01.10. CHAPTER 10.
CHAPTER 10.
Revelation 10:1. “And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon His head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.” The angel is the emblem of providential agency, inasmuch as God’s providential rule over the earth is carried on under the ministration of angels. See especially the Book of Daniel. The cloud may be regarded as symbolic of mystery and majesty; the rainbow reminds us that in God’s providential actings He has ever regard to His covenant with Noah (Genesis 9:12-17). God’s ways are bright with heavenly glory like the sun; they are also stable and holy like pillars of fire. The tenth, and part of the eleventh chapter, comes in between the sixth and seventh trumpets, just as the seventh chapter intervenes between the sixth and seventh seals.
Revelation 10:2-3. “And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.”
God in His providence claims possession and authority over sea and earth.
God speaks by His providence in a voice of majesty and power; the perfection of wisdom and knowledge is manifested in what His providence reveals. But His judgments are a great deep, grand, mysterious, but incomprehensible to the mind of man; “the thunder of His power who can understand” (Job 26:14).
Revelation 10:4. “And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, ‘Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.’”
There are things revealed by God in His providence, making known, it may be, to angels the manifold wisdom of God, but not interpreted to men. So also there is more communicated to the minister of God’s word, than is proper or possible to communicate to others; necessary indeed to his own soul’s establishment, and profitable for his general ministry; and yet others may not be prepared to receive it. Paul, when caught up to the third heavens, “heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter” (2 Corinthians 12:4).
Revelation 10:5-7. “And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time [delay] no longer: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared to His servants the prophets.”
Compare Daniel 12:6-7 : “And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, ‘How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?’ And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.” These two visions are very similar, with this distinction: the vision in Revelation refers to the commencement of the great tribulation, during the last three years and a half; that in Daniel to the close of the period. During this latter time the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation set up. This period of three and a half years is variously described as half of the week, “time, times, and a half” (Daniel 12:7; Revelation 12:14); “time, times, and the dividing of a time” (Daniel 7:25); “forty and two months” (Revelation 13:5); “one thousand two hundred and threescore days” (Revelation 12:6) —thus given in every variety of form, in order that it might not be wrested to mean anything else. The truth which the angel so solemnly affirms is, that from the days of the sounding of the seventh angel there should be no longer any delay in the fulfilment of the prophecies of God. Compare with this Ezekiel 12:21-28. The seventh angel brings in the crisis when Satan is expelled from the heavenlies. (See Revelation 12:7-9.) The mystery of God is then finished, that the throne of iniquity should seemingly have fellowship with Him (Psalms 94:20). Satan’s usurpation of the seat of royal power over the earth, in the heavenlies, as the god of this world, is then at an end. The establishment of the kingdom of God of which all the prophets witness then commences; it dates from that moment, although much takes place on earth during the three and a half years yet remaining before its full manifestation, at the appearing of the Son of Man.
Revelation 10:8-11. “And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, ‘Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.’ And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, ‘Give me the little book.’ And he said unto me, ‘Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.’ And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, ‘Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.’” The study of unfulfilled prophecy may be interesting, yet the result of realising these realities of appalling judgment is bitter. Prophetic truth is sweet (Psalms 119:103) in the reception of it, yet the solemn truths are bitter to the serious and reflecting soul, and testimony to it is a weighty responsibility (Ezekiel 3:1-14).