Revelation 10:1-7

This passage of text begins another interlude of sorts between articles of judgment. True to pattern, another awaits in the bowl judgments between 6 and seven. This parenthetical pause is the longest in the book regarding the amount of text and detail between trumpets six and seven. There are several commentators on this passage, and they differ from each other. I do not think this is a changing historical view based on the natural evolution of our understanding of theology in this case, either. Consider the following.

Matthew Henry, on this passage, says, “The apostle saw another representation. The person communicating this discovery probably was our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, or it was to show his glory. He veils his glory, which is too great for mortal eyes to behold; and throws a veil upon his dispensations. A rainbow was upon his head; our Lord is always mindful of his covenant. His awful voice was echoed by seven thunders; solemn and terrible ways of discovering the mind of God. We know not the subjects of the seven thunders, nor the reasons for suppressing them. There are great events in history, perhaps relating to the Christian church, which are not noticed in open prophecy. The final salvation of the righteous, and the final success of true religion on earth, are engaged for by the unfailing word of the Lord. Though the time may not be yet, it cannot be far distant. Very soon, as to us, time will be no more; but if we are believers, a happy eternity will follow: we shall from heaven behold and rejoice in the triumphs of Christ, and his cause on earth.”

Clearly, Matthew Henry saw the angel as being the Lord Jesus, and he was not alone in that interpretation. However, both the JBF (Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown) Commentary and Dr. John MacArthur in his New Testament Commentary on this passage point out that verse 6 of the text points out that the angel here takes an oath, which the Lord Jesus (Creator God) would not have done (there is no one higher than He to whom He could swear an oath). With that kind of diversity and there being only so many hours in the day, I will stick to what I believe the Spirit has led me to see in this text. The example with Matthew Henry is only one of the examples I could name. The Life Application commentary has other issues. Even Dr. MacArthur doesn’t get it all perfect all the time, and I am not Dr. MacArthur.

Interpretive challenges aside, this is a very encouraging passage to read and is also shrouded in a little mystery that we will speak of when we get to that part of the text. I broke it down as follows:

KV7: The Completion of the Mystery of God

7: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He preached to His servants the prophets.

1- 3: The Strong Angel and the Little Book

4: The Seven Peals of Thunder Sound

5-7: The Oath of the Strong Angel

Regardless of what others may opine, the Word of God has a meaning of its own that it will eventually convey to us when God is ready for details to be revealed. At this point, the meaning is that everything that begins has an endpoint. A kind of telios from the Greek, a completion. This is the completion of the mystery of God, no small set of events in history.

KV7: The Completion of the Mystery of God

7: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He preached to His servants the prophets.

What is that old phrase? What goes up must come down. It is as certain as gravity, barring outside intervention. Everything that begins will end until eternity begins, which is at the end of this book. Before I wax rhapsodic on the future, we will do so when it is appropriate, and that is not here except to note this point. It has always been God’s aim to reveal Himself to man, and He has done so and will do so at His chosen appropriate pace until He no longer needs to do so. What this text is about is preparing for the seventh trumpet to sound and the Mystery that God Himself began when He created the world and humanity to be concluded. This is done with the sounding of the seventh trumpet, which will occur in Rev. 11:15, a chapter-and-a-half from now.

This is being done for God to keep His word that He spoke to all the prophets over the time humanity has been giving prophecy, which as near as I can tell, is from the time of Adam, the first man. He has always had His servants (Greek doulos, slave), and those servants were both blessed and entrusted with the mystery spoken of here, whether they understood it or not (something God determines). Daniel didn’t understand because what he saw was for the last times that we are in. Isaiah didn’t understand there was a time gap between the first and second comings of Messiah. These are two examples of a progression in the revelation of the mystery of God that has been and still is continuing today (oh look, the aorist tense). Let’s get into this and see what the Lord has to say.

1- 3: The Strong Angel and the Little Book

This first thought unit is to introduce the main characters and themes of the story, and so we will look at them in some detail. We will encounter a “strong” angel and a small scroll, and we will see what they are about in this scheme.

1: I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, clothed with a cloud; and the rainbow was upon his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire;

The adjective to describe the angel here is a form of the noun ischus, which denotes power, ability, and strength. Some have suggested that this is the Lord Jesus, and I can see where they get it, but I disagree. Verse 6, which we will look at later, has this angel taking an oath, which the Lord would not need to do, being the creator that is all-powerful and never lies. We will speak of it more when we look at verse 6. Let’s look at the angel in detail.
First, another strong angel comes down out of heaven. This use of “another” indicates that this is a new angel on the scene, perhaps of the class that asked, “Who is worthy to open the scroll?” (Rev. 5:2) Is it a new class of angels? I don’t know; it isn’t clear to me on that, and I am not sure it matters. He is a “strong” angel.
He is clothed with a cloud, which most commentators agree, and so do I, that this angel is coming as a representative of God in judgment to the earth. Clouds not only indicate his heavenly nature, but also the gathering anger of God in wrath against a disobedient humanity, the anger of God at His creation and His gathering wrath is come.
A rainbow was on his head. Remember that the rainbow is the sign of the Noahic Covenant! Almighty God destroyed the beings who lived on the planet except eight humans, Noah, his sons, and their wives. This covenant is always near to His mind and heart, and no angel will or can violate it. Humanity’s destruction is not God’s point! Remember how we talked about how the point of even the heavy, displayed wrath of God was to turn people away from their sin toward Christ, who is the solution to our sentence because of sin? This is more of the same and the reason for it.
His face was like the sun. This is an indication of his divine nature and is theoretically a point of light on a darkened planet. This light, according to Dr. MacArthur, should be attractive to the people of Earth, who haven’t seen full sunlight in what could be a couple of years at this point. He points out in his commentary that even this light is only a reflection of God the Father’s blazing glory.
His feet were like pillars of fire. The pillars of fire are representative of that great pillar of fire who led the children of Israel through the dark nights of the wilderness when they were led by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. This is a sort of insignia of Christ, who also has feet that burned like burnished bronze, and is also another sign of judgment.

2: and he had in his hand a little book which was open. He placed his right foot on the sea and his left on the land;

This angel is not empty-handed! He has in one of his hands a little scroll! It is a word in Greek that is a diminutive of the Greek biblus, that is, biblaridion. It is like the word for dog that was used by the Lord Jesus for “dog” in the gospels. The diminutive is used, so “little dog” or “puppy.” This isn’t a scroll, it’s a little scroll. And the scroll is already open. We will discuss what the scroll represents in the next study.
He straddled a foot onto the sea and a foot onto the land. This is an expression of God’s sovereignty over both the land and the sea. The air (the heavens) is not in doubt and will be cleansed in the bowl judgments. You may, in fact, think of the Colossus, who in ancient times, straddled a huge channel between an island and the mainland. Ships could sail under that statue it was so large. It was one of the wonders of the ancient world and was destroyed in an earthquake in the AD 200s sometime. This angel is in no danger of that.

3: and he cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roars; and when he had cried out, the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices.

The angel cried out with his own loud voice (from the text as implied in Greek). I don’t think he did not speak words, but it doesn’t say what he cried out. Here, those words are likened to a lion roaring. The symbolism here says that his voice is speaking the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Messiah Himself!
When the angel cried out, pay close attention here, THE seven peals of thunder called out. There is some interesting symbology here, and it is maybe a kind of apocalyptic formula in literature, connecting with the completion of the previous set of judgments. JFB informs that Wordsworth has named this as the prophetic use of the article. In Rev. 8:1-5, we read that thunders ended the scroll judgments. In Rev. 16:18, we can read of thunders closing out the judgments of the bowls. Here, it is concluding the judgments under the trumpets. The next trumpet to sound will “unlock” the bowl judgments. “Judgment unlocked.”

That is the strong angel and the little scroll or book in his hand. The seven thunders roar out their words, and yes, they are words from the next verse. We will look at that now.

4: The Seven Peals of Thunder Sound

We have already suggested that this is apocalyptic literature and that this is some deep symbolism, but there may also be more to this than first meets the eye. What if there are actual thunder beings that can speak, and they are also God’s servants? I don’t know, and it is awe-inspiring to consider. Let’s look at the text.

4: When the seven peals of thunder had spoken, I was about to write; and I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken and do not write them.”

See how John heard the words of the peals of thunder? He reports that he was ready to write it down as he had been commanded. He heard words, not just loud sounds. Then it seems that a voice from heaven (like Orson Wells or James Earl Jones maybe) spoke and told him for some reason that is not stated not to record what they said.
There has been all kinds of speculation on what these seven peals of thunder spoke and why John was told not to record what they said. The verifiable truth on this is that we know neither what the thunders said nor why the voice said not to write it down. Anything outside that is speculation only.
Speculation is not forbidden, it just cannot be authoritative. I think there are two potential reasons that the words spoken by peals of thunder were not recorded. First, they were not aimed at humanity in terms of the gospel, which is what humans all desperately need, especially at this time on earth. Second, it may be that the words contained details in terms of intelligence that could be used by the enemy, and so God forbade it. It could be a combination of that, or it could be neither of those reasons. Speculation is useless or worse. Entire doctrines have been built around what these peals of thunder spoke, and that’s Gnostic or worse. See what I mean?

What I think we can take out of that is that we are not able to or even meant to know everything at this point in humanity. Our duty, according to Micah, one of the minor prophets, is recorded in Micah 6:8 – “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?” That is all we really need to know as we walk with Christ at this present time. If we can commit ourselves to that, everything else sorts itself out. Moving on.

5-7: The Oath of the Strong Angel

Here is an angel taking an oath. It tells us what his oath will be when this finally happens. It sounds like a good oath, and for believers, it will be very encouraging.

5: Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to heaven,

This has long been the human symbol of the giving of an oath. We place our hands on that little scroll (more on that next study), and we raise our right hand and swear to tell the complete truth and that only as we bear witness to whatever it is we need to verify. Now I know what the Lord said about taking oaths, but he wasn’t reacting to the giving of oaths. Otherwise, this angel would not swear his oath. He was reacting to the hypocritical actions of the Pharisees in saying lofty words with their hands held high and then speaking deliberate falsehoods or things that only benefitted them. This angel lifted his right hand to heaven and then spoke the truth, as we see in the next verse.

6: and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, WHO CREATED HEAVEN AND THE THINGS IN IT, AND THE EARTH AND THE THINGS IN IT, AND THE SEA AND THE THINGS IN IT, that there will be delay no longer,

The angel swears his oath. He swears it on the ultimate authority, who is Him who lives forever and ever [τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων, tous aiōnas tōn aiōnōn, the ages of the ages]. There is only one individual that he could be swearing by, and that is Almighty God.
However, just in case it wasn’t clear from that reference, the angel quotes Exodus 20:11 on the subject. That is in the greater context of Exodus 20:8-11, which says, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.” The one who created it all is about to act, and his act will result in rest from the next phrase.
There will be delay no longer! Think about what there is no longer delay on for a moment. This is very specific. It refers to the souls under the altar in the scroll judgments, the fifth seal. How long until you take vengeance for our horrible and painful deaths at the hands of the servants of the evil one? That is their question. If you consider this as an announcement to those souls that their waiting is over and the Lord of Heaven and Earth is about to act, it makes perfect sense. There will be delay no longer in the vengeance of God on the sinners of Earth. Sobering and yet joyful news to those concerned.

7: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He preached to His servants the prophets.

In the days of the seventh angel, who is the one about to sound by virtue of the fact of the sixth trumpet angel just having sounded his horn, the mystery of God is ἐτελέσθη [etelesthē]. Does anyone here know a similar word to this in Greek? I will tell you what it is: tetelestai. Paid in full. It is finished. Completed. Perfected. It is a form of the Greek telios, that is, to bring to completion. The musterion (mystery) of God will be completed. What is that mystery? That God formed and called a people from those who disobeyed Him, and because He loves them, He redeemed them from this present evil world system, and now they belong to Him and will serve Him for all ages to come (the ages of the ages), just as God revealed to His servants the prophets long ago and over many generations.

That story was completely written from before the world began, and God was so sure of what He had done that before the world began, he even wrote all the names of those whom He had chosen in a book that will be used as a final check in Revelation 20 to make sure nobody slips through the cracks that He Himself chose at that point before the foundation of the world. We do not know the names of the people that are written in that book, but we know how they appeared there, and we also know what has and will happen to them so that they all gain eternity. Romans 8:29-30 says, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”

He foreknew each one He would create. He knew how each one would respond (foreordained or predestined). He called each one who He foreknew and foreordained. He justified all of them, and He glorified all of them. And it was all done there before the world began. How that works out for us is that we will each hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. He will regenerate us, and we will not want to say no to Him. We will say yes to His generous and free invitation, and He will justify us, and then when we have walked with Him for long enough, He will glorify us and bring us to be with Him forever.

I want that, you say. Fair enough, who wouldn’t? You must do two things to respond to that call of God. The first of those is to reverse course in your sinful life. It is the meaning of the word “repent.” You must change your mind about your sin and change your direction away from it and toward what Christ wants you to be and do instead. Then you must accept that Christ paid the price of your sinning for you, once and for all. Be persuaded that because God was so pleased with that atoning sacrifice, he rose from the dead. Do those things, and you will join those of us from all time from all around the world who have become His people, called according to His purpose, to be in Christ and no longer under condemnation (Rom. 8:1, 28, look that up on your own). As we do this and then follow Him in His ways and teachings, we will finally arrive at our glorious home in Heaven. May God bless you as you do so.

That is what I saw in the text.

The next section of text we will be looking at is Rev. 10:8-11, but I have a special notice about when our next study may be. This afternoon, I accepted Pulpit Supply for the month of December, including Christmas Eve, at Delta Baptist Church in Delta, Ontario, about an hour and a half from here. It is a short term of being an interim minister, in reality. Normally, I would find a way of managing my time around this and doing the Bible study as well, but because this is the season of Advent and Christmas, the second largest celebration in Christendom (Easter being the only one bigger), I think I’m going to need every bit of time I can get to prepare all of that and the programs that surround it. So we will be pausing Bible Study until the New Year at least, and if all goes well, for a couple of weeks after that so I can settle back into a routine again. I can tell you that I am hoping this can turn into something longer, so please pray for me. I am also entertaining other opportunities for pastoral ministry, so I appreciate your prayers for that. That puts our next study on 2025 Jan 16.

In the meantime, you can come and join me in Delta on any Sunday in December or on Christmas Eve. Email me if you need directions, though Google Maps will bring you right to the front door. Parking is on the street in Delta. There are some things I cannot share, but I would appreciate seeing a friendly face by the sound of it, and that is all I will say. It is a full hour and a half of driving if you are coming from Ottawa.