Revelation 10
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CHAPTER 10
The Angel and the Little Scroll (10:1-11)
1-4 By now, six trumpets had been sounded. But before the seventh trumpet was sounded, John received two other visions: first, the vision of an angel and a small scroll (verses 1-11); and second, the vision of the two witnesses (Revelation 11:1-13).
In the first vision, John saw a mighty angel come down from heaven; who this angel was John doesn’t tell us. When the angel shouted, John heard the voices of the seven thunders (verse 3). But John was told not to write down what the seven thunders said.
5-6 The mighty angel then said, “There will be no more delay” (verse 6). Now God’s final judgment was about to come. The faithful martyrs had cried out to God: “How long, Sovereign Lord … until you judge the inhabitants of the earth?” (Revelation 6:10). Now the angel had given them their answer: “You will not have to wait any longer; the defeat of Satan and the final punishment of evildoers is about to take place” (Daniel 12:5-7).
7 Then the angel announced: “When the seventh trumpet is sounded, the mystery of God will be accomplished.” The mystery of God is the establishment of the kingdom of Christ and the defeat of all evil. The mystery of God is this: The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever (Revelation 11:15). Thus the final purpose of God is a mystery no longer. It has been revealed to the PROPHETS (Daniel 12:1-3), and now is about to be revealed to John himself.
8-11 Then John was told to take the scroll from the mighty angel. When John asked the angel for the scroll, the angel told him to eat it (Ezekiel 2:9-10; 3:1-4). After John had eaten the scroll, he was told that he must again prophesy. The meaning of the vision is this: In order to prophesy for God, it is necessary to take His word completely into us—as if we were eating food. From this, we can also see that the things John has recorded in this book of Revelation are indeed the truth. He has taken God’s word into himself; and what he writes, therefore, is God’s true word.
It is not certain what was written on the small scroll. Some Bible scholars believe that the next vision, the vision of the two witnesses (Revelation 11:1-13), was written on it. The small scroll was as sweet as honey in John’s mouth, because it was God’s word (Psalm 119:103). It turned John’s stomach sour, because it told of the terrible tribulation that was about to come upon the world.