1And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
In chapters 8 and 9 we read of the retributive judgments which followed the sounding of the first six trumpets. John does not record the sounding of the seventh trumpet until the latter part of chapter 11. Thus, chapter 10 and the first part of chapter 11 contain visions that John received between the sounding of the sixth and seventh trumpets.
Some have thought that the angel John describes in 10:1 is Christ Himself. There are good reasons not to take that position. Though Christ did appear on occasion in the Old Testament as The Angel (Messenger) of Yahweh (see, for example, Genesis 16:7-13; Exodus 3:1-15; Zechariah 3:1-10), He is never referred to as an angel.
In this verse John saw a “mighty angel.” The same expression is used in 5:2 and 18:21, which clearly do not refer to Christ. John saw the angel coming down out of heaven. That description is used of angels in 18:1 and 20:1, not referring to Christ. The one that John saw was “clothed with a cloud,” but when Jesus returns, He will be “clothed with a vesture dipped in blood” (19:13). John saw the rainbow upon the head of the angel. But when John saw the Lord Jesus, He had upon His head a golden crown in 14:14 and many diadems in 19:12. The rainbow upon the head of the angel that John saw likely indicates that he is an emissary from the throne of God (4:3). The face of the angel was like the sun. John also said of another angel, “…the earth was lightenened with his glory” (18:1), but that angel was not Christ. John described the feet of Jesus as being “like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace” (1:15). Jesus also used the description “like fine brass” in 2:18. The similarities of description emphasize that this angel glorifies Christ by reflecting aspects of His Person. But when John sees the Lord Jesus in 14:1, he immediately describes Him as the Lamb.
2And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, 3and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. 4And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. 5And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, 6and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: 7but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.
The angel is an emissary of the throne of God. Like the living creature before the throne which was like a lion (4:7), the angel in chapter 10 glorifies Christ by reflecting aspects of His Person. There are three stated positions in the stance of the angel: his right hand is raised toward heaven, his right foot is placed upon the sea, and his left foot is placed upon the land. These three positions are the topics of chapters 12 and 13: war in heaven (12:7) and the rise of the beast from the sea (13:1) and of the beast from the land (13:11). Before those events are revealed to John, he is given this vision of God’s emissary declaring God’s sovereignty over all three realms. The angel swears by God, the Creator of heaven, land, and sea, that as of the sounding of the seventh trumpet there will be no more “time” (delay) but that God’s good message to the prophets would be fulfilled. That is, the angel swore that the promised kingdom of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would come.
A similar event took place in a vision given to the prophet Daniel: And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever… (Daniel 12:7). It is clear that the man clothed in linen whom Daniel saw was not Christ (Daniel 10:5-14).
The voices of the thunders are heard by John seven other times in the book of Revelation:
(1) After the messages to the seven churches, when John was taken up to the throne room of God (4:5)
(2) When the first seal was opened by the Lamb (6:1)
(3) When the seventh seal was opened by the Lamb (8:1,5)
(4) When the seventh trumpet is sounded (11:15,19)
(5) When the Lamb is seen with the 144,000 servants of God (14:1-2)
(6) When the seventh vial is poured out (16:17-18)
(7) When Babylon is judged (19:2,6)
Each sounding of thunder indicates that the storm of final judgment is nearing. In each of the three references to the thunders in 10:3-4, the Greek text says “the seven thunders.” It seems that all seven in the list above are heard at once. We know that their voice said something understandable because John was about to write it down. He was told to seal what they had said and not to write it. Perhaps they gave details concerning the storm of judgment that would break when Christ returns. We don’t know.
The seven thunders may also parallel the seven references to the voice of the LORD in Psalm 29:
(1) The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters. (29:3)
(2) The voice of the LORD is powerful (29:4)
(3) The voice of the LORD is full of majesty. (29:4)
(4) The voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars; yea, the LORD breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. (29:5)
(5) The voice of the LORD divideth the flames of fire. (29:7)
(6) The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness (29:8)
(7) The voice of the LORD maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests (29:9)
8And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. 9And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. 10And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. 11And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.
This chapter includes two main events: the declaration of the angel and the giving of a book and message to John. What links these events to one another, and how does this chapter fit into the book of Revelation as a whole?
The second event, in which John is told to take and eat a little book which was in the angel’s hand, is surely intended to make us think of a similar event experienced by the prophet Ezekiel when he was sent to warn Israel in its rebellion against God:
But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee. And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein; and he spread it before me; and it was written within and without: and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe. Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll. And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness. And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them (Ezekiel 2:8-3:4).
Ezekiel’s eating the scroll was representative of his ingesting the message that God wanted him to give to Israel. That message contained warnings of judgment. When Ezekiel ate the scroll, it was sweet like honey in his mouth. That’s because God’s Word is good. But Ezekiel never spoke of any bitterness in his stomach after he swallowed the scroll. Probably that is because the judgments he foresaw for Israel were partial and not permanent. Also, some of the judgments Ezekiel foresaw both for Israel and for the other nations were not for his own time but for the last days before Christ’s return (for example, Ezekiel 20:33-38, chapters 38-39).
In Revelation 10, John also is given a little book (scroll) and is told to eat it. Like Ezekiel, he ingests the message that God wants him to give to people. The scroll that John ate was sweet in his mouth (it was the Word of God) but produced a bitterness in his stomach. Unlike Ezekiel, John was to prophesy of judgments that would not be distant from that point in the revelation and which would anticipate God’s final judgment. These judgments would come quickly after the sounding of the seventh trumpet.
The message of chapter 10 is unified and dramatically presented: the end is near. The angel declared that as of the sounding of the seventh trumpet there would be no further delay in the actualization of God’s plan to establish the kingdom of Christ on the earth. John is told that he must again prophesy concerning (Greek preposition επι) peoples, nations, tongues, and kings. In the coming chapters of the book of Revelation, John will do that; he will record more of the things that will happen before Christ’s return. But those things will be bitter for all who do not belong to the Lamb, and they will come without delay.
The voice from heaven that told John to take the little book (verse 8) is the same voice that told him not to write what was spoken by the seven thunders (verse 4). The content of the book of Revelation is not haphazard. It is designed by God as His perfect message for us concerning the last days.
Note: All Scriptures are quoted from the King James Version of the Bible.