Revelation 10:1-11.
The Angel and the
Small Scroll. 1.
1Then I saw another
mighty angel coming down from heaven, surrounded by a cloud, with a rainbow
over his head. His face shone like the sun, and his feet were like pillars of
fire.
2 And in his hand was a
small scroll that had been opened. He stood with his right foot on the sea and
his left foot on the land.
3 And he gave a great
shout like the roar of a lion. And when he shouted, the seven thunders
answered.
4 When the seven
thunders spoke, I was about to write. But I heard a voice from heaven saying,
“Keep secret what the seven thunders said, and do not write it down.”
5 Then the angel I saw
standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand toward heaven.
6 He swore an oath in
the name of the one who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and
everything in them, the earth and everything in it, and the sea and everything
in it. He said, “There will be no more delay.
7 When the seventh
angel blows his trumpet, God’s mysterious plan will be fulfilled. It will
happen just as he announced it to his servants the prophets.”
8 Then the voice from
heaven spoke to me again: “Go and take the open scroll from the hand of the
angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”
9 So I went to the
angel and told him to give me the small scroll. “Yes, take it and eat it,” he
said. “It will be sweet as honey in your mouth, but it will turn sour in your
stomach!”
10 So I took the small
scroll from the hand of the angel, and I ate it! It was sweet in my mouth, but
when I swallowed it, it turned sour in my stomach.
11 Then I was told, “You
must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.”
It is the
darkest time this world has ever known the “Great Tribulation.” It is a 7-year
period of time after the rapture of the Church when all of hell breaks out,
demon spirits infest the earth, the antichrist takes rule, and people are
tortured and die by the billions.
I do not know about you, but I do not want to be there! And
I will not! And do you! But you must come and accept the Saviour, the Lord
Jesus Christ first, this is why I am writing these articles on the Book of
Revelation.
But as humanity’s darkest hour looms, a bright beacon
appears at the mid-point, after 3.5 years. This is not just another angel;
it is none other than Jesus Christ Himself executing a divine ‘arrival’ in the
end of this life. That is Him!
Do not
let it bother you that He is called an angel, many times the Bible refers to
Christ as the “angel of the Lord.” Though He exists on a completely
different level than the created angel beings, for He is their
Creator! The Great I Am! The Alpha and Omega! For He is God!
Remember, “angel” means, simply, “messenger,” and Jesus Christ is
the messenger of the new covenant. He is the Gospel, but He also brought
that good news to earth.
Genesis 22:15 “And the angel of
the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven.”
That is Him!
Isaiah 63:9, Judges 2, 6, 21, 22. We see Jesus in these passages
in pre-incarnate appearances seen also in 2 Samuel 24.
A. Because of His
Magnificence.
This
angel possesses many characteristics which belong exclusively to the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Notice 4 things:
1. Clothed with a cloud.
Verse 1.
“Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, surrounded by
a cloud”
In
scripture, clouds are the symbol, often, of deity. Like Exodus 16:10,
when God led Israel through the desert in a pillar of cloud
Exodus 19 “Dark clouds covered
Sinai when the Lord gave Moses the 10 commandments, and the voice of God
thundered from the clouds.”
Exodus 24 and 34, “God appeared to Moses again
in a cloud of glory.”
Psalm 104:3, “He (God) makes the clouds
His chariot.”
In the New
Testament, on the mount of transfiguration:
Matthew 17:5 “While he yet spoke,
behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud,
which said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
In Acts 1, “Jesus ascended back to heaven, clothed
with a cloud.”
And Revelation 1:7 says “behold,
He comes with clouds.”
And so, I say, That is Him!
2. Crowned with a rainbow
Verse 1.
“With a rainbow over His head.”
The
rainbow is God’s sign to man that He will never again destroy the earth with a
flood. Well, this rainbow also appeared in Revelation 4, when John was
called up to heaven, the first thing he saw was the throne of God, encircled by
a rainbow.
And here in chapter 10, could it be that though hell is broken loose on
earth, Jesus Christ appears with clouds, and with a rainbow, a reminder that He
is the only possible peace in the midst of the storm? I believe so!
3. Countenance like the sun.
Verse 1.
“His face shone like the sun.”
That is
the signature of the glorified Christ
Revelation 1:16 “His countenance
was as the sun shines in His strength.”
Matthew 17:2 on the Mount of Transfiguration,
“His face did shine as the sun.”
Paul on road to Damascus, saw “Jesus
as a light of the brightness of the noonday sun.
The Prophet Malachi called Jesus
the “sun of righteousness.”
He is the
bright and morning star / described as bright and radiant in splendour /the
shekinah glory of God Almighty / streets of gold may glimmer, the gates of
pearl may radiate, but Jesus will outshine them all! / later in Revelation we
are told there is no sun or moon in heaven, for the Lamb is the light there
four! I present to you the most glorious Jesus Christ!
4. Coming in judgment.
Verse 1.
“His feet were like
pillars of fire.”
A clear reference to judgment, as brass and fire are both symbols of judgment. The
judgment of the Great Tribulation will become most intense at this half-way
point of the Tribulation, after 3.5 years.
And Jesus
Christ stamps His feet of judgment upon 2 parts of the earth in verse 2,
the land and the sea! Who is He? That is clothed with a cloud? / crowned with /
a rainbow / countenance as the sun? / coming in judgment? He is the Son of God,
God Himself.
I will be
back!
B. Because of His Might.
Verse 2-4.
2 And in His hand was a
small scroll that had been opened. He stood with His right foot on the sea and
His left foot on the land.
3 And He gave a great
shout like the roar of a lion. And when He shouted, the seven thunders
answered.
4 When the seven
thunders spoke, I was about to write. But I heard a voice from heaven saying,
“Keep secret what the seven thunders said, and do not write it down.”
Jesus
Christ here holds the same book He held in Revelation 5, the title deed
to the earth. Remember?
“Who is
worthy to open the book?” / The Lamb! And in a powerful, mighty gesture of His
ownership, in chapter 10, He stamps 1 foot on the land, 1 on the sea,
symbolizing that He is taking possession, “I’m back!” He owns it all, every
drop of water / grain of sand.
Colossians
1:16 “For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or
principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him.”
One foot on land, one foot on sea: because from end to
end, from pole to pole, it all belongs to Him! He owns the cattle on a thousand
hills and the oil beneath them! And He owns the great arctic glaciers and all
the lands and nations of the earth. Kings and Queens, President, and Prime
Ministers, even Dictators will all have to bow the knee to Christ. He is coming
to claim His rightful possession.
Notice verse 3, He cries out with the voice of a lion,
another symbol of His might! Remember, there is two sides to the character of Christ:
Lamb / Lion (we must receive
as Lamb or face as Lion), Saviour / Judge (He that wants to save you today will
judge you on that day if you do not get saved).
Back in Revelation
4:1, prior to the Tribulation, the trumpet sounds, and those of us who have
been born again will fly away, and meet a mighty, magnificent One in the clouds
and we will shout: The Lamb of God / My Saviour!
Will you be left behind? Saying: That WAS
Him. Will you be one saying, I know why many have disappeared from the
earth, and I know why I have been left behind! And worst of all, I know what
is still to come, a time of Great Tribulation in which I will be tortured until
death, and even that will not compare to the eternity of hell which begins
then!
Christian, Revelation 21 says that once the Tribulation
is over, after the Battle of Armageddon, after the thousand years of the
millennial kingdom on earth, the new heaven descends from above, the New
Jerusalem, and eternity begins for those of us who have been born
again. Then verse 4 says that God “wipes away all our tears.”
Question: Why are we crying?
Could it
be because during the Tribulation we look down from the portals of glory, and
see that co-worker and say, O my soul, which is him! Neighbour that is her! / family
member, which is him! / stranger the Holy Spirit led you to witness to, but you
never got around to it, and you cry in regret from the depths of your soul, which
is them!!
If you have never been born again, you have that opportunity
today, and it is the only opportunity you are promised. If Satan convinces you
to say no to the Saviour, the Saviour will say no to you when He returns, and you
will know it was true and left behind you will cry out. Then it is too late!
If you have been saved, but know that you have got many yet
to reach, and God has motivated you to be their soul winner, to beg and plead with
them if necessary, to give your life to the cause of saving souls, of
convincing men and women to accept the Saviour, rather than face the Judge; to
bow to the Lamb, not be devoured by the Lion, raise your hand.
I am
willing to cry the tears now for them, while there is hope, not later, when it
is too late. This is why I am written this study. To warn the “whosoever” to
come to Christ as their Saviour. All my life people have asked the question,
“What do I need a Saviour for?” To save you from this Great Tribulation to
start with.
Will you
come to Jesus now?
Verses 5-6.
5 Then the angel I saw
standing on the sea and on the land raised His right hand toward heaven.
6 He swore an oath in
the name of the one who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and
everything in them, the earth and everything in it, and the sea and everything
in it. He said, “There will be no more delay.”
The writer to the Hebrews says: “For when God made promise to
Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He swore by Himself” Hebrews
6:13. God could not swear by anything else because there is none greater
than God.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal God. “In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the
beginning with God” John 1:1–2. We have this statement from the Lord Jesus
Himself: “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say to you, Before Abraham
was, I am” John 8:58. Christ is the Creator.
Notice “There will be no more delay.” The meaning is that now it will be a very brief time until Christ
returns. It is a confirmation of the words of Christ in His Olivet Discourse: “And
except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for
the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” Matthew 24:22.
The Kingdom is coming now in the Book of Revelation, but it does not
refer to the time. I do not know, and no one on earth knows, when Christ is
coming soon. But are you ready if He comes today?
Verse 7.
7 When the seventh
angel blows his trumpet, God’s mysterious plan will be fulfilled. It will
happen just as he announced it to his servants the prophets.”
This all takes place when the seventh angel is preparing to blow the
trumpet. This would indicate that the seventh trumpet brings us to the
conclusion of the Great Tribulation. It is at this time that the mystery of God
is finally made clear. Many single sides of this mystery have been given as the
total answer, yet this is greater than any one answer. I cannot answer many
questions.
There is a mystery concerning the nation Israel, judgment, suffering,
injustice, the silence of God, and the coming Kingdom. The basic problem is
this: Why did God permit evil, and why has He tolerated it for so long?
Do you want to know something? God has not handed in His answer yet. He
is going to do so someday. There are many things I cannot answer, and I am
disturbed that we have some who have all the answers. No one has all the
answers. As this passage of Scripture indicates, the fact that there is something
that we do not know about because it has been sealed means that God has a whole
lot to tell us yet. When we get into His presence, we will find out.
May I say this to you: although I do not know the answer to your
problem, I know the One who does. I suggest that you put your hand into the
hand of the One who is your Creator and your Redeemer, very man of very man and
very God of very God.
John eats the little book.
Verses 8-10.
8 Then the voice from
heaven spoke to me again: “Go and take the open scroll from the hand of the
angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”
9 So I went to the
angel and told him to give me the small scroll. “Yes, take it and eat it,” he
said. “It will be sweet as honey in your mouth, but it will turn sour in your
stomach!”
10 So I took the small
scroll from the hand of the angel, and I ate it! It was sweet in my mouth, but
when I swallowed it, it turned sour in my stomach.
Revelation is the book that glorifies our wonderful Savior. He is the
Judge of all the earth here, and we see Him as God has highly exalted Him and
given Him a name above every name. If the voice here is not Christ’s, then He
has given the order to the angel to speak from heaven.
John has returned to the earth in spirit, because the little book which
was formerly in the hand of God the Father is now transferred to John. John becomes a participant in the great drama which is
unfolding before us. He is required to do a very strange thing.
He eats the little book at the instructions of the angel, and the
results are bittersweet. Eating the little book means to receive the Word of
God with faith. This is the teaching of the Word of God, for in Jeremiah
15:16 we read: “Your words were found, and I did eat them; and Your word
was to me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.” Jeremiah seizures
the Word to eating it.
Ezekiel does the same thing: “Moreover he said to me, Son of man, eat
that you find; eat this roll, and go speak to the house of Israel. So, I opened
my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll. And he said to me, Son of man,
cause your belly to eat, and fill your bowels with this roll that I give you. Then
did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness” Ezekiel 3:1–3.
The “roll” here is not a bread roll, but the scroll of that day. Ezekiel
said that he ate it, and it was just like cake. That is what the Word of God is
to the believer. In Proverbs 16:24 we are told: “Pleasant words are
as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.”
The part of the Word of God taken by John was judgment. It was sweet
because the future is sweet. In Genesis 18:17 we read, “And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham
that thing which I do …?” In effect He was saying to Abraham, “We are
friends, and I would like to tell you what I am going to do.”
It is sweet to know what God is going to do, but when you find out that
judgment is coming, it is bitter. John eagerly received the Word of God, but
when he saw that more judgment was to follow, he was sorrow of heart.
If you and I can take delight in reading this section of the Word of God
and the judgments that are to fall upon the earth, then we need to do a great
deal of praying to get the mind of God. It is sweet to know the Book of
Revelation and what God intends to do, but when we find out that judgment is
coming to the Christ–rejecting world around us, we cannot rejoice in that. The
prophecy becomes bitter.
Verse 11.
11 Then I was told, “You
must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.”
You can be sure of one thing, that John was properly united. He believed
that all nations, all peoples, all tongues, and all colours ought to hear the
Word of God. They need to hear it because they need to be warned that judgment
is coming.
If they go through the Great Tribulation, they will soon recognize that
it is not the Millennium, in fact, they will feel as if they have entered hell
itself. This is the part that made John sad. This is the reason this little
book became bitter to John: he must prophesy against many before Christ comes
to His Kingdom. Much prophecy is to follow.
We are not halfway through the Book of Revelation. Prophecy about the
nations and peoples is necessarily against them; there was a great deal more to
say.
The study of prophecy will have a definite effect upon
your life: it will either bring you closer to Christ, or it will take you
farther from Him.
End of chapter ten.
