Notes for Revelation
10
David H. Linden, University Presbyterian Church, Las
Cruces, NM USA (January, 2013)
The Second Interlude, Revelation 10:1 – 11:13 The seven seals had a break
between seals 6 & 7. Now between trumpets 6 & 7 we have a similar section.
This is intentional and helpful, because in apocalyptic literature, observing
the position of a theme is essential to good interpretation. The first
interlude focused on the people of God and their experience: sealed and
protected, though afflicted and murdered, but then alive, victorious, praising
their Lord God, eternally sheltered and shepherded by the Lamb. In that
interlude, we are also shown how vast the number is of the redeemed, a company so
great no number is supplied, and no man can count all of them. In some fashion,
this complex theme is repeated and enlarged in the interlude of Rev. 10 –
11:13. Eventually, a marker appears (11:14) to show that the interlude has
ended, and that the narrative has returned to the trumpets by bringing up the last
one.
10:1,2 The Angel with the Scroll These verses require
identifying two things: a specific mighty angel, and the scroll in his hand. If
anyone is uncertain of either, it is worthwhile to delve into identifying both.
Revelation makes more sense when we connect chapter 10 with chapter 5. These
questions have been argued at length in scholarly circles, and a consensus is
building concerning the scroll. The identity of the angel in 10:1 is still
debated, and “debated” often means a positive discussion.
I think the answer is clear and simple: the scroll of
chapter 10 is the one received by Christ in chapter 5, which He opens in
chapters 6 and 8. The “mighty angel” is
the one who in 5:2 proclaimed in a loud voice “Who is worthy to open” that scroll.
In 5:2, he did not ask as if he did not know; rather by his question he was
drawing attention to the scroll, knowing that when it is opened, his role would
be to hand it to John.
In v.1 the “mighty angel” is another angel
because he is not the angel who blew the sixth trumpet. He is not however, another
mighty angel in distinction from some other mighty angel. The descriptive
adjective in 10:1 and 5:2 is the same word in Greek. Revelation does not
present two angels described as mighty. The fact that this mighty angel
“preaches” his question in chapter 5 fits his spectacular descent and awesome
appearance in chapter 10.
It is not surprising that some conclude that this
angel is Christ. The comparisons with Christ are striking and intentional. In
v.1, the angel’s legs were like pillars of fire; in 1:15 the Lord’s feet
appeared like hot glowing bronze. The other likenesses are a powerful voice and
a face like the sun (1:15,16). But none of these descriptions match Christ exactly.
Having a face like the sun is not unusual in apocalyptic literature, but
Christ’s is “like the sun shining with
full strength” (1:16). In 14:14-16 Christ is seated on a cloud; this angel
is wrapped in one. The Lord’s throne is circled with a rainbow 4:3, while this
mighty angel has one over his head. Thus he is unusually like the descriptions
of Christ within Revelation, yet he is called an angel, and in
Revelation Christ never is. The mighty angel in 5:2 is obviously not a divine
being, so he is not a divine being here in spite of the great likeness. We
should expect something unique of the singular angel who receives the scroll
from Christ to give to John. Revelation does not explicitly say that he received
it from Christ, but with only one scroll from the Father to the Son, there was
no other way for this angel to have possession of it. Revelation follows
closely the path announced in the very beginning. Note the order: 1) Father, 2) Christ, 3) His angel, 4) John, 5) God’s human servants. Now note 1:1: “The revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God [1]
gave him [Christ] [2] to show his servants [5] what must soon
take place. He made it known by sending his angel [3] to his servant
John [4] ...” This one, called simply His angel, is the immediate link in this revelatory chain between
Christ and us. In 22:16 it is, “I, Jesus [2], have sent my angel [3] to testify
to you (a plural pronoun which includes John) [4] about these things for the
churches [5]”. Because of this angel’s unique role in this chain, we should
expect something surpassing the majesty of all the other angels. That is
certainly what Revelation shows.
Is it worth the bother to identify the angel and the
scroll as the same angel and scroll seen first in chapter 5? I say, quite frankly, that without this we
lose the narrative. That scroll in chapter 5 was of such crucial importance
that John wept at the thought of its contents being denied. If this is not the
same scroll, then that very important item never appears again, and we are left
hanging, unable to connect all the elements of Revelation to the first heavenly
scene in chapters 4 & 5. The starting point of the unveiling of “what
must take place after this” (4:1) begins in the vision in heaven. When the
identity is certain, we continue to have an unfolding story, but without this
vital reappearance of the angel and the scroll we are left with a narrative in
which a central item evaporates. As Revelation comes to an end, we are reminded
in 22:6: "These words are trustworthy
and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to
show his servants the things that must soon take place.”
This looking back has reference to content (things that must soon take
place) and reference to means (the Lord sent His angel to show). The role of
the mighty angel is vital to the unfolding revelation. For such an angel to
have such a vital role, as 1:1 declares and 22:6 repeats, and then never to
appear elsewhere in the book, as doing anything other than his question in 5:2,
is preposterous.
The
glory of God has a limited but real reflection in man, made in God’s image and
likeness (Genesis 1:26). That is the case here with even greater glory. This
angel is made in this vision to look like Christ, because he is the special
angel of Christ to show the content of this mysterious scroll he has received
from Christ for God’s servants. Thus he is wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow
over his head, with a face like the sun and legs like pillars of fire. That
catches our imagination, but to stop there defeats the purpose of the splendor.
He has in his hand a scroll.
How do
we know for sure that this is the same scroll when the word for scroll in Greek
is different? Imagine two adults talking and one says “Do you take your
children to school? Does someone else come back with the kids, or do you go
back to get them?” In many conversations words are used interchangeably, such
as ad and advertisement. In these examples they mean the same; the children
are the kids, though one word is more colloquial. Most scholars have waded
through the evidence and have ended up certain that the different words used by
John for the scroll have no real difference. Variations in Revelation are
common. Those who conclude that there are two scrolls, a little one in chapter
10 and the one mentioned in chapter 5, have three problems:
1.
There is no further mention of a second scroll,
2.
If there is a second scroll, we do not have different content for each.
3. Within chapter 10 a word for scroll appears four times. The Greek
text uses both forms of the word to
refer to the same thing. They are synonyms. There is one scroll.
We can breathe a sigh of relief; there is one scroll;
the narrative is coherent. Secondly, that written and highly privileged
document in the hand of the One on the throne and in the hand of the Lamb is
about to be delivered to a human servant of God and thus to us. Revelation has
a message for us. The scroll has been opened. Remember the path. It is from God
to us, and in all of Revelation this book was the only thing reported as being
in the hand of the One Who sits on the throne. Since Revelation has the purpose
to “show to his servants things which
must soon take place” (1:1), this scroll must be closely related to
revealing something important. (See also 4:1 and 22:6.) Furthermore, it will
show the nature of the cosmic conflict, and how in the will of God we are to
fit into it.
The sealed book in Daniel Revelation 5 begins with a scroll written within and on the back, but this
book was sealed. We are not presented with an ordinary book, but one which
needed to be opened for us. This Christ has done. He broke the seals. Revelation
makes much of these seven seals being opened, and thus read, understood, and
implemented by God. The Prophet Daniel prepares us for this. There we find a
book with some mystery of God being sealed and kept from Daniel.
Daniel
weaves from information affecting the near future to Gentile activity and
domination over Israel until the time of Christ, but as it does this it sometimes
mentions the end.
It links closely with Revelation in a variety of parallels. We shall need to
make reference to passages of Daniel as we move further into Revelation. Note
the “How long?” of Daniel 8:13, corresponding to Revelation 6:10, and the death
of the saints in 8:24,25, corresponding to Revelation 6:9; 13:7; & 17:6. Other
parallels will appear later. This statement deserves much attention: “When
the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end all these things
would be finished” (12:7).
In visions an angel is sometimes seen as a man in Daniel (see below) and in chapters
9 & 10 of Ezekiel. This Daniel angel is so much like the angel of
Revelation 10:1, I wonder without certainty if we have the same angel.
Daniel “I
lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, with a belt
of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of
lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a
multitude” (Daniel 10:5,6; see also Daniel 12:7 below).
Revelation “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. 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, and called out with a loud voice, like a lion roaring…”
(Revelation 10:1-3).
Other similarities
in the order in which they appear in Daniel prior to chapter 12:
o
The
vision is for the time of the end (8:17)
o
He said, "Behold, I will make known to you what
shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed
time of the end” (8:19).
o
The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has
been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days
from now (8:26).
o
to seal both vision and prophet (9:24).
o
until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator
(9:27).
o
to make you understand what is to happen to your
people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come (10:14).
o
But I will tell you what is inscribed in the book of
truth: there is none who contends by my side against these except Michael, your
prince (10:21).
o
… until the time of the end, for it still awaits the
appointed time
(11:35).
We
should note that in Daniel’s day some valuable information was withheld, delayed.
Now in Revelation 10:6 the angel gives an oath that there will be no more
delay, and that something will be fulfilled in the days of the sounding of the
seventh trumpet (10:7). The time is near (22:10).
The linkage to Revelation increases greatly in Daniel 12:
Daniel 12:4 But you, Daniel, shut up the words and
seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and
knowledge shall increase.
Daniel 12:6 And someone said to the man clothed in linen,
who was above the waters of the stream, "How long shall it be till the
end of these wonders?"
Daniel 12:7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was
above the waters of the stream; he raised his right hand and his left
hand toward heaven and swore by him who lives forever that it would
be for a time, times, and half a time, and that when the shattering of
the power of the holy people comes to an end all these things would be
finished.
Daniel 12:8,9 I heard, but I did not understand. Then I
said, "O my lord, what shall be the outcome of these things?" He
said, "Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until
the time of the end.”
Daniel 12:13 … go your way till the end. And you shall
rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days."
The angel in Daniel has likenesses
in appearance with Revelation 10:1. However, it is the matter of a scroll, sealed
in Daniel but open in Revelation, that is the most striking connection and
contrast. Other parallels will emerge in Revelation 11. The time factor of “a time, times, and half a time” (Daniel 12:7) appears first in this
interlude (Revelation 11:2) and continues beyond. More is coming about “shattering of the power of the holy people” (Daniel 12:7), as more is revealed
about the persecution of believers and God’s accomplishments through such
shattering. Daniel prepares us to understand Revelation.
10:3 The lion’s roar reappears in Revelation. He
had some appearance like Christ; now in v.3 he sounds like the Lord. Those
listening to Revelation being read (especially Jewish believers) would
recognize the remarkable likeness to Amos 3:8: “The lion has roared – who will
not fear? The Sovereign LORD has spoken – who can but prophesy?” Verses 7 & 8 in Amos 3 mention prophets
prophesying. Chapter 10 is moving to John being commissioned to a prophetic
role (10:11). But Amos adds more, “Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing
without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.” Revealing God’s plan is what the scroll is
about. God is a God of action which involves His servants, giving His prophets
His message, and so speaking to all through them. The prophet called to speak
the Word of the Lord is as fearless as a lion. Good preaching is not chicken-hearted.
It does not stroke the back of sinners or acquiesce in their disagreements with
God. It roars like a lion, without yelling like a madman. The issue of fearless
preaching comes to the fore in chapter 11. The lion’s roar prepares for it.
10:3,4
The Seven Thunders This tantalizing report of the seven thunders
appears in little more than one verse. One can readily see how it would fit a
pattern in Revelation which already has seven seals, seven trumpets, and then
later will have seven bowls. But it is also out of place in the rhythm of the
book, and things structural in Revelation are intentional. The seventh seal
opens up to become the seven trumpets. At this point in Revelation 10 the
seventh trumpet has not yet sounded. It could have included the seven thunders
the way the seventh seal includes the seven trumpets. These thunders appear in
the text in order to be retracted. They are there for a sobering effect. If the
seals spell terrible judgment for a quarter of the earth, and the trumpets
bring even more misery and death, what might these thunders hold?
Before
we might learn what the thunders hold, an emphatic voice came from heaven,
which can only be the voice of God. This divine order had two sides: positive
(seal up) and negative (do not write). Already
I have suggested a common conjecture about the nature of the thunders. If they
are sealed then there is something there to be sealed. Guessing what is in a
divinely retracted and sealed-shut message is a questionable moral deed. However,
this conjecture has been based on the objective pattern in play earlier in
Revelation. Seven opened seals and seven blown trumpets signaled judgment on
sin. The seven bowls poured on the earth in chapter 16 comprise God’s
unrestrained judgment on unforgiven sinners. The hearers of Revelation would quite
naturally expect upon hearing of seven thunders, that more judgment will be
announced. Seals, trumpets and bowls in a literal sense have quite neutral
connotations. We do not tremble at a bowl of rice. It is not so with thunder.
In nature thunder frightens; in theophanies they make mortals tremble. In
Revelation, thunder might bring delight (14:2 & 19:6), but it always shows
vigor, either by God or man (4:5; 6:1; 8:5). In 16:18 thunder spells pure
terror.
But a
very different angle emerges. In this apocalyptic narrative, trumpets five and
six were severe judgments, ending with no repentance from those suffering the
judgments. Is more judgment the way the Lord will produce a world full of godly
worshippers of the true and living God? Every judgment is deserved; mercy is
owed to no one, and grace can never be deserved. God’s justice is as holy as
His grace. But God has willed not only to react to sin, but also to display the
wonders of His grace (Ephesians 3:10). Saving grace can be shown only to
sinners. There cannot be forgiveness if there is no sin to forgive. The lack of
repentance in 9:20,21 shows that man does not repent, cannot repent, because he
will not repent, no matter how much judgment descends upon him. By the lion’s
roar and the existence of the seven thunders God intimates what He can do. By
suppressing what the thunders said, ordering no leaks, the Lord has orchestrated
in dramatic fashion that He will turn to a different way of dealing with
unworthy sinners: He will save them. The Lord could have instructed John to
make no mention of the thunders at all. If there were no mention at all, we
would never know they were part of the vision John saw, but it has been placed there
in Scripture for us to consider. It is also at the juncture in Revelation where
a different activity of God is about to be announced.
10:5,6
That mighty angel was sent to roar. The roaring is over; he was also
sent to declare. The revelation, the open scroll in his hand, is based on more
that the impressive majesty of the angel. He swore in the Name of the Lord Who
sent him. He stood on the same land and sea, so cursed and pounded in the first
trumpets, and from which the beast and the false prophet will emerge (13:1,11).
The surface of our planet is simply land and sea, and what the angel will
declare affects all who live in every part of the earth. He raised His right
hand to heaven to swear (note Daniel 12:7), and as he did he affirmed God’s
eternity. This finite creature, a worshipping angel, praised God as the One Who
lives forever and ever, the Creator of all things. These truths grip loyal
angels with holy wonder, as they delight in their place and privilege under
their Creator. When we meditate on the difference between the Lord and us, His
transcendence stimulates our worship. We need to remember that we are recent and
that God has had no beginning. He has ever lived, depending on nothing to
support His life. Only God is self-existent without need.
10:6,7
The content of the angel’s oath
1. There will be no more delay.
Had the seven thunders been allowed to run their course, that probably
would have signaled more judgments. The ultimate judgment is not removed from God’s
agenda. The world has experienced restrained judgments from the day man fell in
As
Revelation progresses, the sense builds of very little remaining time. In the
seven bowls, God will announce, “It is
done!” (16:17). He says the same at the commencement of the eternal state
(21:6). This indicates a unity in time of the final judgment and the onset of
the new heaven and new earth (21:1). When the seventh angel blows his trumpet,
the 24 elders praise God saying, “… The
nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for
the dead to be judged, and for
rewarding your servants …”
Note both happen at the same time.[1]
(11:18). This is exactly what 10:7 said would come at a specific time in this
narrative, namely “in the days of the
trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel.” The devil knows his time
is short (12:12). The seven plagues (the result of pouring out the seven bowls)
“are the last, for with them the wrath of
God is finished”
(15:1). Thus
with a final judgment on
Time was a painful element in the
prayer of the martyrs in 6:10. They asked, “How
long?” The trumpets explicitly show (in 8:1-5) that God reacts in judgment
in response to the prayers of the saints. Now in the oath of the mighty angel
God indicates that time is on His mind, and that He commits seriously to
bringing history to a timely consummation. His saints need only “rest a little longer, until the number of
their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be
killed as they themselves had been” (6:11). A divine time limit is such an
important assurance for God’s children that the angel swears by his eternal God
and ours that there will be no
more delay. The
seventh trumpet will sound. It is tempting to call it the last one, because it
sounds a bit like 1 Corinthians 15:52. It is better, however, to compare the
trumpets in Revelation to the seven days
2.
The angel swore, “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 (v.7).” Something
promised will be fulfilled. There is a time of completion. It is at whatever
time is indicated in the seventh trumpet. We have become so used to a number of
promises not yet fulfilled that we might slip into low expectations. That is a
failure of faith. (Note 2 Peter 3:1-4.) Everything that comprises “the mystery of God” will be fulfilled
and fulfilled rapidly. Revelation 15:1 proclaims that the wrath of God is finished with the seven plagues. That judgment
is an element of the mystery of God not yet seen in this world. In other words,
the people of the world have not yet wilted in fear at “the great day of their wrath” (6:17). It is a real mystery that
Almighty God has not pounced already on all who owe Him His due respect and
remain rebels against Him. This is a brief mystery; it will suddenly change.
There is
much more to come than all the judgments proclaimed. Tears have not yet been
wiped from the eyes of God’s children. Nor is the New Jerusalem here yet. Much
blessing is in store when the mystery of God will be fulfilled. In chapter 10
Revelation is on the verge of declaring God’s saving grace for the nations.
Note this song: "Great and amazing
are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of
the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone
are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have
been revealed" (15:3,4). In spite of all that Satan tries, when the
mystery of God is fulfilled all nations will come to worship the Lord. In 11:13
a host of unbelievers with a new fear of God will suddenly “gave glory to the
God of heaven”. That is the clear reversal of the previous response of mankind
(9:20,21).
The
glory of God gives the New Jerusalem its light, and that light is the Lamb. In that light the nations will walk.
Nothing unclean will enter, but these nations will. So all the persistence in
idolatry and the refusal to repent in 9:20,21 will change dramatically. All
along, unseen by any eyes but God’s, a vast host no man can number (7: 9) had
their names in the Lamb’s book of life (21:23-27). Their names had always been
there (13:8). This amazing inclusion in the grace of God was neither known to
them, nor caused by them. They did not write in their own names in eternity
past. The mystery of God being
fulfilled includes the grace of God in action. It shows in the release of God’s
enormous, pent-up eagerness for the salvation of the nations. All that God has “announced by His servants the prophets”
over the centuries will be fulfilled. When the angel said that in his oath, he
referred to a huge store of previous revelation. This appears in the Psalms and
a number of prophets. Note Isaiah 2, 11, 24, 52, 54, 55 & 65. Here is one
in Isaiah 49:
And now the LORD says, he who formed me [Christ] from the womb to be
his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to
him – for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength
– he says: "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise
up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth." Thus says the
LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred
by the nation, the servant of rulers: "Kings
shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of
the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of
10:8–11 John commissioned as a prophet In
typical apocalyptic fashion, John was told to eat the scroll. First, he was to
take or receive it, the same verb used in 5:7.8. This means that, finally, the
revelation in the open scroll has been delivered. Its contents are now shown to
John. He like Ezekiel is to eat it. I wonder if that is a way to show that the
Word of God must be internalized in all who proclaim it. He ate one scroll not
two.
And he said to me, "Son of
man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of
Like the
Prophet Ezekiel, John was to proclaim the contents of the scroll. The voice
telling John to eat is not the voice of the mighty angel. The voice John heard
here was the voice of Christ again (1:10), just as he had heard it years before
from the Lord in His days on earth (John 20:21). At that time he was being
commissioned to serve as one sent by Christ.
The
sweetness of the scroll is the gospel, a delight to share. The bitterness is
the word of certain judgment on sinners, which the servant of God groans to
give and yet must declare in the face of hostility. John ate it, and it tasted
just as he was told. John was a very old man; other than prophesy there is
little he could personally do in a worldwide outreach with the message of God’s
saving gospel and God’s convicting law. To limit him further, he was on the
Isle of Patmos, perhaps as a prisoner. But what he received was to be handed to
God’s servants (1:1). And note, it has come all the way to us from that small
island in the
The
prophecy of which John was a unique link in a chain was appointed for many
peoples, nations, languages and kings. This set of four words appears seven
times in varied word order and with two changes of nouns as here. Here is a
change of word from the usual combination of four: peoples, nations, languages,
and tribes (10:11). Tribes (or
families) is replaced by kings. Those
kings enter the holy city, bringing their glory with them (21:22-27). There
they find the tree of life, the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations (22:2). John’s eating that
scroll, and the resulting worldwide proclamation of God’s message, will bear
such great fruit among Gentile nations that they too shall give glory to God.
This proper response to the gospel, called for in 14:7, occurs in 11:13. The
nations will cast aside their idols in genuine repentance, and in submissive
fear of God. Remember the bleak picture in 9:20,21. What the judgment of God on
sinners did not accomplish, the gospel of God proclaimed in the message of the
scroll does. In that message, freedom from judgment is only accomplished by the
blood of Jesus (1:5).
[1] In my teaching of Revelation, I have pointed
out that references to the coming of Christ throughout the New Testament are in
the singular. It never refers to His comings, or to future judgments in the
plural. The text above (Revelation 11:18) states that one singular time has in
it very different elements: judgment and reward together in one time. The
coming of Christ is the time for both. Thus I have coined the phrase “the ubiquity
of the singular”. Another example of
this singular time is 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10. There the singular time when of the Lord’s return combines
relief for His saints and vengeance on those who reject the gospel.