Revelation 10
Big idea: An interruption between the sixth and seventh trumpets, and it contains the one thing in the book John is forbidden to write down. Seven thunders speak, he lifts his pen, and a voice tells him to seal it up. A book about unveiling declines to unveil something — which is worth sitting with. Then he is told to eat a scroll, as Ezekiel was, and warned in advance that it will taste sweet and turn his stomach bitter.
Chapter 10 is a commission, not an event. Chapter 11 returns to the sequence with two witnesses and the seventh trumpet.
10:1–11 — Sweet as honey, and bitter
An angel large enough to stand on the sea and the land at once, holding a scroll that is already OPEN — unlike the sealed one of chapter 5. The refusal is the striking part: seven thunders speak intelligibly, John starts writing, and is stopped. And then the commission, which Ezekiel 2–3 supplies almost exactly, with one addition — Ezekiel tasted sweetness; John is told about the bitterness first.
1 I saw a mighty angel coming down out of the sky, clothed with a cloud. A rainbow was on his head. His face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. 2 He had in his hand a little open book. He set his right foot on the sea, and his left on the land. 3 He cried with a loud voice, as a lion roars. When he cried, the seven thunders uttered their voices. 4 When the seven thunders sounded, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from the sky saying, “Seal up the things which the seven thunders said, and don’t write them.” 5 The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to the sky 6 and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there will no longer be delay, 7 but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as he declared to his servants the prophets. 8 The voice which I heard from heaven, again speaking with me, said, “Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land.” 9 I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book. He said to me, “Take it and eat it. It will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.” 10 I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it. It was as sweet as honey in my mouth. When I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. 11 They told me, “You must prophesy again over many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.”
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).