Revelation 10

Translation

I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, dressed in clouds, a rainbow on his head, his face like the sun, his feet like pillars of fire, and holding in his hand an opened little scroll. He placed his right foot on the sea, but his left foot was on the earth. He cried in a great voice like a lion’s roar. When he cried, the seven thunders spoke in their own voice. And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write, and I heard a voice from heaven say, “Seal up what the seven thunders spoke, and do not write it down!”

And the angel, who I saw standing upon the sea and earth, raised his right hand to heaven. and swore by the one who lives for ever and ever, who founded the heaven and the things in it, the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the the things in it, “The time is up. But in the days of the sound of the seventh angel, when he is about to blow the horn, the secret of God will be completed, just as he proclaimed to his own servants, the prophets.”

The voice I heard from heaven spoke again with me and said, “Get up and take the opened scroll in the hand of the angel standing upon the sea and the earth. So I went away to the angel, saying to him, “Give me the little scroll.” He said to me, “Take and eat it. It will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey!” So I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it, and in my mouth it was sweet as honey, and when I ate it, it made my stomach bitter. They said to me, “You must prophesy again against many people, nations, languages, and kings.”

What’s the Word?

What is God’s word?

the written word, i.e. the Bible

the living word, i.e. Jesus Christ

other words of God?

Creation

“Word” a message given to prophets

No matter how God’s word comes to us, it does not leave things the same (Is 55:11)

The New Revised Standard Version An Invitation to Abundant Life

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

The word transforms, challenges, corrects, comforts.

John’s vision of the angel here reveals three important ways the Word interacts with us.

Pondering

Another angel- the Angel of Christ that revealed the Revelation to John (v. 1:1)

Cried with a voice like a lion- Mighty and strong

The seven thunders

God’s voice often described as thunder

Seven vowels of Greek often used as a stand in for the tetragrammaton.

Oddly, John is commanded not to write what he hears. The only time this happens is here

Certainly the things spoken were intelligible, since John was about to write them

Yet these things were for John’s ears, not ours

Like Mary, John is called to “ponder these things in his heart”. He seals them up, but does not write them down

God often speaks to us for our own benefit. God’s word is personal, and when we encounter it we are called to ponder and contemplate what we have heard.

Promises

Prophesy