5Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. 6And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, "There will be no more delay! 7But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets."
8Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me once more: "Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land."
9So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, "Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey." 10I took the little scroll from the angel's hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. 11Then I was told, "You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings."
10:5-7 - Christ now shows his purpose in appearing in such a manner, as he raised his right hand to heaven. This is the gesture of a witness in a court of law (Gen. 14:22; Ex. 6:8; Deut. 32:40; Ezek. 20:5-6; Dan. 12:7) as he raises his right hand and swore an oath by him who lives for ever and ever. Some have argued that this cannot be Christ for the reason that this is below the dignity of Christ and out of the character of God to swear an oath. Yet, there are many example in Scripture of God swearing oath by Himself (Gen. 22:16; Isa. 45:23; Jer. 49:13; Amos 6:8). This is exactly what Christ does here.
Serving in the role of witness, Christ announces that there will be no more delay! But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, declares the witness, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets. The mystery here is not a mystery in the way that the modern world would understand this word. It does not mean an enigmatic item that cannot be explained. Rather, mystery means something that is being revealed. What is the mystery? Is some sense it is the joining together of Jews and Gentiles, but in the fuller sense it is referring to full instillation of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom had begun at Pentecost, but it is more fully revealed as the Old Covenant is officially ended once-and-for-all. It is the revelation that through the death of Christ, heaven and earth will now overlap, not at the Temple, but in the Church, and in the life of each believer. Christians have the ability to look forward into time, so to speak, and grab the age that is to come, living it out in the present time. This is a revelation of earth-shattering proportions. God, through Christ Jesus, has begun the process, one person at a time, to set things right in the universe; this is a process that will be completely finished one day when Christ returns to make all things new. What we have here, then, is a picture of Jesus Christ standing with His pillar legs planted on Israel and the nations, swearing an oath by the Creator, proclaiming the message of the New Covenant and the age that is to come that can be lived out now in the confines of the Kingdom of God. This announcement of the New Covenant brings with it, in no uncertain terms, the implication that the Old Covenant is ending and Jerusalem will soon be destroyed.
10:8-10 - Just as Ezekiel was commanded to eat the scroll that symbolized the prophetic denunciation of rebellious Israel (Ezek. 2:8019; 3:1-3), so John is told to take the scroll and eat it. This ties the scroll that John is seeing, which is essentially the book of Revelation itself, with Ezekiel’s scroll. This is another identifier that the Revelation is largely a denunciation against apostate Israel. Just like Ezekiel’s experience, John finds this scroll as sweet as honey to his mouth, but it turned his stomach sour. The reasons for this should be pretty obvious. The covenant lawsuit of Revelation is sweet as it announces the victory of the Church and of the Kingdom of God. Part of that victory, however, was the final condemnation of the house of Israel. What is salvation for one, is judgment and destruction for the other. The same judgments that deliver us also destroy the enemies of God. While John would enjoy the victory of God’s people, he would also lament the destruction of the once holy city, the mountain of God. The day of the Lord would bring both blessing and unspeakable horror (Amos 5:18-20).
10:11 - The angel of the Lord was identified in the Old Testament as the original prophet (Ex. 23:20-23; Deut. 18:15-19). He raised up and gave commission to other prophets in His image, reproducing Himself, in a sense, in them (Ex. 3:2; 33:14; 34:5; 29-35; 2 Ki. 1:3, 15; 1 Chron. 21:18). The prophets, for this reason, were often referred to as messengers (angels), and expressed their direct representation of God (2 Chron. 36:15-16; Hag. 1:13; Mal. 3:1). This pattern is followed here as Christ, the angel-prophet, commissions John to prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings. Christ has announced the universal revelation of the Kingdom, and now John is to extend that proclamation to all the nations.
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