Darkness and Light

Look to my coming on the first light of the fifth day, at dawn look to the east. Ride, Théoden!’ he said. ‘Ride to Helm’s Deep! Go not to the Fords of Isen, and do not tarry in the plain! I must leave you for a while. Shadowfax must bear me now on a swift errand.’ Turning to Aragorn and Éomer and the men of the king’s household, he cried: ‘Keep well the Lord of the Mark, till I return. Await me at Helm’s Gate! Farewell!’

I love the Lord of the rings books, If you like fantasy novels, I suggest these books. In the books a darkness is taking over the land. the anther of the books, J. R. Tolkien made up His own world, its history, different languages and so much more in these books. The darkness is from an evil character named Sauron. Tolkien in His earlier books describes the origin of the evil Sauron. The creator brought forth the world by bringing into being innumerable good, immortal, angelic spirits, which Sauron was one. some of them including Sauron rebelled and brought evil into the world. In the Lord of the rings book, Sauron is once again trying to take over the world.

The good creatures of the world are trying to fight back thew evil, along with the wizard Gandalf who was essentially a good angelic being sent to earth to stop Evil. We meet the characters of the story fighting a battle where they are far outnumbered. Things seem bleak as Gandalf had gone off before the battle started saying He had to go on a swift errand. The characters had been fighting the evil army for a few days and things where starting to look bleak in the darkness. They didn't know if they would survive another day when they remembered what Gandalf had told them. Look to my coming on the first light of the fifth day, at dawn look to the east. They rode out to fight and in the darkness a light dawned, it was Gandalf leading an army to help them win.

This quote has been used by many people, essentially all saying the same thing. No matter how dark the night, I believe in the coming dawn. As followers of Jesus we see the darkness but we also believe in the coming light. We preach a message that is sweet and yet at the same time bitter. A message that says it is going to get worse, people are still going to be evil, but we have a role in pointing them to the light, even at the expense of our own lives.

Sometimes like in the LOTR the battle seems hopeless, all seems lost when just as he said he would Gandalf comes to save the day and bring light to the darkness. We need to understand that...

God rules the future, but we do not know all the details. God will act but in the meantime we need to proclaim the sweet and bitter message even at the expense of our lives.

The setting - 1-4

What we have here is a second intermission. As in the seals the sixth and seventh trumpet is interrupted to provide additional details on what has been said and to prepare us for what is to come. We start out with anoth image of a massive angel. The imagery makes it seem like this angel is representing Jesus.

Revelation 10:1 CSB

Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head. His face was like the sun, his legs were like pillars of fire,

It seems similar to what we saw in Chapter 4 in the vision of Jesus. But angels are always angels in the book of revelation and the rest of the NT for that matter. We also see reference to a scroll. This is a different scroll that is referenced here then the scroll that Jesus opens to usher in the judgements.

This scene echoes what is seen in Ezekiel 2:8-3:3. I wont read through it but It is the scripture that shows the sending out of Ezekiel to the hard hearted Israelite's. He was given the scroll of lamentation. He was told to eat the scroll and go back to speak of it to the Israelite’s. It was sweet in His mouth and bitter in His stomach. Keep this in mind as we continue, it will come into play later.

Revelation 10:2–3 CSB

and he held a little scroll opened in his hand. He put his right foot on the sea, his left on the land, and he called out with a loud voice like a roaring lion. When he cried out, the seven thunders raised their voices.

to go back to the angel and the imagery we see here we get quite the message. The scroll he carries, echoes the same idea in Ezekiel. This passage as we see will deal with the preaching of the gospel by the followers of Jesus around at the time.

The imagery of the angel standing on both the land and the sea shows his authority over the whole earth. And thus that the preaching of the gospel is for the whole earth, not just here. Maybe we should start in our own communities.

Revelation 10:4 CSB

And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders said, and do not write it down!”

This is one of the most difficult passage to interpret in the book of Revelation. The passage goes into chapter 11 as well. When it comes to the 7 thunders, we just do not know what is meant there. It is hidden from us. 2 Cor 12:3-4

2 Corinthians 12:3–4 CSB

I know that this man—whether in the body or out of the body I don’t know; God knows—was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a human being is not allowed to speak.

Inexplisable words. There are some things we do not know, that we will never know.

The first little bit we can get from all this is that God rules the future and we do not. we do not know all the details and there are some details that we are not meant to know. For the most part the human race sucks at this., We hate not knowing what is going on and what God is doing but there are some things we just do not know. God will act, this we know but we need to trust in Him.

The Trumpet - 5-7

in Verses 5-7 it is shown the ushering in of the final purposes of God. The final purposes of God through the judgement are about to be comnpleted.

Revelation 10:5–6 CSB

Then the angel that I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. He swore by the one who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, “There will no longer be a delay,

Revelation 10:7 CSB

but in the days when the seventh angel will blow his trumpet, then the mystery of God will be completed, as he announced to his servants the prophets.”

The final judgement will be revealed. Nothing is going to stand in the way of this final ending in Human history. This is going to be a dark time to be around for all people, mostly for those that do not know Jesus.

there WILL BE NO FURTHER DELAY WE ARE TOLD. Jesus promised patience in the judgments of God on the nations, a chance to turn to Him, but His patience will come to an end. There will be no more also can be translated that there will be no more time, the end is near. No further interval of time remains before the end.

Right before this time there will be a great darkness, the antichrist will have been revealed, it is going to be a horrible time. Satan’s wrath is going to be horrible to behold on all those who follow the living God.

The flipside to this is that though there is darkness, also there is going to be a dawn that comes after. The end will be revealed and God will finish His plan. But first comes the darkness.

Sweet and Bitter - 8-11

Lastly we return to the scroll. Given the context of the imagery that we have seen so far the darkness before the dawn John is given a task to do.

Revelation 10:8–9 CSB

Then the voice that I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take and eat it; it will be bitter in your stomach, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.”

Revelation 10:10–11 CSB

Then I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It was as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I ate it, my stomach became bitter. And they said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.”

The scroll, the revealing of the word of God, is sweet and yet bitter.

The scroll seems to be a message that will bve delivered in the following chapters. A message to the church, a message of the word of God and the gospel.

The word of God is sweet to the taste. God’s word is received with Joy for those that are seeking because it is a message of hope. It is sweet because it tells us that The light of the world, Jesus, came into the world and pronounced peace to those that Believe in Him. We preach, or are told to preach a message of love and joy. This is sweet in our mouths.

The word of God is bitter. This is because we also proclaim the darkness to come, the wrath of God. It turns bitter in the stomach because it is not fun to preach this aspect of the word of God. Before the final triumph of God, Followers of Jesus are going to go through a terrible ordeal. The bitter scroll unveils the lot of of the faithful followers of Jesus in those last days under satan’s oppresion. We are delivered to a glorious resurrection.

The reason being is that we are not delivered from physical death, we are not delivered from tribulation, we are delivered through tribulation and death. This is sweet indeed that there will no longer be any delay, that God’s purposes will be delivered but the prelude is going to be bitter indeed.

This being said John was told to devour the scroll. The wording is as if with a great appetite. We to are to devour the word of God, we are to assimilate the contents of the word of God. It is only after John devoured the scroll that He was told to go prophecy and tell people what He had heard.

We to are to devour the word of God, to make it a part of our lives. How can we go out and preach the word of God unless we make it a part of our lives. How can we let the word of God change our lives if it is first not a part of our lives.

So What?

No matter how dark the night, I believe in the coming dawn. It is coming to the time where it is going to be dark indeed. There is going to come a time when all followers of Jesus that are alive are going to face the wrath of the world, the wrath of Satan for what we believe. Even now in the world we live in it is a dark time to be around. Sin is running rampant, darkness seems to be winning. But I believe in the coming light of the world. The dawn will come, God’s plans will come to pass.

God Rules the Future.

God is in control. If you do not know Jesus you need to know that in the end God wins. Jesus died for you so you would have a chance to follow Him, to be saved from hopelessness and sin. So that you might be saved from punishment and wrath. The future is indeed bleak for those that choose not to follow God.

As followers of Jesus, you can take comfort in the fact that God rules the end, the end has already been written. God is in control, whether we believe it or not. God has set the world in motion with the end already written.

But we do not know all the details. There are some things that we just do not know for sure. What we do know, Jesus loved you enough to die for sin so that we might have a chance at freedom. We do not know when the end will come, we speculate as to what the end is going to look like, but in reality we just do not know everything.

What we do need to understand is that God is in control, we are not and we do not need to know everything but we do need to trust in Him. What we do need to do is

Proclaim the bittersweet message of the gospel.

We need to follow the example of John and the rest of the saints we stand on the shoulders of. Obeying even when the message of the gospel proves to be bitter instead of sweet. We need to preach the gospel of Jesus in the whole context of the scriptures no matter what it says no matter what it cost us.

The message of the gospel is sweet in that it tells us of the hope and peace that is offered to us. It is bitter because it speaks of the consequences of denying the Lord Jesus and not living for Him. Yes we are called to love others, to show grace and peace but we do them a disservice when we leave out the consequences of staying in their lives of Sin.

It is also bitter because obedience to this might mean our lives. We that bear witness to the gospel are not promised to be Delivered from physical death but through tribulation and death. That is a bitter pill to swallow.

To do this properly we must be devouring the word of God as if we are starving for it, we must assimilate it’s contents. We must do it with a sense of urgency for...

God will not delay forever

Though we muist wait now, delay will not last forever. A time is coming when all that is said Here will come to pass. And whether you believe as followers of Jesus we will be around or not the end result is the same.

For thse that do not believe, you will not be exempt from what is written here. Take heed the cup of judgement will come to all people as will the suffering of believers. But there is light in the darkness.