Revelation 10 explained: The Angel and the Little Scroll

A towering angel (vv. 1-2)

His cloud, rainbow and sunlike face echo images used elsewhere in the Bible for God's glory, and one foot on the sea and one on the land shows authority over the whole world. Some Christian readers see Christ himself in this figure, while many others read him as a great angel sent by God, which is what the text calls him.

Thunders kept secret (vv. 3-4)

The angel's roar sets off seven thunders that speak, and John is about to write down what they say. He is told to seal it up, so their message is never revealed, and any guess about its content is only a guess.

An oath of no delay (vv. 5-7)

Raising a hand to heaven was the gesture for a solemn oath, and the scene echoes Daniel 12, where an angel swears that a set time must still pass. Here it is the reverse: no more waiting, because when the seventh trumpet sounds, God's long hidden plan, promised through the prophets, will be complete.

Eating the little scroll (vv. 8-10)

This echoes Ezekiel 2 and 3, where a prophet eats a scroll as a picture of taking God's message fully into himself before passing it on. The scroll is sweet as honey to taste but upsets John's stomach, which many readers take to mean that a word from God is a delight to receive, yet the hard things it foretells, including suffering for believers in the next chapter, are painful to take in.

Sent out again (v. 11)

John is told his work is not done and he must prophesy again, this time about the world's many peoples and their rulers, which many read as setting up the rest of the book. The small Greek word linking him to them can mean about, over or even against, so the translations render it differently.

Key verse: Revelation 10:7

Where Christians differ

Christians read Revelation's visions in different ways, as pictures of John's own time, of the whole span of church history, of events still to come, or of God's ways in every age, and this shapes what they think the promised end of delay refers to.

Something to think about

Have you ever learned something that felt good to know at first but turned heavy once it really sank in?