Douglas Wilson“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16:11)
“And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not” (Rev. 10:1–4).
Between the sounding of the sixth and seventh trumpet, we have an interlude—in the same way that we had an interlude between the opening of the sixth and seventh seals in chapter 7.
It appears that the “mighty angel” that descends at this point should be identified as the Lord Jesus Himself. Here are some of the reasons. His appearance is consistent with how the Lord is described earlier in Revelation—face shining like the sun (Rev. 1:16), feet like brass burning as in a furnace (Rev. 1:15), and the rainbow that is now around His head was earlier around His throne (Rev. 4:3). He is clothed with a cloud, and that is new, but the Lord does appear on a cloud later (Rev. 14:14). The one sound argument that this is not the Lord comes from the fact that it is not mentioned here that John worships him as he did earlier (Rev. 1:17).
He has one foot on the sea and the other on the earth, indicating His authority over the entire globe.The Lord was the only one who could open the sealed book earlier, and here the mighty angel holds a little book, one that is already open. He has one foot on the sea and the other on the earth, indicating His authority over the entire globe. It also may indicate that He is speaking to Jew and Gentile both—the Jews being the land and the Gentiles represented by the sea.Another indication that this is the Lord can be found in the allusions to Psalm 29. The thunders are the result of the angel’s loud voice, indicating that this is the voice of the Lord. “The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: The God of glory thundereth: The Lord is upon many waters” (Psalm 29:3).
The opened book is little, small enough for John to eat. The contents of the book have largely been unsealed, with the events contained in it accomplished for the most part. But at the same time, John is told not to write down what the seven thunders said. This is an indication that some things revealed to John were not to be fulfilled until later—a time outside the scope of the book. While the bulk of what John saw was fulfilled in the first century, there was some reserved for later.
For example, John is told later not to seal up the book of his Revelation, because the time was upon them (Rev. 22:10). Centuries before, Daniel had been told to seal up the words because the fulfillment was a long way out (Dan. 12:4). It would be odd for Daniel to be told this, when the fulfillment was four centuries away, and John to be told the opposite when the fulfillment of his words were to be over 20 centuries away. But here, what the thunders said has been withheld from us.
Becky Pliego
Ben Zornes