Bible Study Library

Dear Disciples:

After a 3-lesson excursion into the timing of the rapture and tribulation, I think we could use a brief review is to get our minds back into the text of Revelation.

CONTEXT

• Chapter 5- John saw a scroll that was sealed with 7 seals. The seals had to be broken for its contents to be revealed. Only Jesus, the Lion who was also the slain Lamb, was qualified to break the seals.
• Chapter 6- The first six seals were broken. With them, the Good News was proclaimed throughout the earth. The world was plagued with war and bloodshed, poverty due to out-of-control inflation, sickness, and attacks by wild animals. People who faithfully proclaimed the Good News were killed for it. There was a great earthquake, the sun grew black, the moon turned blood red, and stars began falling to the earth. The sky rolled up like a scroll. Mountains and islands were destroyed.
• Chapter 7- Jews who became Christians received the seal of God — His Holy Spirit – so they would be protected during the Great Tribulation.
• Chapter 8- The seventh seal was broken. There was silence in Heaven, then seven angels appeared with seven trumpets. It’s important to understand that the sounding of the seven trumpets is the breaking of the seventh seal. This chapter describes the sounding of the first 4 trumpets, which resulted in 1/3 of the earth’s vegetation being destroyed, 1/3 of the living creatures of the sea and its ships being destroyed, 1/3 of the earth’s water turning bitter  (causing many people to die), and 1/3 of the light in the sky being removed.
• Chapter 9- The fifth and sixth trumpets were sounded. When the fifth was sounded, a star fell from the sky. This star received a key to the Abyss and opened it. Locusts with scorpions’ tails came out of the Abyss and tortured the people of the earth for 5 months if they didn’t have God’s seal on their foreheads. When the sixth trumpet was sounded, 200 Million horses were released who trampled 1/3 of mankind.

Even after all of these plagues and woes, the people of the earth who were still alive did not repent and turn to God.

That is where we begin chapter 10. We’re waiting for the seventh trumpet to be sounded, which will come in 11:15. Chapter 10 serves to build anticipation for that event.

Let’s dig in.

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John sees “another” angel (v. 1). He has been watching angels blow trumpets, but this angel is obviously separate from them. The angel is “mighty,” which is how he also describes angels in 5:2 and 18:21.

It’s interesting that he says the angel was “coming down from Heaven,” because ever since 4:1 John has been in Heaven. But since the angel “came down,” John himself evidently had returned to earth. That is the nature of apocalyptic literature. The author can move from past to present to future and back or from Heaven to earth and back without explanation.

The Messenger
Who is this angel? Robed in a cloud, a rainbow over his head, a face like the sun and legs like fiery pillars…. it’s tempting to think this is Christ. But it can’t be.

• Nowhere else in Revelation is Jesus called an angel.
• Although similar descriptions are given of Christ elsewhere in the Bible, similar descriptions are also given of righteous people (see Dan. 12:3 and Matt. 13:43, for instance).
• This angel “swore by Him who lives for ever and ever” (v. 6). That isn’t something Christ would do.
• The angel is a messenger who delivers a scroll from God (v. 8).

The Message
The message contained in the scroll pertains to the entire world, symbolized by the angel’s “right foot on the sea and left foot on the land” (vv. 2 and 5). But we are not told what the scroll contained.

When the angel shouted with the voices of “seven thunders” (vv. 3-4), John wanted to write down what he said. A different voice from Heaven forbade from doing so, however.

Side Note: In every other passage in Revelation where thunder occurs (8:5, 11:19, and 16:18), the thunder foreshadows God’s wrath. It is reasonable to assume that the angel spoke of God’s wrath through the seven thunders.

The angel raised his right hand to Heaven (a common practice when taking an oath) and swore by God that “there will be no more delay!” The prayers of the saints were about to be answered!

Dear reader,  this is what you and I have (or should have) been praying for all along! We get caught up in the cares of this world, and God does care about them with us, but He also reminds us repeatedly that those things are temporary, they are fleeting. The necessities of this life are only important in that they enable us to continue on in our ministry of preparing the world for Christ’s return. Our prayers, rather than primarily focused on this world, should focus on the destruction of evil and the salvation of mankind.

John is further told that “in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets” (v. 7).

That period of time is described in chapters 11-16. It includes the description of the seven bowls, which involves the final judgment of Babylon, the rebellious civilization, and then the end itself.

Let’s explore two important points in this verse: Mystery of God and Announced to His servants.

1. “The Mystery Of God will be accomplished…”
What’s with the “Mystery of God” the angel mentioned?

We actually kicked off our study of Revelation with a Focus Study on “the mystery hidden for ages past,” which New Testament writers mention frequently . You may want to review that lesson.

A quick indication of its meaning is in Rom. 16:25-27:
Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him– to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

Admittedly, that is one of Paul’s famously complex sentences and you need to read it slowly and carefully to get its gist. But what he says is that the “mystery hidden for long ages past” is salvation through Christ and all that goes with it — the judgment of evil and the final salvation of God’s people through the Slain Lamb who is the Lion of Judah, the Murdered Servant who is the living King of Israel.

That will is what will be accomplished when the 7th trumpet is sounded. He’ll say it again more clearly in chapter 11.

2. Just as He announced to his servants, the prophets.
Interestingly, the Greek word translated “announced” in v. 7 is euangelizo (ευαγγελιζω). Take a close look at that word as I separate it into parts:
eu | angel | izo

It begins with eu which means “good” (as in our English words euphoria, eulogy, and euphemism) and ends with angel which means “to deliver a message.” (The “izo” is just a standard Greek verb ending).

Look even closer and you’ll notice the word looks a whole lot like our English word “evangelize.”

Literally, euangelizo means “deliver the good news” or “preach the gospel.” That is usually how it is translated in the New Testament.

Essentially, this angel is telling John that God preached the good news of the judgment of evil to the prophets, and that good news will be revealed when the 7th trumpet is sounded.

Here’s the application of verse 7 for us:
The Good News that we all are called to preach includes suffering and judgment in order to destroy evil for our salvation!

To make that even clearer, John was told to eat the scroll that the angel was holding. It tasted as sweet as honey, but turned his stomach sour — underscoring the bitter-sweet nature of its message (v. 8-11).

John’s experience is similar to that of Ezekiel. Ezekiel was also given a scroll and was told to eat it. When he did, it tasted as sweet as honey (Ezek 2:9 and 3:3). Ezekiel’s scroll contained the words of judgment God wanted him to speak.

Likewise, this scroll probably contained the words of judgment God wanted John to proclaim. God is about to bring His judgments against evil, and here He renews John’s prophetic call.

God’s salvation and judgment are bitter-sweet. It is a terrible time that ushers in perfect eternity for His people.