Jeanie C. Crain http://crain.english.missouriwestern.edu
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Jeanie C. Crain http://crain.english.missouriwestern.edu
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The sounding of the sixth trumpet of chapter nine is interrupted by a vision in chapter ten. John sees "a mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire" (1). The angel holds "a little scroll open in his hands" (2). This angel is astride the earth, one foot on the sea and his left foot on the land" (2). One must give John full credit for creating one of the largest angel ever humanly imagined. Readers should not be surprised to hear a "great shout" from this intermediary or to have the shout followed by seven thunders (3). John reveals that he has been about to write but is instructed to "Seal up what the seven thunders have said" (4). This angel then proclaims, "There will be no more delay" (10.6). John is told that when the seventh angel blows his trumpet, "the mystery of God will be fulfilled" (7). John is next instructed to take the little scroll from the angel and to eat it: he finds it "sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach was bitter." He then is commanded to prophesy again "about many peoples and nations and languages and kings" (11). One must remark that it is no wonder Revelation is so much written about and argued over vehemently: John is God's prophetic messenger for "what must soon take place" (1.1). He is accorded extreme honor: "Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and keep what is written in it; for the time is near" (1.3). In historical time, humans have moved quite far indeed, two thousand years, forward; in eternity, time is still "only near" for John's hearers and followers centuries apart. The mighty angel in John has features similar to those given Christ in 1.13 ff--his face like the sun (1), little scroll in his hand (2), a voice like the roar of a lion awakening the seven thunders (3), another heptad similar to the seals, trumpets, and bowls, "but the revelation which they convey (unlike that contained in the little scroll) is not ready to be revealed yet, so John is commanded to seal up their utterance and not write it down" (F.F. Bruce, The International Bible Commentary). In Revelation 22.10, John is again instructed not to seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Let the evil doer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy." At the sixth trumpet, the reader should remember that people have chosen not to repent of the works of their hands, idolatry, murder, sorcery, fornication, and theft (9. 20, 21). The
reader must remember that chapter five, verse one has reported John as seeing a
scroll written on the inside and the back, sealed with seven seals. Here,
the scroll is little in contrast to the mighty angel, and it is a scroll given
specifically to John. John like Ezekiel is being commanded to prophesy.
Ezekiel 2.8 "8: "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."
Ezekiel 3. 1-3 "1: Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.2: So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll. That "There will be no more delay" in 10.6 suggests that the purpose of God will now advance swiftly into fulfillment:
What John's revelation is becomes apparent in chapter eleven, where he measures the temple of God; "the sanctuary and those who worship there are measured with a view to their perservation (as in Zechariah 2. 1-5 and Ezekiel 40.3-42.20).
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