Revelation - Chapter 10
Chapter 10 is a kind of interlude, just as we found with the seven seals – we read the first six seals, and then Revelation chapter 7 gave us a kind of interlude, it was as if it was answering the question posed at the end of chapter 6 – the great day of God's wrath has come and who will be able to stand? Revelation chapter 7 answered that question, as we learned about the 144,000, the seal of God and the different things that would take place that would allow God's people to stand for the second coming. In the same way, as we are reading through the trumpets, we find that Revelation chapters 10 and 11 form an interlude in the seven trumpets.
Revelation 10:1-2 "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: 2 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."
Clothed with a cloud - Greek "periballō", "to throw about", "to envelop", "to clothe". We find that this mighty angel is clothed with a cloud. When looking through scripture we find that clouds are associated with Deity. Note the following:
Now as we've seen, the word "angel" means a messenger, it doesn't always mean a literal created being with wings. Sometimes clearly it does mean a literal angel, but many times, even in the old testament, you'll notice that it will refer to the "Angel of the Lord", and the commentators, the ones who transcribed the words, will take the liberty of capitalizing the word "Angel" because they know that this is no ordinary angel - this messenger is the Lord Himself. We can know when it speaks of Jesus because we find instances in the Bible where people will bow down to worship this angel and there's no problem, whereas in other places where it is just an ordinary angel, if someone would bow down to worship, the scriptures are clear that the angel immediately says "don't do that, I'm not worthy of worship". And so this angel that we're reading about here is none other than Jesus.
Chapters 10-11 are sort of "between woes", they happen as the 6th trumpet is ending and the 7th is starting. We know it is very important because look who it is that appears here — we see clouds and a rainbow, and a face like the sun. Who is this? It is Jesus; appearing just like in Revelation 1 and Daniel 10. Setting His right foot on the sea, and His left upon the dry land, shows the part which He is acting in the closing scenes of the great controversy with Satan. This position denotes His supreme power and authority over the whole earth. He has a "little book" and it is open.
So, a book — or prophecy — that was once sealed has become opened or unsealed.
The message symbolized by this angel (Jesus) unsealed the book to permit the study of its message. What book could it be? There seems only one answer, for as far as it is recorded, the only part of scripture that was closed or sealed was a portion of the book of Daniel.
He was told, "seal the book" until "the time of the end".
Time of the end - The "end" of what? This does not mean the end of time, but rather the end of the wonderful time prophecies found in Daniel where he speaks of the 2300 days/years and the 1260 days/years. The 1260 days/years ended in 1798 AD, and the 2300 days/years ended in 1844 AD (see the chart below).
So do we see something happening in history that has to do with the book of Daniel around this time? Yes, we do. Towards the end of the 1700s, many people all over the world began to study that very book and they began to understand the time prophecies contained in it. And the Holy Spirit led them to preach and write about the soon coming of Jesus and His judgment of the earth. This movement is known as the "Great Advent Awakening" which began in the late 1700s and continued until around the mid 1800s.
Revelation 10:3 "And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices."
Hear the "roar" of the Lion of Judah - it is announcing something important.
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."
Now this is a very curious verse, because for the most part the book of Revelation is a revealing of what was previously sealed. We just saw that in Daniel which was sealed, and now we get to Revelation and we see that it's revealed. But yet as John is about to write some specifics of what is going to happen during this time period that he is being shown, God says; do not write.
It is obvious that John understood those things that were uttered for he was about to write them down. But before he could, a voice from heaven told him to seal up the things that the thunders uttered and do not write them. Evidently, just as Daniel was told (Daniel 12:4) that his words were sealed until the time of the end, John also was told that what the seven thunders uttered were to be sealed. It would be vain to speculate to any great length upon the seven thunders, in hope of gaining a definite knowledge of what they uttered as the scriptures say they were not written.
We must not try and second guess the directions given to John concerning them, we must leave them where he left them, sealed up, unwritten, and consequently to us unknown.
We will not speculate on this, God in His wisdom has withheld them from our understanding; the Bible does not reveal what they are.
John is now bidden to "seal up" the revelation that had come to him, just like Daniel, long before:
Paul also, in vision, had heard something similar:
Now in the message that the angel has in this open book in his hand, notice what it says:
Revelation 10:5-6 "5 And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, 6 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 no longer:"
Here you can see that this sounds very much like the first angels message.
Time no longer - Greek "chronos ouketi estai", "time no more shall be".
What is this "time no longer"? Is it literal time, that is, time as calculated by the world today when the world ends and eternity starts, or is it referring to probationary time, the day when salvation's door closes forever? We find that the answer is none of the above mentioned. The reasons for this are as follows.
It cannot be literal time, as in the end of the world, for at the close of the proclamation of this message, the command is given that "thou must prophesy again", verse 11. Thus it cannot be the end of the world, but that we are in the time of the end, and so it's speaking here specifically of prophetic time.
In other words, at this time, after 1798, this would be the end of prophetic time. The Angels message brings us to the year 1844. So after 1844 there would never be another time prophecy given. It very specifically says here that there would be time no longer, in other words there would be no more prophetic time, so anyone that says they can set a date for Jesus return, you can reference Revelation 10 and explain to them that after 1844 there would be no more time setting, no more dates that are given in prophecy.
To study this subject further, see our study on The 2300 Days and 70 Weeks Prophecies of Daniel that will explain all of this.
Revelation 10:7 "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."
Now when is the sounding of the 7th angel? We haven't looked at the 7th trumpet yet, but if we just jump ahead to Revelation 11, we see some very specific events that surround the sounding of that 7th trumpet.
The seventh trumpet is the second coming of Jesus. God's wrath has come, He is about to reward His people. And so when it says in Revelation 10 that the mystery of God would be finished, just prior to the blowing of the seventh trumpet, what it's talking about is something that will happen just prior to the second coming of Christ.
First let's just review what we've learned so far. The interlude that we find in Revelation 10 begins in the time of the end, or 1798. There's a declaration that time would be no longer – 1844 – the last time-based prophecy. And it will continue until the sounding of the 7th trumpet, or the Second Coming.
In verses 5-6 we see Jesus, making a legal announcement; He holds up his one hand to heaven, like we do in a court of law, and he "swares" by Him who liveth for ever and ever and Who is the Creator. Then He says "time shall be no longer". What "time"?
Time for this earth? No, this earth lasted past 1844.
Probation "time"? No, we still have probation time today, although it is soon going to end.
Time no longer means the prophetic time in the time prophecies, which should precede the advent of our Lord.
The Mystery of God
Now what would continue? It says the mystery of God would be finished. So we need to understand what the mystery of God is. What is it that God is waiting to finish before that trumpet can blow?
We find some clues in 1 Timothy chapter 3:
Well part of the mystery of God is the gospel, the very fact that Jesus would come to earth, would live among us as one of us, would overcome sin and ascend to heaven to intercede on our behalf. That's part of the mystery but, there is another clue here – it says that God was manifested in the flesh.
Here in Romans it explains that it wasn't just any kind of flesh, it was the same kind of flesh that you and I have, that of a sinful nature. Now that doesn't make Jesus a sinner, not by any means, it just means that he had to battle sin with the same equipment, the same flesh, that you and I have to battle with. But the scripture is clear that He never sinned, not once, and we can praise God for that.
Now that's a mystery, we could spend weeks studying just this aspect of the gospel alone, it's a mystery, it's hard to understand. But there's an even greater mystery that goes beyond that. And that is that not only did He do it in the flesh, and overcame sin for our benefit, but now He wants to come and live in you – that makes the mystery even deeper.
We can't explain it – the very fact that through salvation, through justification and sanctification, that Christ can live and dwell in each one of us. What a mystery! This mystery needs to be finished, so the work that Jesus started in each one of us can be completed, and we are told that He is faithful and just to complete it. And so this mystery would be finished before the blowing of the 7th trumpet.
God is going to perfect His people – that's a mystery!
So it's a mystery what we shall be, it has not yet been revealed.
And so this interlude in chapter 10 is exactly the same as the interlude in chapter 7. In chapter 7 we learned about the sealing of God's people, the perfecting of the saints, and the 144,000 that would stand – this is the same interlude that we're reading about here in Revelation 10.
There's a message that began in 1798, that swelled in 1844, and that will meet its completion before the sounding of the 7th angel – what is it? It's the hope of glory; it's Christ in each one of us, perfected to His glory. Now this is not by works, it's not by might; it's by His Spirit that these things are accomplished. As long as we're walking in faith with God, He promises that He will finish the work that He started in each one of us.
So to clarify, there are several mysteries in the Bible. One is the Mystery of Iniquity. Who can explain the fact that Satan, living in a perfect environment, with a perfect God, in a very loving and gracious environment, would choose to rebel against God – the Bible says that's a mystery. We can't explain it. God responds with another mystery, the mystery of God, or Godliness – the fact that Jesus a perfect being, in a perfect environment, would choose to come down and save you and I.
Those mysteries will meet their completion before the end of this world. The mystery of iniquity will work its work until all who choose to follow that realm will be fully enveloped in Satan's wicked ways. Likewise the mystery of God will be completed by that fact that all who choose to serve Him and to give their lives over to Him, He will complete that work that He started in them, and it will meet its completion. And just before that 7th trumpet blows there will only be two groups – those who serve God with all their heart, mind and soul, and those who have abandoned the faith altogether. That is what is referenced to here in the mystery of God that will be completed before the blowing of the 7th trumpet.
Revelation 10:8-9 "8 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. 9 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.
So John is instructed to take that little book, the book of Daniel, and to eat it. Now this symbolism is nothing new in the Bible, often God's word is described as bread, or other edible things, here it's Honey.
The Great Disappointment
So John is told to take the little book and eat it, be He's told the sweetness will not last because once he swallows it, it will become bitter. So there would be a great disappointment that would come upon John for eating those words, for digesting the word of God, for understanding the prophecies in the book of Daniel.
How many of us have eaten a meal that we've enjoyed thoroughly and then hours later wished we had never eaten it at all? Something happened in the stomach that wasn't good! Maybe some food poisoning or something of that nature. We've all had that experience. Here John is told to eat something that tastes so good, the understanding so great, but yet in the proclamation of that message a great disappointment would come.
In the 1800's missionaries started to go out and proclaim the coming of Jesus, they proclaimed that it would be on a specific date in 1844. People often now look at this time period and say that it turned out to be false because in 1844 this didn't happen, how could God be behind a message like that?
Well here in Revelation 10 we're given some clues. You see it was part of God's plan that this message was to go to the world and that it would weed out and shake out those who weren't truly behind it. And those who were truly searching for truth after the great disappointment would revisit the scriptures, they would throw out everything that didn't have a solid foundation in the scriptures and start over.
Let's explain it this way. John is told to take and eat. There's another place in the Bible where Jesus says the exact same words, on the eve of a very great disappointment. It's found at the last supper. Now the disciples who were there took and ate, and to them it was a very beautiful experience, they were embracing something that they didn't understand until sometime later. Not too long after they had taken and eaten, they themselves experienced a great disappointment. They had the event of Jesus coming all confused, they thought that He was going to free them from the Roman rule, that they were going to reign on earth with Him, and that everything was going to be glorious.
But only 24 hours after they had eaten this meal, they watched their Saviour being crucified on a Roman cross, meeting a death that was so despised by the people of that day that they were ashamed. What had happened? Well, they had misunderstood the words of Jesus; they had misapplied the prophecies of the Old Testament. In the same way those searching Gods word back in the 1800's had had the math correct, but they had the event wrong.
Now once the disciples had this great disappointment, there was a sort of a shaking. Those who were not following Jesus for the right reasons left, they abandoned Christ, Judas committed suicide, the whole thing had to be reformed, and so in the book of Acts, in the first couple of chapters, you see God rebuilding this New Testament church, making and moulding it into something very beautiful - the apostolic gospel that went out and shook the world. But had there not been a disappointment, the changes that needed to take place in those that were with Jesus that night may never have taken place.
In the same way, the movement from 1798 up to 1844 shook out a lot of people that were in it for the wrong reasons. When that disappointment happened in 1844, people had sold their farms, their land, and their houses, everything that they owned, because they believed wholeheartedly that Christ was coming. They had studied the prophecies a hundred times, they had checked and re-checked and said; this is right.
The problem is they had the wrong event. Instead of Jesus coming in 1844, they didn't understand that in 1844 the work of Judgment was going to begin. And for that reason, when 1844 came and went many people left the faith, many people just abandoned it altogether. There was a shaking that happened during that time, but there were a few people who stayed faithful and said; we know this prophecy is right, we know the word of God is true; it was our understanding that was wrong.
And so they humbly met and prayed, and would have all-night prayer sessions, they said; let's throw out everything we've ever known and let's make sure that everything we believe comes from the scriptures alone. All the traditions about death and hell etc. were thrown out and they started over. And what began to be born, in parallel to that New Testament church, was something that would prophetically shake the world. This group of people consisted of all denominations, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian etc. all searching Gods word as the books were opened, at the beginning of the time of the end.
From those who wanted to follow God alone a movement was born. Just a short time after this disappointment that we see in Revelation 10 there would be a part of the finishing of the mystery of God. God had started this remnant of believers that had come out of a great disappointment, much the same as the New Testament church started right after its great disappointment. A group of sincere believers in God who would not listen to the traditions of men but instead go by the Word of God alone.
Revelation 10:10-11 "10 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. 11 And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings."
So John is told he must prophecy again. Now if someone tells you to do something again, isn't it reasonable to conclude that you had been doing it before that? So eating the book is the same as prophesying. In other words this movement that swelled up to the great disappointment would have to prophesy again. So John was told that this message must go out, and in Revelation 11 we're given a clue as to what the message was to be about:
The train of thought at the end of chapter 10 continues here in chapter 11. So John has a bitter experience, he's told to prophesy again, and then he's given a reed. Now in Bible prophecy, when we see measuring, it symbolises a judgement – the measuring is to see whether something is true, whether it meets the required standard – it's a judgement. And this clue tells us that the message that John was to proclaim to the whole world is about judgment – the hour of His judgment has come. Now John is told to measure the temple, not the heathens out in the courtyard, not those out in the world, he's told to measure the temple. Now where in the Bible does it tell us that judgment begins?
So judgment begins at the temple, at the house of God.
Now let's review everything we've learned in this study.
There's a little book open in the hand of the angel, and we know that this little book is the book of Daniel, and we know this because we saw that the angel in Revelation 10 is the same as the one in Daniel – in Daniel he was above the waters, in Revelation he has one foot in the water and one foot on the land, which denotes His supreme power and authority over the whole earth.
The book is open in the angel's hand. Daniel said it would be sealed until the time of the end. So that fact that the book is open would mean that this interlude in Revelation 10 had to begin in 1798 because that's the start of the time of the end and when the book would be opened.
We know that it's a global message, because the angel has one foot on the sea and one foot on the land. The message will go to every nation, language and people.
When the book is opened, a message follows that time is no longer, which is a fulfilment of the longest time prophecy in the Bible, the 2,300 days, ending in 1844. There would be no more prophetic time after that date.
The eating or understanding of the book was to be a bittersweet experience, ending in a great disappointment. We know that this happened in 1844, fulfilling the prophecy that time should be no longer.
Like Daniel we often use the expression, "he likes it so much that he just eats it up". Well, back in the 1800's as God's people got into the prophecies of Daniel they just "ate it up". They loved it; it was like honey to them. Why? Because they really believed that this prophecy was meaning that Jesus was coming back to earth in October of 1844. Those who love Jesus, and really belong to Him with their whole hearts, are longing to see Him come back and take them home to heaven with Him. But the prophecy says something happened after they ‘ate up' that sweet message from Jesus.
Their "belly was bitter". What an amazing way to describe exactly what happened to God's people at that time.
Then the message seemed to go out like wildfire. The very words of the parable of Jesus were used:
The message went everywhere in the power of the Holy Spirit. As the day grew close, the believers prayed and searched their hearts to make sure they had put away every sin and made right every wrong deed to their families and neighbours. With solemn joy they gathered to await the coming of Jesus. The hours were spent in quietness and prayer.
But the bitter belly came, they were disappointed, the time passed and Jesus did not appear. Most of the people then laughed at their former belief and went away, never again would these join with true believers. But the prophecy had a clue in it — "Thou must prophecy again". This message is also for us today. Jesus is coming soon and we must be ready to meet Him in peace. We must be the bearers of this prophecy telling people of Christ soon return. Those who do not choose to repent and obey will perish with the disloyal. There is no second chance no second trial. The gospel that is to be preached to all nations, kindred, tongues, and peoples presents the truth in clear lines, showing that obedience is the condition of gaining eternal life.
Christ imparts His righteousness to those who consent to let Him take away their sins. Jesus longs to have us come home to be with Him; how sad He must feel when most people would rather have the silly pleasures of the world, than have Him, who loves us so much.
At the right time, God raised up a remnant from all denominations to preach the Gospel in its fullness to the whole world, they preached the Three Angels Messages and it is this all-important message that God wants proclaimed to the entire world today.
All who truly follow the Lord must be part of Gods remnant, a people giving out this final message to the world today. This is Gods final message and it must go to all peoples on the face of the earth.