The Angel with the Little Scroll, 1-11

10:1 Then I saw another powerful angel descending from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun and his legs were like pillars of fire. 10:2 He held in his hand a little scroll that was open, and he put his right foot on the sea and his left on the land. 10:3 Then he shouted in a loud voice like a lion roaring, and when he shouted, the seven thunders sounded their voices. 10:4 When the seven thunders spoke, I was preparing to write, but just then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Seal up what the seven thunders spoke and do not write it down.” 10:5 Then the angel I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven 10:6 and swore by the one who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, and the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, “There will be no more delay! 10:7 But in the days when the seventh angel is about to blow his trumpet, the mystery of God is completed, just as he has proclaimed to his servants the prophets.” 10:8 Then the voice I had heard from heaven began to speak to me again, “Go and take the open scroll in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” 10:9 So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take the scroll and eat it. It will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.” 10:10 So I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it, and it did taste as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter. 10:11 Then they told me: “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.”

v1 ‘Between the sixth and seventh trumpet there is an interlude with two scenes (ch. 10 and 11:1-14). Both scenes concern the role of God’s people and their prophetic witness during the time of trial. In the first scene John receives prophetic messages and is commissioned to proclaim them. The second depicts the history of the two witnesses and their larger environment.’ (New Geneva)

“Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down” – ‘We will never know what the seven thunders portended! Their secret was meant only for the apostle. Just as Albert Einstein took with him to the grave certain scientific secrets considered too dangerous to be released, so only John was to be entrusted with the secrets of the seven thunders. Here is a firm discouragement of those would-be “prophets” who imagine that they have the full run-down of world events at their fingertips. They have not! There is a whole area of knowledge that is kept from us.’ (Bewes)

“There will be no more delay!” – Will time cease to exist in the world to come? This is the drift of the AV translation of this phrase: ‘there should be time no more,’ and also the sentiment of the hymn which begins, “When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more….” Cf. Rev 21:23,25. But as long as we remain finite creatures, we must experience events in sequence. Cf. Rev 21:24,26. ‘We will experience eternal life not in an exact duplication of God’s attribute of eternity, but rather in a duration of time that will never end,’ Rev 22:5.

‘In God’s exaltation of the slain Lamb, the ultimate vindication of God’s people is asserted, especially against those who are opposed to the witness and worship of God’s people on earth.’ (Wall)

The mystery of God will be accomplished – ‘Although one cannot be certain here, the “mystery of God” most likely points directly to the climax in Rev 11:15–18, where God’s purposes with creation in general and humanity in particular are brought to completion with the sounding of the seventh trumpet.’ (Fee)

“It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey” – The task of the prophet is bitter-sweet:

‘The honey comment comes to John either from Ezekiel 3:3 or (less likely) from Psalm 119:103, a treasured psalm for serious Bible readers. The stomach is embittered because the message indicates either suffering for their faithful witnesses (Rev 11:1–18) or judgment against evil (Rev 6:1–19:10). Regardless, the consequence will be the sweet taste of justice.’ (Revelation for the rest of us)