Revelation 10

The angel and the 7 thunders (vs. 1-7)—Revelation 10:1-11:13 actually constitute a whole. They picture the interlude between the sounding of the 6th and 7th trumpets. John sees four visions, two in each chapter, and we will look at each in turn.

The crux of the first vision is the sounding of seven thunders (v. 3). In verse 1, John sees an angel, “clothed with a cloud.” Clouds are often associated in Scripture with judgment. The angel had a rainbow on his head (the merciful covenant of God), his face shone like the sun (reflecting the glories and purity of heaven), and his feet were like “pillars of fire” (strength and destruction). He had a little book in his hand (v. 2), but we don’t know what was in it and it’s useless to speculate, though I will later in this post. The angel had one foot on the sea and one on the land—his message will cover all the earth (v. 2). When he spoke, his voice was “as when a lion roars”—fierce and frightening—and “seven thunders uttered their voices” (v. 3). They said something and John was about to write it down, but was not allowed to do so (v. 4). The angel who was standing on the land and see “swore by Him who lives forever and ever” that “there should be delay no longer” (v. 6). In other words, God’s judgments would come very soon. That would have been quite comforting to the beleaguered, persecuted saints to whom John wrote. That’s what they wanted to know; how long their trials would continue. The seventh angel (trumpet) was “about to sound” and “the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets” (v. 7). Exactly what this “mystery” was is a mystery; if we knew what it was, it wouldn’t be a “mystery”! Given the purpose of John’s book, it perhaps refers to the ultimate destruction of Rome, or victory by the church over Rome. Daniel wrote about this in Daniel 2 and 7, and many of the prophets spoke of the conquest of God’s kingdom (the church) over the world (spiritually). If it does refer to the destruction of Rome, then John would not want to write about it openly, lest such information fall into the hands of the authorities and create greater problems for the saints. But, as always, we must be very careful in our interpretations of specifics in apocalyptic literature; it is the whole which is to be grasped, so we mustn’t get bogged down in details, which, if they were (are) important, were explained.

The little book (vs. 8-11)—The second vision John sees in the interlude is a command from heaven for him to take the little book that was in the hand of the angel (v. 8; the book was mentioned in verse 2). John obeys, requesting the book, and the angel told him to take it and eat it. The book was obviously filled with some message from God; it was sweet to the taste, but bitter to the stomach (v. 9). God’s word is beautiful—“How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103). But the bitter consequences of the wrath of God is a sorrowful, sad thing. My best guess as to what the little book contained would be the rest of the revelation, for the angel “said to me, ‘You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings’" (v. 11). John’s work wasn’t finished yet, and the remainder of the book of Revelation contains both bad news and good.