Revelation 10:3

The first six trumpets have brought wave after wave of destruction on the earth (Revelation 8:7–13, Revelation 9). John has just seen the sixth of them (Revelation 9:13–21), and those who survived it still refused to repent. Before the seventh trumpet sounds (Revelation 11:15), God holds back the judgments for a while and gives John a vision that runs through chapter 10 and the first thirteen verses of chapter 11. The book has paused like this once before, in the vision of Revelation 7.

In this pause John receives a fresh commission. He will take the little book from the angel’s hand, eat it, and be told that he must prophesy again (Revelation 10:9–11). Then he measures the temple and hears of the two witnesses (Revelation 11). Only after that does the seventh angel sound and heaven proclaim the kingdom of God (Revelation 11:15–19). The mighty angel of these verses opens that whole section, and his appearance tells John that what follows carries the full authority of heaven.

John says he saw “another mighty angel”. The word “another” marks him off from the angels who have been blowing the trumpets. Ischyrós, “mighty”, means strong or forcible, and the same word describes the strong angel who asked, earlier in the book, who was worthy to open the sealed book (Revelation 5:2). Ángelos comes from a verb meaning to bring tidings, so an angel is a messenger. The word can be used of human messengers, but in Revelation it almost always means the heavenly beings who carry God’s messages, carry out his judgments and do his will. This one comes “down from heaven”, out of God’s presence and on God’s errand.

He is “clothed with a cloud”. In Scripture a cloud often marks the presence and glory of God. The LORD came to Moses in a cloud at Sinai (Exodus 19:9), the cloud filled the tabernacle, and at the Transfiguration a bright cloud overshadowed the disciples as the Father spoke (Matthew 17:5). Clothed with it, the angel comes wrapped in the sign of God’s presence.

“A rainbow was upon his head.” The word is îris, the arc of colours seen in the sky. It recalls the bow God set in the cloud after the flood as the sign of his covenant with the earth (Genesis 9:13). A rainbow also circles the throne of God in Revelation 4:3, and Ezekiel saw one in his vision of the glory of the LORD (Ezekiel 1:28). Set on the head of a messenger who comes in the middle of judgment, the rainbow tells us that God keeps his promises and remembers mercy while his judgments go on.

“His face was as it were the sun.” Hḗlios is the sun itself, and its brightness here pictures overwhelming glory and purity. Jesus’ face shone as the sun when he was transfigured (Matthew 17:2), and John had already seen the glorified Christ with a face like this.

“His feet as pillars of fire.” Pŷr is the ordinary word for fire, the flames and heat of burning. Pillars stand firm and bear weight, and fire in Scripture speaks of God’s presence, his holiness, his judgment and his refining. Together they picture a messenger who stands immovably in God’s power and purpose. Israel knew God’s presence in a pillar of fire that led them by night (Exodus 13:21), and Daniel saw a heavenly messenger described in much the same terms (Daniel 10:6).

“He had in his hand a little book open.” Bibliarídion means a little book or small scroll, a diminutive of biblion, “book”. The great book of chapter 5 was sealed with seven seals (Revelation 5:1). Only the Lion of the tribe of Judah was found worthy to open it (Revelation 5:5), and the Lamb came and took it from the hand of him that sat on the throne (Revelation 5:6–7). The whole of Revelation 5 turns on who could open that book.

This little book is already open in the angel’s hand. The word is anoígō, to open up, and the book’s open state means its contents are ready to be read, understood and carried out. Its small size points to a focused message, perhaps for one stage of God’s plan. John will soon eat it and be sent to prophesy again, and the angel speaks of the mystery of God being finished (Revelation 10:7). Daniel had been told to shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end (Daniel 12:4), and here an open book comes down from heaven, a sign that God is making known what he purposes to do.

“He set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth.” Títhēmi is the common verb for setting or placing something, and here the angel plants his feet with purpose, like a king taking possession of his land. The sea in Scripture is the restless, untamed deep whose bounds the LORD alone has set, and the psalmist praises God for ruling the raging of the sea and stilling its waves (Psalm 89:9). At times the sea also stands for the turbulent nations. The earth is the dry land where people live and kingdoms are built. With a foot on each, the angel claims all of it for God, as the psalm says that the earth and its fulness belong to the LORD (Psalm 24:1). The right foot, the side often linked with strength, goes on the sea, the wilder of the two.

John’s first readers lived under Roman emperors who claimed to rule the world. Here a messenger from heaven stands astride land and sea in the name of the one who truly rules them. That authority belongs to the risen Christ, who said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18), and whom Peter calls “Lord of all” (Acts 10:36).

“And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth.” Krázō means to cry out or call aloud, and in its plainest sense it is a croak or a scream. The angel’s cry is loud and urgent, made so that all may hear. The verb behind “roareth”, mykáomai, means to bellow or roar, and it comes from a word for the lowing of cattle. A lion’s roar announces power and authority, and Amos uses it for the voice of God: “The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord GOD hath spoken, who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:8). Revelation has already named Christ the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and the angel’s voice carries the authority of the one who sent him.

“When he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.” The angel’s cry calls out their answer. Brontḗ means thunder, and it is akin to a verb meaning to roar. In Scripture thunder goes with God’s coming and with his voice. There were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mount when Israel came out to meet God at Sinai (Exodus 19:16), and the psalm hears the voice of the LORD upon the waters, breaking the cedars and shaking the wilderness (Psalm 29:3–9). The whole of Psalm 29 is praise for that voice.

Seven in Revelation stands for completeness, so these thunders give a full message from God. Their “voices” spoke words, since John understood them well enough to begin writing them down. Who or what the seven thunders are, Scripture leaves unsaid. They are best taken as powerful pronouncements from God, perhaps judgments, that belong to his plan and that he chose to keep back.

God told John to seal up the thunders’ words because he decides what he makes known and when, and this message was his to keep. From the start John had been told to write what he saw and send it to the churches (Revelation 1:11): “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter” (Revelation 1:19). So when the thunders spoke he was ready with his pen. Gráphō means to write, from an early sense of scratching and then drawing.

Then “a voice from heaven” stopped him, and the command came from God’s own presence: “Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.” The verb sphragízō means to stamp with a seal, from sphragis, a signet. A seal kept a thing secure, marked it as genuine, and could keep its contents secret. In John’s day official documents were sealed for these reasons, sometimes to be opened only at an appointed time, and John, an exile on Patmos, knew the practice well. Here the seal falls on words he has heard and must leave unwritten, so the sense is to keep them secret. The thunders’ words remain with God, held back by him, perhaps for a later time or perhaps as part of what he keeps to himself. John obeyed, and the thunders’ words are absent from his book.

Every part of this vision points to Jesus Christ. The cloud recalls the cloud that received him at his ascension, and the promise that he will come again in like manner (Acts 1:9–11). The rainbow of God’s covenant faithfulness finds its fulfilment in him, the mediator of a better covenant (Hebrews 8:6). The fiery feet belong with the Christ who walks among the seven golden candlesticks (Revelation 2:1), and the lion’s roar with the Lion of the tribe of Judah. The angel’s claim over land and sea answers to the authority already given to Christ. When John is sent to prophesy again, his task is to bear witness to the one who holds the keys of hell and of death (Revelation 1:18).

The thunders were sealed, and God has still spoken his fullest word, for he has spoken to us by his Son (Hebrews 1:1–2). The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14), and the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared him (John 1:18). The mystery hidden in other ages is now revealed in Christ through the gospel (Ephesians 3:3–6). Some things will stay hidden until his glorious return (Revelation 19:11–16), when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10–11). He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end (Revelation 22:13), and on that day we shall see face to face and know even as we are known (1 Corinthians 13:12).

These four verses show us a God who is in full command of his world in the middle of its worst days. Between one judgment and the next he sends a messenger wrapped in his glory, crowned with the sign of his covenant mercy, and planted on land and sea as their rightful owner. He speaks with a voice like a lion’s, and the thunder answers him.

They also show us a God who is wise in what he tells us. He opened a book for John to take and eat, and he sealed the words of the thunders. Both come from the same hand. What he has opened belongs to us and to our children, and what he has sealed rests with the one whose promises the rainbow still declares. The God who kept back the thunders is the God who has made himself known in his Son, and that is ground enough for faith to stand on.