Revelation 10

     While God deals with a reprobate world, something else is going on at the same time, which this part of John’s vision of the sixth trumpet describes, continuing to Rev. 11:14.

     10:1-11.  The two major symbols of this chapter are the strong angel (cf. 5:2; 18:21), and the little scroll he carries (cf. Ezek. 2:8-3:3).

     10:1.  The angel appears in John’s vision with the glory of Christ himself (cf. Rev. 1).  The cloud hides his overwhelming glory, the rainbow is the sign of the covenant, etc.  But to identify him as Christ would probably be the same natural mistake John is corrected for making by another of these awesome servants of Christ and his saints in 19:10 and 22:8-9.  See also Rev. 1:1 and 22:16.  None of the angels in Revelation are Christ the great Mediator himself.  But these strong beings are the agencies by which Christ communicates and is present with us, while at the same time he is ruling together with the Father in heaven (cf. Mt. 28:20).  They are operating agencies of his spiritual presence, just as a king’s emissary or general acts in the name of the king.  The voice from heaven (4, 8) is more likely the Son of God speaking directly, not through an agent.

     10:2.  Unlike the sealed scroll of 5:1, this little scroll is open.  The angel’s fiery feet stand upon the sea and the land, representing Christ’s authority over the whole earth, the nations of the world (the sea, cf. Is. 17:12 ff.), as well as the chosen nation called out of the world (the land, cf. Ps. 37:11).

     10:3.  The angel speaks with a voice like a lion (the lion of the tribe of Judah).  At his voice, the seven thunders speak.

     10:4.  “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever…” (Deut. 29:29).

     “…His mighty thunder, who can understand?”  (Job 26:14).

     Perhaps the seven thunders are the perfect judgments of God.  Note that John is not permitted to write everything that he understood (cf. 2 Cor. 12:4).  Some have ears to hear God’s Word.  The multitude may only be startled, and say, “It thundered” (cf. John 12:29; Acts 9:7; 22:9).  “I praise Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent and didst reveal them to babes” (Mt. 11:25).  “God discloses the things of salvation to some and hides them from others” (Prutow).  Much of God’s grace and providence is hidden from all of us.

     10:5-11.  I think this strong angel represents the spirit of the voice of prophecy (i.e., God’s word).  The little scroll open in his hand is the gospel of salvation that John must ingest and preach to the nations, all people high and low (9-11).  In v.7, the mystery of salvation is how God saves sinners out of the world without compromising his holiness or justice, and how he does it by “the foolishness of preaching.”  (1 Cor. 1:21; cf. Eph. 3:1-10; Col. 1:26-27; 2:2-3).  The seven peals of thunder might then represent the power of God unto salvation, which is foolishness to those who are perishing (1 Cor. 1:18).  The mystery of God will be finished when the seventh angel is about to sound, and the last elect sinner cries out in faith to Jesus (cf. Luke 23:42).

     The gospel is sweet in John’s mouth, but why does it make his stomach bitter?  Consider two good reasons: 1. The gospel is sweet to receive, but we ingest it into a man of sin.  It creates a warfare in our members between the old man of flesh and the new man of faith (cf. Ro. 7:22-25).  2. “But it seems more directly here to relate to the suffering incurred in bearing this testimony before the world….

     “This work of witnessing…involves suffering.  It is an impossibility to be faithful, and not incur the world’s displeasure and contempt, and often worse than this” (Ramsey, pp. 432, 433).

     The next chapter, 11:1-13, bears this out.