Revelation 10:1 Commentary and Bible Study

Although the sixth trumpet has been sounded and we would expect the seventh to follow, the Spirit now inserts two additional visions. The structure here is similar to that in chapter 7 where the seventh seal was delayed until after a new vision describing the sealing of the 144,000. So now, before the seventh trumpet sounds John records the vision of the little book (10:2), the measuring of the temple and the two witnesses (11:1-14). By Revelation 11:14 this parenthesis is completed and the final trumpet is ready to sound. At that point it is announced that the second of the three woes which corresponds to the second of the last three trumpets is past and the third woe is about to come. The two additional visions must therefore be seen as closely associated with the sixth trumpet, since they are bracketed with it. ‘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.’ What a description! This angel is like a mighty giant: huge, his feet like great pillars, and the description here fits the description in the vision in chapter 1, of the risen Lord Jesus Christ; it uses exactly the same terms. He has a face radiant as the sun, a rainbow over his throne, clothed with the cloud. The angel has a rainbow on his head. When linked to a living being, the rainbow is only ever associated in the Bible with God (Ezekiel 1:28; Revelation 4:3). His voice is as when a lion roars, and Christ has already been called the lion of the tribe of Judah. The angel swears by him who lives forever and ever that the vision is about to be fulfilled. Mauro quotes Vitringa, ‘Does the hope of the people of God rest on the oath of a created angel? Is it the part of a created angel to swear that the words of prophecy and promise shall be fulfilled? Surely if their hope is to stand unmoved, it can be sustained only by the faithfulness and the oath of that very person to whose nature failure is not an incident.’ The angel gives John a commission to go and prophesy further (10:11). But who commissions God’s people other than the Lord himself. The angel then commands John to measure the temple and says, ‘I will give power to my two witnesses…’ (11:3). What angel but Christ can call witnesses to the gospel ‘my witnesses’? God’s people belong to God alone. They witness to him alone and not to the angels. Who else but the Lord gives power to his witnesses. For any angel to take this role would be to usurp the place of God. It has got to be Christ.This is not the second coming? The vision does not say that Christ is seen by men. Instead it represents his invisible operation in the world and his presence with his people. He is on earth to be that pillar of fire to lead us through the darkness of this world.