Revelation 10

Chap. X. Ver. 1—11. A mighty angel with a little book, which, at his command, the prophet eats.—This chapter seems plainly introductory to a new series of prophecies, relative to the Western church; the chapters immediately preceding having described the judgments of God upon the Eastern church, in subjecting it to the Turks. The scene of this introductory vision is upon earth, and the principal personage in it is ‘‘a mighty angel.” As in (Revelation 5:2), a strong or mighty angel proclaims a challenge to any one in heaven or earth, to open the book of seven seals; so here another mighty angel appears with “a little book,” and takes a solemn oath. Sir Js. Newton remarks, that the form in which he appears, much resembles the description given of Christ himself in (Revelation 1): his countenance shone as the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. He was also clothed with a cloudy and had a rainbow round about his head —symbols very appropriate to Deity. These particulars have induced many divines (among whom are Doddridge and Fuller) to appropriate this description to the Son of God himself; yet, on the other hand, there are several circumstances which render it at least doubtful. Though “a mighty angel,” it was only ‘‘another mighty angel,” putting him on a level with other angels; and, as Mr. Wesley observes, he sware not by himself, but by him that sat upon the throne: and though his face was as the sun, so (Revelation 12:1), the church is represented as ‘‘a woman clothed with the sun, and crowned with stars,”

which is a figure still more sublime, and leaves us room to think, with Mr. Wesley and Dr. Woodhouse, that this might be, or, indeed, must be, only “a created angel.” This angel appears to have been of extraordinary magnitude, for he set one foot upon the sea, and the other upon the earth. His voice also was proportioned to his figure, for it was “as when a lion roareth.” And when he had cried, “seven thunders uttered their voices;” not merely inarticulate sounds, because John was about to write them, till he was forbidden; but as he was ordered to seal up, or suppress them, it would be both vain and presumptuous for us to guess at them, as some have done. “Secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed unto us and to our children.”

((Deuteronomy 29:29).) But our most important inquiry here regards the purport of this mighty angel’s oath, which has been variously understood, the original being equivocal. The following are, as we conceive, the most probable meanings, and all come nearly to the same issue:—1. If we adhere to the common translation, “there shall be time no longer,” we must carefully connect it with the following verse, and then the sense will be, not that the end of all things is now fully come, but that the time of finishing ‘‘the mystery of God” shall be fulfilled under the seventh trumpet, which will usher in the Millennium. Or, 2. If we read, “the time shall not be yet,” the meaning is, not till the seventh trumpet shall begin to sound, and then the mystery shall be fulfilled.

Or, 3d, If we read, ‘‘delay shall be no longer,” it still amounts to the same thing, meaning, not beyond the sounding of the seventh trumpet. In either case, the seventh trumpet will introduce that grand dispensation of the Millennium, in which all the mystery of God, as respects the present life, shall be fulfilled. This angel had in his hand a little book open, which Bishop Newton considers as a kind of codicil or appendix to the book which had been unsealed. But Mr. Lowman is of opinion, that this was not another, but a remainder of the same book, or roll, which the Lamb had received and opened. To us it appears altogether a new book, and of a much smaller size, because John was ordered to eat it; that is, to conceal within himself the prophecies now revealed to him, and to arrange and digest them in such manner as might be useful in future generations.

Mr. Fuller remarks—‘‘The same desire of understanding the future state of the church, which made him (John) weep, when no one was found worthy to open the sealed book, ((Revelation 5:4),) must make him rejoice, when an open book was put into his hand, with a direction to eat it: but when he came to digest it and to perceive the corruptions and persecutions that should prevail, and for so long a period retard the progress of the gospel, it would be grievous to him.” It was “sweet in his mouth,” but “in his belly bitter.” He is warned, however, that his task was not yet accomplished; he must again prophesy before (or perhaps concerning) ‘‘many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.”

Notes on the verses

Chap. X. Ver. 1. His feet—i. e. his legs and feet, like pillars and pedestals of burning flame. Ver. 3. Seven thunders uttered their voices —‘Seven” being the number of completion, it may seem to imply a tremendous thunder-storm, attended by voices from heaven. Ver. 5. Lifted up his hand.—See (Genesis 14:22). (Deuteronomy 32:40), (Ezekiel 20:5). —Sir W. Jones, at a period of mature judgment, (says his biographer,) considered [this passage] as equal in sublimity to any in the inspired writings, and far superior to any that could be produced from mere human compositions. Ver. 6. That there should be time no longer—i. e. no longer, as Doddridge and Gill explain it; or, as Daubuz, Lowman, and Bishop Newton explain it, ‘the time (of those judgments) shall not be yet.”

The word rendered “time,” (Gr. chronos,) we are assured, sometimes signifies delay; which gives a variety in rendering, with no great difference in the general meaning. [“The time should not be yet,” that is, the time of those glorious things with which the ‘‘mystery of God should be finished.”]—Bazster. Ver. 7. When he shall begin to sound.— Woodhouse, “When he is about to [blow the trumpet].” The seventh angel, we must remember, was to announce the Millennium, in which the mystery of God should be completed.

Ver. 8. Little book.—[This little book was a kind of appendix to the larger book, and appears to have contained the former part of the succeeding chapter, (ver. 1—14;) which is an important supplement to the ninth chapter, as it gives a general account of the state of the western church, and all connected with it, during the period of the fifth and sixth trumpets.]—Bagster.

Ver. 9. Make thy belly bitter.— Woodhouse, ‘‘embitter thy stomach:” see in next verse—‘my stomach was embittered.” Ver. 10. And ate it up.—This language is not peculiar to St. John; it occurs frequently in the Old Testament, particularly in (Ezekiel 3:1-3), which is doubtless here alluded to. It also appears common among the Eastern nations. So the Turks say of the Tartars, ‘‘that other nations had their learning in their books; but the Tartars had eaten their books, and had their wisdom in their breasts, from whence they could easily draw it out as they had occasion.”

Ver. 11. Thou must prophesy again before—(Gr. epi)—Doddridge, “to.” Blackwall, “concerning.” Mede here infers, ‘‘that the apostle is about to go over the same period of time he had before been discoursing of, giving an account of the state of the church, as he had just done of the empire.” It is certain he here goes back to the commencement of Popery.