Revelation 10 – The New Commission

Only six trumpets of the seven have sounded, John receives another interlude.  Like with the seals being opened, before the finality of it is completed, the new is received.  With the seventh trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled.  God, rich in mercy, provides hope for the future, by providing a greater vision with the dying of the light of Israel.  In this vision, though Jerusalem falls with the last sounding, the promise of the fall of Rome, the oppressive beast of Daniel 7 is promised.

Here, in Revelation 10, John receives his second commission and prophecy.  In Revelation 11, the final trumpet blows, and in Revelation 12, the second prophecy begins.

The first prophecy, Revelation 6-11, corresponds to that Revelation 1:1, what must “soon take place”.  Revelation 12 on then refers to this commission.  It could be noted that ofttimes, we receive a prophetic word before we give it.  John does this, as the time of receiving the vision in Revelation 11 must occur before he receives Revelation 12.  Simply because a word does not manifest itself and become unfolded to our eyes, our mind, and our thoughts immediately, doesn’t mean it isn’t in there.  As with any prophetic burden or journey, there is often an incubation, a forming in the womb, or, in this case, a digestion of the prophecy, before it can be manifested out through the man.  This may not always be the case, but, often, it works this way.  Let us not despise the times of prayer, even that seem dry, or, perhaps even stuck.  It is actually what we receive in that river of God, by the Spirit, that then manifests outward when it is needed.

Let us be diligent in the place of prayer, prepare a meal for those God would bring among us, so that we have something to share when it is called upon.  Let us be found ready.

Revelation 10:1-2

(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; (2) and he had in his hand a little book which was open. (3) He placed his right foot on the sea and his left on the land;

  1. Some have assumed Jesus, based on the cloud and the rainbow.  I see no need.  It is possible, but it seems like it is somewhat shortsighted of the heavenly realm.  This is, at any rate, a high-level visitation, which the others have been as well, which is why this whole book is Scripture.
  2. He has in his hand the prophecy John is about to give starting in Revelation 12.
  3. His footing is describes.  Perhaps describing complete high level of dominion and authority, including both water and sea.

Revelation 10:3

and (1) he cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roars; and (2) when he had cried out, the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices. (3) When the seven peals of thunder had spoken, I was about to write; and I heard a voice from heaven saying, (4) “Seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken and do not write them.”

  1. The angel cries out, speaking a message.
  2. At his voice, the seven thunders speak.  This, then again, is part of the delivery of the content of the message, not the message itself.  Whatever it is that the thunders spoke, they spoke it then in John’s hearing.  However, this is still reflected in the time of the early Christians, now in Pella in 70AD, just before the fall of Jerusalem.  They would have been quite aware of the fate about to befall their countrymen by blood, and the Spirit through prophecy would have spoken profusely through them at this time.
  3. However, John is instructed otherwise from another voice from heaven.
  4. The voice commands that the things uttered by the thunders is not to be recorded, and they are not.

Revelation 10:5-7

(1) Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to heaven,  (2) 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, (3) that there will be delay no longer, (4) but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, (5) as He preached to His servants the prophets.

  1. The same angel who brought the book, who just spoke.
  2. He swore by the Father.
  3. He said there would be no more delay.
  4. The mystery of God is to be finished in this time.  Paul in Colossians says that the mystery of God is Christ (” in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ”, Colossians 2:2 NIV).  The mystery of Christ is complete with the full removal of the old order of the Jewish system.  It is not to be re-instated.  Christ is sufficient, once for all.  The church is not a parenthesis, this is the Kingdom of God.  Just as David was anointed but was not king until Saul left, so too there was some measure of the old that still existed, and remained the anointed leadership until it died.  With the last trumpet, the old order is fully executed, and put to death.  The final destruction of the temple signified that the types and shadows religious system was at an end, and we were to focus on the living man, Christ Jesus.  God does not want a temple built by hands, although one may be constructed in memorial some day, that is not the point.  The point is that the living stones, the church that is Jewish to the root, with Gentile believers grafted in, one new man, built together, becoming one body, is all the fullness over the Earth.  Jesus had all authority, but now, with the removal of the old system, He can now exercise that authority without contradicting His own rule and order where He had established the first.
  5. Even as He described on the road to Emmaus, all the prophets pointed to Him.

Revelation 10:8-11

(1) Then the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me, and saying,  “Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land.”  (2) So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book. And (3) he said to me,  “Take it and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. (5) And they said to me, “You must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.”

  1. The same voice that told John not to write now instructs him, and John is instructed to take the book.
  2. John obeys.
  3. The angel now instructs him, and he is told to eat the book.
  4. John again obeys, and does as he is told.
  5. They is unclear here.  Perhaps, the angel and the voice.  Perhaps the seven thunders.  Regardless, this is John’s new commission to prophesy.  Hence, after the Seventh Trumpet sounds, and the mystery of God is fulfilled at the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, John will begin prophesying over.  This will result in a short recap, as the new prophecy sets the scene over again, and then will stretch over some 2000 years, instead of the events that “must soon take place”.