Continuing on with Chapter 10 in its entirety. Here it is:
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. 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, 3and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. When he cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices. 4Now 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 6and 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, 7but 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.
8Then 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.” 9So 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.” 10Then 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. 11And he said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”
Here we have another interlude; an intermission before the last trumpet is sounded. Why this break? What is about to happen?
It starts off with "I saw" introducing a new scene. Like in a play, a new scene is about to unfold. First we see a mighty angel. Who is it? A lot of debate over this angel. Some think this angel is Christ, clothed in a cloud with a rainbow on his head, his face shining and with feet of fire. This does look similar to the description of Christ in Chap 1. So there are similarities.
But more likely it's just "another" angel as it says here. Another is "allos" in the Greek and means "something of a similar kind." Jesus is one of a kind, not "another" thing. We have seen thus far so many angels doing God's work so most likely this is just another angel but mighty in its description.
Now this could be one of the archangels like Michael or Gabriel and the reason for the description "mighty," or it could mean colossal in size as in "big" angel. We don't really know. Jesus is never called an angel in the NT. We also seee this angel with his right hand swearing to God something we never see Jesus doing.
Well what about his face shining like this? If you go back to Mount Sinai you'll see Moses face shining like the sun when he came down off the mount. This was a result of being in the very presence of God himself, so we shouldn't be surprised to see one of God's angels shine as well. In fact this angel could be one of God's closest angels and the reason he's described as "mighty."
This "mighty" angel could very well be Gabriel. Gabriel was the angel who would bring God's message directly from God to the people. He's called God's messenger. He speaks directly for God. We see this in Daniel 8:16, Luke 1:19,26, so this could very well be the angel Gabriel, but we can only speculate at this point as we cannot be dogmatic here.
We see this angel set one foot on the land and one foot in the sea at the same time. He must be a very big angel to do this some may say. But can't we do that as well? Can't we stick one foot on the land with one foot in the sea? I think this is saying that God is in control of what's happening on the entire planet.
Hebrews 2:8 says:
You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him"
The next trumpet will unleash seven bowl judgments. There will be no more intermissions only unrelenting wrath and fury upon the earth. We've seen God's mercy has shown up time and time again up until this time. We've seen mercy and grace all the way through but are about to see the final outpouring of His wrath upon this earth after this intermission. Time is short.
Three will be a time too late. For those who have already died, thus far, during this time of tribulation it's already too late.
A loud voice, like a lion, is heard. When that happened an interesting thing happened. Thunder happened. Thunder with a voice? We see the mention of seven thunders here and can only summize that perhaps this means a complete message was given by God himself. Thunder represent his presence and furthermore represents his judgment.
John is told not to write this down. We don't know exactly what he heard, but he's told not to write it. Interestingly in 1:11 he's commanded to write this vision down as he sees it by Jesus himself. Maybe these words here are just for John's ears only.
Job 37:5 says: God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot comprehend.
We don't know alot of things about God. That's ok. What we do know is He's in control. He knows everything about us. He knows when we will die. He knows where we will live five years from now. He knows our future. We don't need to know these things. We may not know what tomorrow brings but we do know who holds our tomorrows and we need to only trust Him.
Deut 29:29 says:The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Scripture is the revealed Word of God. To Christians it's the inspired Word of God. We believe it's a letter directly written to us. Just like we use different instruments to write down our memories or stories whether it be ink, computer, crayon or pencil so too God used his different instruments. A pen comes in different colors. We may use a red, blue, black or green pen. So too did the Apostles display a different color as they wrote down the Word of God each with their own personalities interwoven into the writings. It's not a history or poetry book, although it's all in there. No, it's a personal letter written to each of us individually. His Word touches each personally so that it changes our very lives forever. We learn that he is faithful in all he does.
We see this angel now swearing an oath to God. He's standing on all the earth, land and sea representing God. No more delay. The time is up. Enough is enough. This is the end of His timetable. He's letting them have it their way.
Remember the saints under the altar in 6:10? Their question then was "How long O Lord?" The answer is now.
There will be a seventh trumpet shortly but is going to take a little while (days) and then the mystery of God not disclosed by Him until now will open up for all to see. This sort of reminds us of Christ on the cross when He said, "It is finished." This Act is now completed.
God has declared His word to us. We've seen how God has unfolded his plan to us in Joel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel among others so there can be no "oops" or "I didn't know." There will be no excuse. While we may not know all things, we do know enough.
Verse 8 begs a "you've got to be kidding" moment when John is told to take a book out of the mighty angel's hand. This is pure obedience. How fearful John must have been. A mighty angel is standing there with one foot on the earth, one on the sea, book in his hand and God want's "me" to take it away from him? What is this book? It's a message from God himself.
He's told to eat it. The angel knows the reaction that will arise from the eating of this book as he's seen it before when Ezekiel did this. So this is not the first time this is done. What does this mean? Eat a book?
The words are the very words of God. He's told to eat them. Why? We don't know exactly. Perhaps it's for empowerment of the message. The strength John can only get by absorbing the very Word of God. Perhaps it has to do with his mission to come as he readies himself to tell the world about his vision.
This message is both bitter and sweet. It saddens and gladdens as does the Word of God to every believer. .
Bitter is "Pikros" and might stand for judgment against unbelievers.
Sweet is "glykys" and would stand for God's eternal plan fulfilled.
Sometimes we read God's word and it's sweet and light and encouraging. Other passages speak about sin and cuts to our very soul. These passages don't feel so good. They are bitter words going down. God wants His word to pierce our hearts. He wants us to repent and grieve over sin. The Word of God has the power to do this. Hebrews 4:12 says:
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
In v11 we see John is told he must prophesy again. He needs extra energy here. John is given this command. It is not a suggestion. He's heard, eaten and digested the Word and now after this is all absorbed into his very being he's to go out and tell.
We see this strange call to eat God's Words given to Ezekiel in Ezek 2:7-3:11. It says:
7“You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious. 8“But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”
9Now when I looked, there was a hand stretched out to me; and behold, a scroll of a book was in it. 10Then He spread it before me; and there was writing on the inside and on the outside, and written on it were lamentations and mourning and woe.
1Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” 2So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll. 3And He said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you.” So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness.
4Then He said to me: “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them. 5“For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the house of Israel, 6“not to many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you. 7“But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted. 8“Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. 9“Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.” 10Moreover He said to me: “Son of man, receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears. 11“And go, get to the captives, to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear, or whether they refuse.”
In Ezekiel's day rebellion against God prevailed as it still did in John's day as it still does in ours. Ezekiel was empowered to speak to a world which did not want to hear. God also wants us to digest, absorb the Word of God into our own hearts, our souls, into our very being allowing God to change us from within. We need to heed the same message to go to those who will not hear after we have absorbed the Word of God. We are to tell others. If we do not, we are sinning. If we don't tell others about repenting of their sins, of the gospel and about John's Revelation's message we are sinning.
Consider This:
1. Unbelief will be judged
2. His word is to be spoken (you must prophesy)
We need to read, meditate, digest and tell others the truth even if it's unpleasant to do so.
Jeremiah, known as the weeping prophet, is an example. It grieved him that his people would not listen to what God was sayig. He knew judgment was coming for his people, yet they would not listen. Jeremiah 9:1 says:
Oh, that my head were waters, And my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night For the slain of the daughter of my people!
Their response to him? They mocked him. They abused him. They threw him in prison, exiled him and would not listen. Yet he cared so much he was not about to stop. He said in 20:9
"Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak anymore in His name.” But His word was in my heart like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not."
He had to speak. He was compelled. So how did the Word of God settle in his heart? At times he was left with heartburn.
A last warning from Jeremiah in 13:15-17:
Hear and give ear: Do not be proud, For the Lord has spoken.16Give glory to the Lord your God Before He causes darkness,
And before your feet stumble On the dark mountains, And while you are looking for light, He turns it into the shadow of death
And makes it dense darkness.17But if you will not hear it, My soul will weep in secret for your pride; My eyes will weep bitterly
And run down with tears, Because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.
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