The angel and the little scroll
10
📚And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. 10:1 As between the 6th and 7th seals so here between the 6th and 7th trumpets we have a break in the narrative. This is a pause to reveal matters not directly caused by the sounding of the 6th trumpet, a parenthesis to look at other events to take place at the end of this age. This break for these explanatory visions goes on to Rev 11:15. It seems some of these events (Rev 11:1-6) will actually take place before any of the trumpets sound, or even before the 6th and 7th seals are opened.⚜
2 📚And he had in his hand a little scroll 📖 which was open. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on 📖 the land, 3 📚and cried out with a loud voice like the roar of a lion, and when he had cried out, seven thunders spoke with their voices.
10:1-3 The description of this mighty angel suggests the Lord Jesus. In this book both a cloud and a rainbow are associated with the divine presence – Rev 1:7; 4:3; 14:14. “Face...like the sun”, “feet like pillars of fire” reminds us of the vision of Christ in Rev 1:15-16. The word “lion” (v 3) suggests the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Rev 5:5).⚜
4 📚And when the seven thunders had spoken with their voices, I was about to write; and I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Seal up 📖 those things which the seven thunders spoke, and do not write them down”.
10:4 What did these seven thunders say? No man now knows, and it is useless to speculate about it. Compare Deut 29:29.⚜
5 📚And the angel which I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his hand to heaven, 6 📚and swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, and the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there would be delay no longer 📖,
10:5-6 Here is a very solemn moment in this very solemn book. It indicates that what the angel says is of great importance in understanding this book and the events recorded in it.⚜
7 📚but in the days when the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, when he begins to sound it, the mystery of God 📖 will be completed, as he declared to his servants the prophets.
10:7 This age will come to its end in the days of the 7th trumpet. The word “days” suggests a brief time – not years or an indefinite long period. These “days” will give time for the outpouring of the bowls of wrath (chapters 15,16).⚜
8 📚And the voice which I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, and said, “Go and take the little scroll that is open in the hand of the angel standing on the sea and on the land”.
9 📚And I went to the angel and said to him, “Give me the little scroll”. And he said to me, “Take it, and eat it 📖. It will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth be as sweet 📖 as honey”. 10 📚And I took the little scroll out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth, but as soon as I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter.
11 📚And he said to me, “You must prophesy 📖 again 📖 before many peoples, and nations, and languages, and kings”.