Try The Sweet N Sour Sc[roll] Series

Revelation 10: 1 – 11

Try The Sweet n Sour Sc[roll]

1 I  saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. And a rainbow was on his head, his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire. 2 He had a little book open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, 3 and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. When he cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices. 4 Now when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them.” 5 The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised up his hand to heaven 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 should be delay no longer, 7 but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets. 8 Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.” 9 So I went to the angel and said to him, “Give me the little book.”And he said to me, “Take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.” 10 Then I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter. 11 And he said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”

I would like to open with these words from Scripture. I am looking the book of Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25 which states, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

We are living in some pretty scary times. I hate to look at the news because all you see is death and destruction. People are killing each other left and right. And it seems that our Holy Master is allowing the weather to cause devastation. - Typhoons, tornados, floods, fires that burn out of control, earthquakes, etc. It is bothersome just too even talk about this things.

In Chapter 10 of Revelation we come face to face with several mysteries that have confused many from time to time. There are millions of people on earth this morning that struggle with the mystery of a silent heaven. Why doesn't God explain what is going on? It must seem to many that he is unconcerned, and, perhaps, even unable to do anything, about human affairs. Evil seems to run rampant everywhere. Miscarriages of justice, cruelty, viciousness, and increasing crime are on every side. "Why doesn't God do something about it?" "What is wrong with a God who cannot run the world any better than this?" Those are the questions we face in this chapter.

When we looked at Chapters 8 and 9 we saw certain horrendous disasters that are yet to come upon the world. Perhaps we feel the need of some encouragement at this point. The Spirit of God always anticipates such need and has given us in Chapters 10 and most of Chapter 11 another intermission, a kind of parenthesis that comes in between the judgments of the sixth and seventh trumpets. We have already noted that in these series of judgments (the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls of the wrath of God) there is always a break between the sixth and seventh judgment. That is what we have come to in the trumpet series. Chapter 10 presents three mysterious things. We shall look at: The mystery of the mighty angel whom John sees as the chapter opens; then the mystery of God which the angel proclaims; and, finally, the mystery of the little scroll that is held in the angel's hand

1 I  saw still another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. And a rainbow was on his head, his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire.

John sees another angel in addition to the four who had released the terrible invading cavalry from the east which were introduced to us in chapter 9:14-15. This angel is distinguished from those four, and from most angels in John's visions, by being called mighty, or strong. The only "mighty angel" we have met before is the one John had seen in heaven in chapter 5 verse 2 who said, "proclaiming with a loud voice, `Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?'" . The mighty angel in the present scene also has "a loud voice"