Mighty Angel

Revelation 10:1-11

¹Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire.

²He had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land,

³and called out with a loud voice, like a lion roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded.

⁴And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.”

⁵And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven

⁶and swore by him 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, that there would be no more delay,

⁷but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.

⁸Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”

⁹So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.”

¹⁰And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.

¹¹And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”

Just as with the opening of the Seven Seals where God showed John a brief interlude between scenes six and seven, so now with the Seven Trumpets we see another interlude between the six and seventh scenes. As the Trumpet angels blow their horns we see the earth and humanity suffer under famine, natural disasters, tyranny and wars as well as spiritual battles that are visited upon the earth by the demonic. Now God breaks into the vision once again to show John additional information before the blowing of the last Trumpet and the return of Christ.

This interlude opens with the arrival of a “mighty angel”. This angel comes directly from Heaven bearing a message from

God Himself. The words used to describe this angel point us directly toward God giving veracity and power to his message. Again, the details bear the story.

• “Might Angel” – Indicates God granted strength and power. This angel is not powerful in and of himself but has been granted power by God and acts as His representative.
• “Wrapped in a Cloud” – Clouds are often associated with God through the Scriptures. We find God leading the Children of Israel as a “pillar of cloud” by day through the wilderness. God converses with Jesus from within a cloud on the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus ascends into the clouds when His ministry here on earth is completed. Jesus will return on the clouds on the Last Day. This angel is “clothed” in the very stuff of Heaven.
• “Rainbow over his head” – This “halo” would have been reminiscent of the one that John saw earlier around God’s throne. The rainbow also brings to mind the covenantal relationship God established with His people after the flood during the days of Noah.
• “Face like the sun” – While this angel possesses no glory of his own, he reflects the glory of God.
• “Legs like pillars of fire” – This image draws heavily on both the Old Testament description of Jesus found in Daniel and of John’s own vision of Jesus in Revelation 1. The Children of Israel were also led by a “pillar of fire” at night as they travel the desert during their wilderness wandering.
• “The voice like a lion” and “The seven thunders speak” – The lion in this instance is not present to kill and destroy, but when the lion roars, there is no way to shout over the top of him.  The voice like thunder is heard by God’s people on numerous occasions throughout Scriptures.

These six descriptions lead us to know with certainty that this angel delivers his message at the command of God. The message is contained on the “little scroll” that John is commanded to eat, thus enabling him to complete the work of spreading the Gospel to the whole world. The scroll contains the message, and thus John has internalized it and is commissioned to share it. As the angels stands astride the whole planet we find that the message is for all people. In chapter 1 John is commissioned to share his message with the Church. Now in chapter 10 he is commissioned to share the message with the whole world.