Open Revelation 10

The Angel and the Little Scroll

I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven.  He was clothed in a cloud and there was a rainbow about his head.  His face was bright like the sun and his feet were like pillars of fire.

Context:  The angel here is manifesting a vision which is like the vision of the Messiah manifested in chapter one.  

This teaches us to understand that just as the commandment, "Hear O Israel…" is continuous, so that we know that not all of the word of God that will be heard has yet been heard,  All Israel will yet come to the place of fully hearing the voice of Yehoshua's seven thunders.

The beginning of the word of God spoken by the voice of Yehoshua, like the voice of thunderous falling water, was heard by the seven gathered assemblies of Jerusalem's children in the fellowship of the emissary Yochanan. The promise of the mighty angel of Yehoshua אדוננו is that all the children of the tribes of Israel shall be gathered in Jerusalem. They shall hear the complete word of God in the sevenfold thundering voice of Yehoshua the risen and glorified Mashiach of Israel. And as he has returned to them, they shall return to him in Jerusalem.

In his hand he held a small book that was open.

Context:  The angel of Mashiach brought to Yochanan the revelation of the whole book in chapter one, so here too the same angel brings the revelation of this book within the book. 

This little scroll within the scroll holds the key to the final chapters of the revelation at the end of time, the redemption of time and its transformation into an eternal Creation.  

We begin to see this as we see how the narrow beam focus in the design of this vision is on the little book, while the wide beam focus in the design of this vision is on the voice of the seven thunders.  Consider the following observations.

Yochanan hears Yehoshua's voice of seven thunders here like he heard his thunderous voice in his vision of personal appearance to give seven messages to the sevenfold assembled gathering. As what he heard revelation there so he heard revelation here. Yet here he was told not to write down the revelation that he heard. What is the nature of this revelation here that he is told not to write down?

It is not overtly stated that the revelation that comes to Yochanan from hearing the voice of the seven thunders comes out of the open little book which the great angel brings in his hand.  However, the design of the vision and of the narrative of the vision clearly alludes to this. It is as much as said that when the little book is opened the revelation of the seven thunders comes forth from the little book.  When Ezekiel was given a little book in a vision to eat it was because a prophecy was being stored up, as it were, inside of him. Here it is the same.

When at the end of this chapter, Yochanan is given this little book to eat it is made clear that it is in association with a prophecy that he must yet give in the future.  When it is realized that the prophecy that Yochanan must give in the future is what he hears here in this chapter but does not write down. This is what he hears from the seven thunders. That is to say, what comes out of the open little book, which he later eats when told to do so. This is in order that this key revelation hidden within the revelation can be made known at a later time.  It will then be understood that it is this hidden key, the "mystery of God," that is being revealed when the seventh trumpet begins to sound. It is this key, this mystery, that is here hidden in Yochanan's inner being in a vision of the little book and the seven thunders, which was to be openly revealed at that appointed time.

Like Enoch, Yochanan himself might not see death and be might even be caught up into heaven like Elijah, and have granted to him the ability to go between the worlds like an angel when sent by God. Yet it would not be necessary that he in his own person he would deliver the prophecy concealed within him in this vision.  

For just as he was commissioned to deliver the greater book of the Revelation of Yehoshua the Messiah of Israel in writing to the sevenfold assembly of the body of the Messiah, so it may be understood that he was free to reveal orally to the members of the sevenfold assembly what he heard from the voice of the seven thunders.  He was told not to write it down, which conceals it from the world.  He was not told to not speak about it to members of the Messianic assembly of Israel.  For consider, while this revelation was given to Yochanan personally, it would not be hidden from the other apostles, who were waiting in heavenly places desiring to hear all this revelation.

What we are to understand, then, is not that there is an open canon of Scripture, with the scriptures of a little book yet to be written. Rather, what the seven thunders revealed has already been heard and is known and can be known in the assembled body of the Mashiach of Israel among the nations, by all who hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.

The revelation of the little book, the revelation of the voice of the seven thunders, was concealed, then, in the "stomach" of the assembly of the body of the Mashiach, until the hour when it would be brought forth openly as a prophecy for all the world to hear.  This is at that appointed time when the seventh shofar is about to blow.

Because those who are represented as giving this prophecy at that very hour are the two witnesses in Jerusalem, these two witnesses can be understood as being associated directly with Yochanan and Yochanan with them, not as though one of them were Yochanan in person. Rather, the association between Yochanan and the Two Witnesses can be understood in a sense like unto the association that Yehoshua makes between Elijah and Yochanan the Immerser of Israel.

He set his right foot down upon the oceans and his left foot upon the lands.  Then he cried with a great roar, like the roaring of a lion, and when he roared seven thunders broke forth in voices.

Context:  The sound of the angel manifesting the personal vision of the Mashiach in chapter one is also overwhelming.  There the voice of the angel is described as the thunderous sound of many waters.  Here it is the thunderous sound of the roaring lion.  When the angel roars like a heavenly lion it can be understood in the form of the vision to be because he has read from the little book which is open in his hand.  

In the first chapter of the larger book given to us in writing, when the angel's voice is heard like the sound of many heavenly waters, although the message will not immediately be comprehensible, the message will be immediately inviting.  There the angel's voice clarifies into the message to the seven assemblies.  The message to the seven assemblies is itself heard as a distillation of, and prelude to, the the whole vision of the revelation of the Messiah of Israel.   Here, where the voice of the angel is heard like the sound of the roar of a heavenly lion, the message will be given to the "stomach," the inner organ of the assembly of the Messiah, not to the world.  It will not be immediately comprehensible, nor will it be immediately inviting.  Nevertheless, it will be heard clearly in seven distinct forms, like seven thunders first by John, the representative of the assembly, the body, and in due time also by the world.

I was about to write down what I heard the seven thunders say when I heard a voice coming out of heaven saying, Do not write down what you heard.  Seal up what you heard.  

Context:  The message of the angel here, like the message of the whole book, is the revelation of Yehoshua the Messiah if Israel.  Here it is that aspect of that revelation contained in the open little book in his hand.  It is neither immediately comprehensible nor immediately inviting, yet it is discernible by John, who is one who has been discipled for this very purpose and was prepared to receive it to the degree that he was prepared to write down in detail what he heard.  It is in this form that it is now sealed.  If the seal were greater than this it would not be revealed here at all.  

When something is hidden and the fact that it is hidden is itself hidden then no one seeks for it, for no one knows that there is hidden.  When something, in the midst of what is revealed, is hidden and it is revealed that it is hidden then those who believe what is revealed to them seek for what is hidden, that it too might be revealed when they have looked hard and are prepared to discover it.

Then the angel standing upon the oceans and the lands raised his hand toward heaven and swore by the One who lives in eternity, who created the heavens and earth and all that is in them that time was now to come to an end.  

Context:  The time of the kingdoms based on oceans and continents will come to an end once this revelation of the little book is fully delivered, that is, when the content of this little book is known in the world as it is intended to be known.  This corresponds to the time of which the Messiah of Israel spoke when he said that the good news of the Kingdom, his Kingship in Israel, would be announced to the ends of the earth and then the end would come.

The sense in which there has been a delay in the coming of the end is the sense in which the mercy of the God of Israel has counted the day of Adam's death as six thousand years in his sight.  Even more deeply, the full and open revelation to all the world of the Messiah of Israel will be the revelation of the re-creation of the world.  All the world will see this, and there will be no private opinion, scientific debate, or religious differences concerning this.  

Having brought this revelation to the world, the Messiah of Israel will rule over Israel and over all nations from Jerusalem, to prepare the world for the completion of the the action of the word of the God of Israel.  For all the world must be made entirely ready, prepared in corporate repentance from Adam's sin, for the action of the word of the God of Israel in redeeming and transforming all of heaven and earth into a new and eternal, incorruptible universe, wherein he may dwell forever in perfect communion with his creatures.

For in the days when the angel who blows the seventh trumpet begins to blow the mystery of God will be completely brought forth in the world, even the mystery of the knowledge of God which he has entrusted to his servants the prophets. 

Context:  God will be finally known by God's servants in the way that Messiah prayed for in John chapter 17 at the time when the seventh angel begins to blow his trumpet.   This is Messiah and his bride standing eye to eye, as in Ephesians chapter 4.  When he has finished blowing his trumpet the knowledge of God will begin rapidly filling the earth as the waters filled the earth in the days of Noah.  For this is when what John heard when he heard the voice of the seven thunders and what he ate when he ate the little book will be declared openly to all the world.

Then the voice which I heard coming out of heaven spoke to me again and said, Go take the little book which you see open in the hand of the angel who is standing upon the oceans and the lands.  I went unto the angel and said, Give me the little book.  He replied, Take and eat it entirely.  It will make your stomach sick but in your mouth it will taste like honey.  Then I took the little book from the angel's hand and ate it entirely.  It was like honey in my mouth but made my stomach sour.  

Context:  We are referred to the experience of Ezekiel.  It is through that prophecy given to Ezekiel that we may become prepared to receive this prophecy.  To those to whom that prophecy is made known this prophecy also will be made known.  They are the inner organ of the body, the stomach, they will eat the prophecy, and eating they will hear the voice of the seven thunders.

He then said to me,  You must prophesy again to races and nations and in different languages, and to all the world rulers.

Context:  This is an explicit reference to the rumour among the talmudim of Yehoshua that John would not die.  But Messiah did not say that he would not die.  He would die but in a different way than most people die.  His death would itself take a prophetic form, like that of Enoch and Moses and Elijah.  In this prophetic form of death, death is prophetically transformed into life by the power of the Good News of Israel and Her Messiah.  But the calling of John in this prophetic liberation from death would be that he also remain, like Elijah, among the generations of the talmudim of Messiah in the assemblies both in heaven and on earth, until Messiah would return.

The purpose of John's calling to remain, by the power of the Spirit of God, within the assembly of Messiah on earth as well as in heaven through each generation is that he should be the agent of this Book of the Revelation of Yehoshua the Messiah to every generation, both of the larger written book and of the little book that he ate and was commanded not to write down its contents, when he heard its contents in the form of the revelation of the seven thunders.  

It should not be thought that the power of the spirit of prophecy of this Revelation is weak.  The power of the spirit of the prophecy of this book is very strong, but gentle and gracious, preparing the world for judgment and re-creation.  The concealment of the innermost core of this revelation does not diminish its strength, but is an aspect of its gentleness, for the light is not made to be too great all at once, lest it be too blinding.  

However, all things are being prepared for the full disclosure of the contents of the little book and the open shining of the complete light of the Revelation of the Messiah of Israel.  The mystery of God will be made known, the Torah of Israel's Messiah will go out from Zion unto all the ends of the earth, filling the world to overflowing with the knowledge of the God of Israel.  It is to the work of the preparation for this revelation that John was called.