekiel's vision of the one that sat on the throne was like the appearance of fire with a bow from the clouds all around. Earlier in Revelation and when Jesus was transfigured it says that His face was shining like the sun. It also states earlier that Jesus’ feet were like burnished bronze. This is also strikingly similar to the angel Daniel saw, who was held up 21 days by the prince of Persia. I only bring up these similar relationships due to how awesome a sight the Lord Himself must be. This angel looks very similar to the Father and Son, who created all things; and if angels are able to strike fear into people over and over again in scripture, can you imagine what a sight the full on glory of God would instill in us?

I do want you to notice that we are still in the time of the sixth trumpet. The seventh has not sounded as of yet and for the next 1-½ chapters we take a little detour before we get to the final trumpet of God. As we go on we will try to distinguish the timeline of the events of Revelation 10-11 to see where they fit in the vision that John is seeing, whether they all are consecutive or if they are layered with other events that we have already seen.

ref: Ezekiel 1:27-28; Revelation 1:15-16; Matthew 17:2; Daniel 10

Revelation 10:2

He had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land, (ESV)

This mighty angel has in his hand a little scroll. We will talk about this scroll in a few lessons but for now just note that the scroll is opened. This angel put his right foot on the sea and left foot on the land. In a scene like this it is easy to miss the little intricacies that God has put forth in His word for us to catch. Naturally we would be in awe by the awesomeness of this angel and miss the fact that John specifically mentions a certain foot being on land and a certain one on the sea. For bible students this is particularly frustrating due to the fact that we don’t know exactly why this distinction is being made. Many scholars have made guesses toward what it means and some of them seem very plausible but as I’ve said before, without any direct scripture to back it up, they are educated theories at best. Theologians also often speak about it not being an actual land or sea that he is standing on but in fact represents the gentiles by the sea and Israel by the land. They speak on the authority the angel will have over both entities and that they would rule supreme over them both. These are also plausible theories due to most scholars claiming that the sea is used over and over again to represent gentiles, especially when we get to the rise of the antichrist but this theory is also not set in stone. In fact I have already discussed (and will again when we get to the beast) about the sea possibly not representing gentiles at all but instead may point directly to a specific creation of God and a single tribe in Israel. If that be the case then these theories will be thrown out of the water. There are definitely parts of the bible it would be great to have a better understanding of without having to assume, especially in Revelation, but for now we have to patiently sit and wait for some of these mysteries to be revealed.

Revelation 10:3

and called out with a loud voice, like a lion roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded. (ESV)

We spoke earlier about how the angel was clothed and in appearance like that of his Creator, and now we see him speaking. His voice, like a lion roaring is also like the one sitting on the throne. “They shall go after the Lord; he will roar like a lion; when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west.” Here we are told that God will roar like a lion, and when He does His children will be drawn to Him. Now just because it is an angel speaking does not necessarily mean that this is not the fulfillment of that Hosea prophecy. Angels often time were sent with a message and actually spoke for or on behalf of God, so this might actually be the point where God is gathering His people Israel up. If this is that time, what does that mean, that Israel is gathered up before the Lord actually returns? I call this the nourishing of Israel based on the text later in Revelation saying, “and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.” It is interesting that this is happening because we are just about to learn about what that 3 ½ years, or 1,260 days, or 42 months look like for Christians and those that live on the earth. This place in the wilderness is a “place prepared by God” to which Israel will be gathered. Jesus said about this prepared place, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” Does that sound like it is the same place? Jesus being God has went and prepared a place in the wilderness for Israel. We know this is specifically for Israel and not for Christians due to the fact that almost every single time it speaks about this place it mentions the name of Israel. So what is Jesus going to be doing with them there? "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.” This tender speech will be like this, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” That’s right, all these things that we have declared for ourselves as Christians is actually designated specifically for the house of Israel. So while the dragon goes off to make war against the rest of the woman’s offspring (Christians), Israel will literally be taught by God and brought into wholeness under His tutelage. We will most definitely learn more about this when we catch up to these events.

ref: Hosea 11:10; 1 Peter 5:8; Revelation 12:6; John 14:1-7; Hosea 2:14; Hebrews 8:10

Revelation 10:4

And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down." (ESV)

The last status we had about the state of John occurred back Rev 4:2 saying, “At once I was in the Spirit”, so we had John in the spirit. I don’t know what exactly “in the Spirit” entails but I think we often think of it as being invisible or at least not an actual physical thing that we are able to touch. It did not occur to me until recently that John has been writing these things down as he was seeing them and not having to remember the things to write at a later time. This makes perfect sense, especially when you consider the scene in the throne room of God where he sees the living creatures and so forth and then beholds the Lamb of God. It would be easy to forget all you’ve seen up to that point once you have laid eyes on Him but that is not what happened because apparently he was writing as he went along.

There are many things that are mysterious in this revelation that are difficult to understand, even those things that I speak so assuredly on still have a lot of intrigue because we are mainly ignorant when it comes to the ways of God. That being said I hold a great desire in wanting to know what it is that the seven thunders said here. I often think about it. I foresee there would be one of a couple of outcomes of knowing what is said here. One would be that the whole of Revelation and possibly the entirety of scriptures would suddenly come into focus and bring an unbridled clarity to life. This outcome is what excites me in wanting to know what is said. The second outcome might be that in actuality it would expose how little I truly know about scripture and would end up not making any sense to me or the meaning would still be hidden. The outcome could actually be either of these scenarios. Now there are some scholars that take educated guesses about what might be said but many concede that they are simply speculation since what the voices have said were actually sealed up.

Revelation 10:5

And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven (ESV)

In instances such as this with such grandiose scenes it would've been great if John was just a tad more specific. For instance we don’t know if this angel will be one that we are able to lay eyes on or not; but we really can’t blame him because he was seeing it and might not have known if we would see these things or not. I only bring it up because this is a grand sight. It is difficult not to envision this angel as being massive in size due to him standing on land and on the sea. He spoke and that caused voices to come from the seven thunders that was important enough that God sealed up what was said. This mighty angel, who obviously has some sort of authority, raises his hand to heaven. A being that we have difficulty imagining still has a creator sitting in heaven. Part of me thinks that we will not be able to witness this taking place because I would think witnessing a creature of this magnitude submitting himself to the Almighty would surely have to invoke something within even the most staunch atheist that would cause him to sit up and take notice of the God this being is serving.

Revelation 10:6

and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay, (ESV)

The mighty angel who is seen standing on the land and on the sea swears by Him who lives forever. Going back to an earlier verse we see that the person he is swearing by is the Father Himself because He is the one said to live forever and ever. In doing so we can be certain that what he is saying is certain to be true. When Jesus walked the earth, He warned us not to swear an oath by heaven or Jerusalem or by our head; and this is basically because we cannot change anything that happens to any of those places. We are not able to keep promises and vows that we make outside of the will of God so swearing an oath therefore becomes an evil thing to do. So for this angel to do such a thing, he would have to be sure that what is said is certainly about to happen otherwise it would be blasphemy toward God. Anytime we speak an oath that we are not able to uphold while invoking the name or power of God is blasphemy, even if it is against Satan. Now this is not a popular notion in Christianity because we enjoy speaking blasphemous words toward Satan and feel just in doing so. We say things like, we’ll stomp Satan under our feet and he is fearful of us when we do certain things, and other cliched sayings that have no biblical basis. Even the angels don’t do these things, as it is written, “But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you.’” It would be easy to assume that even an archangel like Michael can pronounce some sort of punishment toward Satan but he doesn’t because it would be a blasphemous judgement because it is not for him to inflict judgement upon him outside of what God pronounces to him. But we might say, Satan is evil and is deserving of all the punishment we could want to put upon him, but then we take a look at the verse before this one where it calls Satan a “glorious one”. I would go as far to say that it is a sort of blasphemy when we pronounce upon one of His glorious ones a lie such as “Satan is attacking me” when in actuality he has not acted at all in the situation. We must come to realize that our judgements and beliefs about things like this hold eternal consequences toward us that we don’t always realize. We will discuss in the next lesson what the angel pronounces and the consequences thereof.

ref: Revelation 4:9; Matthew 5:34-37; Jude 1:8-9

Revelation 10:7

but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets. (ESV)

There will be no more delay…The angel declares here that once the final trumpet is sounded by the seventh angel the mystery of God is fulfilled in those days, without delay. There are certainly things that happen after that time regarding the millennial reign and resurrection but apparently those things are not bound up in the mystery of God. The time has come that the mystery is fulfilled and this is partially the reason that I believe the bowls of judgement and much of the rest of Revelation through chapter 19 have already happened or will likely happen in a very expedient manner once the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, because all that mystery is fulfilled in those days. They will not be drawn out and take place over a long period of time because there will be no more delay; and the reason we know this is because he is swearing by Him who lives forever and ever. So the destruction of Babylon, the prostitute and the beast, the harvest of the earth, the bowls of judgement, the two witnesses, and the dragon pursuing the woman and the rest of her offspring have all already happened or will happen shortly due to the swearing of this angel by God. If we still have 3 ½ more years to endure the beast and all that goes along with him then that certainly does seem like there is some sort of delay in the fulfilling of the mystery of God. I am assuming that this mystery has to do with something the prophets were told, especially in Daniel where the word mystery is used over and over again. These mysteries held in them the teaching about Babylon and her destruction as well as the saving of Israel. We could go on and on pointing out mystery by mystery (and we will do some as we go forward), but I also believe that even as studied as all the scholars on earth have ever been, there will still be some mystery revealed in that time that we were simply blind to. That is not to say that God did not reveal them to the prophets but that we just do not see them for what they are. I am amazed at how often it is the more I study and think I am figuring great truths out about my Lord, that there are still a great many things that are there for me to discover that I am simply blind to, as were the prophets, disciples, and apostles. So keep that in mind as we continue to study, how quickly these things that the next several chapters must have happened in order that there would be no more delay.

Revelation 10:8

Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, "Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land." (ESV)

This is an interesting scene because we know that the angel has a scroll in his hand. We do not know if this angel will be visible to us at this time or if this is something that only John is getting to witness. But we are entering into a situation where we don’t exactly know how this is going to play out. John receives his command to go and take the scroll from the hand of the angel. We will discuss the scroll in the next lesson so follow me through this line of reasoning. John is seeing this vision of a mighty angel standing upon the earth with a scroll in his hand proclaiming that the time of mystery is about to be fulfilled. So in real time this is what we are still waiting to happen as it is likely that none of the trumpets have sounded in our time as of yet, so this is happening in the future. But in this vision of the future, John (who is in the past), is told to go and take the scroll and consume it. So we are left to wonder when the angel actually comes on the earth will John show back up to take the scroll (again)? Clearly the vision has the scroll in the hand of the angel and then not in the hand of the angel so since John has eaten it in his vision will the angel no longer have the scroll when he shows up? These are the kind of paradoxes that make the word of God even more intriguing to me for we don’t know if the scroll was only for John to complete his vision or is the scroll necessary to fulfill this prophecy and it may be for someone else to eat once we catch up to this point in time. I absolutely love when God throws these little easter eggs in there for us to consume and to keep us interested in His word.

Revelation 10:9

So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, "Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey." (ESV)

This is very interesting dialogue once we start to look at what is being said. Imagine yourself as John; prisoner on the island of Patmos and are suddenly whisked away and start seeing all these visions about which you are supposed to be writing down. You are almost just a spectator in all of this; and then you see a mighty angel come and stand on the land and on the sea. I can imagine he is awestruck as he hears a voice telling him to go and TAKE the scroll from that angels hand. So instead of doing that, he goes and SAYS to the angel (I imagine in an asking voice), to give him the scroll. I can only imagine the look on the angels face as if to say, “I know good and well you heard God say to come and take it.” Almost every time in scripture when someone encountered an angel they fell to the ground and many times began worship. We can only imagine what this massive angel was looking like and how John was not about to just take something out of his hand. But the angel corrects him and tells him to take it and eat it.

Now let’s discuss this scroll for a minute. Many scholars stand behind this being the same scroll as in Revelation 5 but I cannot find a basis for this and in fact find basis for it not being that scroll. First and most importantly it was already established that not one single being on earth or in it or in heaven was able to open the scroll or to look into it. Now I understand that the scroll in chap. 5 was sealed and with this one being open, it looks like they are one and the same; but the fact remains that no one was worthy enough to look in it; this included this angel and John himself. I would argue that even when these events take place and at the culmination of all things, we still won’t be able to look in it as we are still not worthy but only Jesus alone is. This does however look strikingly similar to the scroll that Ezekiel was told to eat. In that instance as well as this one it appears that this scroll holds the words of God that are to be proclaimed to the people. We will discuss which people later but perhaps there is not a difference in that scroll and the bible we have today, but may be that a more complete understanding (if not fully complete) of what is going on. We already discussed how the mystery was about to be fulfilled so it may be possible that this is the beginning of the end so to speak, where all things are made clear. Bookmark that Ezekiel passage because we will be returning to it soon.

ref: Ezekiel 2:9-3:3

Revelation 10:10

And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. (ESV)

“And when I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and behold, a scroll of a book was in it. And he spread it before me. And it had writing on the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe. And he said to me, "Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel." So I opened my mouth, and he gave me this scroll to eat. And he said to me, "Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it." Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.”

So John’s experience is very similar to the one Ezekiel had with a major exception; scripture does not say that Ezekiel’s scroll became bitter in his stomach. Most scholars agree that both sets of scrolls are the word of God to be proclaimed in some form or fashion, but there are a couple of major theories they have as to why there is a difference between their reactions. We will discuss one now and the other in the next lesson, but I’ll say now that it is probably a combination of both. The reason given as to why John’s scroll turned bitter was because time is becoming very short in the time this is being eaten. In the days that Ezekiel ate it, Jesus had not yet come and so there was still time as there remains to this day for the Israelites to be brought back into repentance. If John’s vision is one that we still are waiting on to come to fulfillment then time is short and the bitterness of the message he has to give to a soon dying world will become extremely sickening to those that choose to live outside of the kingdom of God. There will be no more delay because the mystery of God is about to be fulfilled, and the lack of delay may be cause of the bitterness.

ref: Ezekiel 2:9-3:3

Revelation 10:11

And I was told, "You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings." (ESV)

Last time we looked at one reason why the scroll Ezekiel ate didn’t turn bitter in his stomach and today we will look at another reason. When Ezekiel ate the scroll, God told him that he was to go to Israel and speak the words of the Lord. Though Israel was obviously a rebellious house, this was going to be a somewhat easier task than what John was to do. Ezekiel was sent to his own people, who understood him and whom he understood. John was told to prophesy about many peoples, nations, languages and kings, a much more difficult task because of their hard languages and many different people. In addition to that, Ezekiel’s message was almost exclusively for Israel who after many generations of being shown the very hand of God had maintained themselves as a rebellious house and had been warned at every turn beforehand that destruction was coming upon them if they continued in their rebellion. It is noteworthy that this is likely not the same message that was given to Israel back then because if that message had been given to these nations then they surely would have listened. Often we question the motives of God in this way and wonder why He doesn’t give everyone the exact same chances. However, I do not want you to think that this is unfair to us in any way. We receive the word that is meant for us to receive. Jesus, when He was prophesying against Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, stated that they received different works than Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom. He goes on to say if the works they received had been done in those town then they would have repented and remained until now. Is it fair that Jesus being God knew what it would take for them to repent and not give them that? Not at all. Their destruction was, at least partially, a sign for everyone after them to look upon and learn from. So in the same way this scroll that John eats turns bitter in his stomach because it is a more harsh word than the one meant for Israel. As Christians and other gentiles, today and throughout history, we have looked upon Israel in a very smug way thinking how could they not follow God after all He had shown them. We secretly and sometimes publicly condemn them because if the works that were done in them would have been done in us then we would have repented and believed. Instead the only sign we receive is the sign of Jonah, where our Lord was dead and then 3 days later, resurrected. This is added to all the words of Moses and the prophets that Israel had received and that is given to us for all we need to believe. We often think that we need another sign to believe but that is because we are a wicked and adulterous generation, and scripture goes on to tell us that even if we did witness something like someone rising from the dead, we would not believe because we have failed to listen to Moses and the prophets. So after all that teaching we can look back upon that we have to heed, John receives a sweet word that will become bitter to a generation that is about to face judgement. At least we have received the sign of Jonah, where they did not; so it appears that it will be more tolerable on Tyre, Sidon and Sodom than it will be for us on the day when the Lord returns.

ref: Ezekiel 2:9-3:7; Matthew 11:21-24