Revelation 10. Last time, if you remember, we actually read through what we can call the trumpet interlude. This is what we come to there in chapters 10 and 11, most of chapter 11. We spent last time exploring the parallels between the trumpet interlude and the seal interlude, because they do appear kind of in the same part of the series of each of those, between the seals and the trumpets. But the parallels that we looked at seem to suggest that much of what goes on in both interludes overlap in some way. Certainly not just in their themes, which we can center a little bit about, but also perhaps in their chronology, in their timing. So what we learn from one interlude, like chapter seven, can help us understand and make better sense of what's going on in the other. For example, this interlude and vice versa. So as we move forward through the trumpet interlude, that again is given to John between the sixth and the seventh trumpet judgments to inform him of other matters during the trumpet judgments. From time to time, we will revisit the seal interlude too, to help us understand them both a little bit better. This morning, though, we're actually going to start looking at the trumpet interlude itself, and this extends again from chapter 10, verse 1, all the way to chapter 11 through verse 13, so a significant portion of Scripture. But if you remember from last time, this interlude can also, just like the one in chapter 7, be divided into two parts, and that is certainly one of the parallels, that's one of the similarities. But when we think about just the trumpet interlude, the first part deals with the Apostle John, and what we can describe as the ministry in the past. His ministry, especially in the past, because in the first 11 verses here of the interlude, chapter 10, all of chapter 10, he is recommissioned as God's prophet. He's recommissioned as God's prophet. And then, there's sort of a transition in the first few verses of chapter 11 that then leads us to the second part, which deals with the two witnesses who mysteriously come on the scene and reveal another ministry, and this is a ministry yet in the future. Now, there are some that would say, well, this deals with the future just of John, and so this would describe the ministry that is going on in the time of the church. But it can also refer to the ministry yet in our future as well. So we need to keep in mind that sometimes when we say future, we're not always talking about our future. We can also be talking about John's future, which was 2,000 years ago. Everything that's happened since he was alive was his future. Personally, I see it as still yet into our future as well because of some of the particulars that we see that we'll get to when we get to that part. Both parts, dealing with John and his ministry of the past and the two witnesses and their ministry in the future, they both contribute to the theme, which is, as we suggested last time, the service and the suffering in the ministry of God's prophets, and really the ministry of all of God's people, because I think both John and these two witnesses represent the ministry of all of God's people from the time that John is given this revelation all the way until the second coming of the Lord. And so it really applies to the ministry of all of God's people, and though we have the responsibility and the commission to serve the Lord, we also know that we might experience great suffering from the world. And yet we, by God's grace, are to persevere through that knowing that that is what will come yet in the future. So we need to recognize that there's a continuity in this interlude between the ministries and the messages of John in the past and of these two witnesses in the future. And I think if you remember the the slide from last time where it had all the arrows, and we were kind of showing the similarities between the seal interlude and the trumpet interlude, and really how they're all descriptions of God's people in some way. Whether they are the 144,000, or they are the great multitude, or the Apostle John, or of course we have these two witnesses. They're all God's people, and they're all serving God, they're all witnessing for God, and ultimately they will suffer for God. But here, when we come to this interlude, it all starts with the recommissioning of John as God's prophet in chapter 10, verses 1 through 11. Now, in order for John or for anyone else to be commissioned by God as a prophet, there needs to be someone in authority who gives them that task. And certainly, that is what we find going on here in the first three verses, which will be our text, our time for this morning, in verses 1 through 3, where right after John is witness again to all of the devastating effects of the Sixth Judgment, so in the vision, we need to remember he's already witnessed all of these things going on, Trumpet 1 all the way through Trumpet 6, The last thing that he sees, that is one of the things that you find all throughout Revelation. He says, I saw, I saw, I saw, I saw. And the last time he saw something, if you go back to chapter 9 verse 17, what does he say? I saw the horses in the vision. And what did he see? A horrifying, enormous, demonic cavalry that ultimately would kill one-third of humanity. And so that's the last time he saw something. That's the last time he said he saw something. That's the last image that he has in his mind, the last image that he's given to us. And then when we come to chapter 10, verse one, in the vision he says, and I saw. So I think, first of all, one of the reasons for this interlude is God is going to give some positive things for John to dwell on versus all of the negatives that he's just seen and witnessed here in chapters eight and nine. But also in verse one, it's as if John is given a new perspective. A new perspective which will go along with a new vision that he's about to receive. You don't need to turn there, but ever since chapter four, verse one, when John was invited to come up hither, it says. And if you remember, there was a door that was opened in heaven to him, and he was transported spiritually in this vision into the heavenly region. Pretty much everything that he's seen from chapter 4 verse 1 up until the end of chapter 9 is from that heavenly vantage point. So even though he's seen a lot of things taking place on earth, he's seen it from the vantage point of heaven. Well now it seems like the vantage point has changed. It's as if his spirit has been transported one more time, but this time back to earth. And what we'll see is that this perspective also will be short-lived. So there's sort of a fluidity in where John might be as he's getting these visions and even writing them down. Many have suggested that these visionary viewpoints are fluid in all kinds of literature like Revelation. We mentioned at the very beginning that there is a certain genre of literature that took place around the same time period that Revelation was written, and they're known as apocalyptic literature. And basically, they're looking at the coming of their Messiah. If they're Jewish apocalyptics, they're looking for the coming of the Messiah, and a lot of it has some similar language that we find in the book of Revelation. There's also Christian apocalyptic literature, in which they're writing about the Lord Jesus coming, and a lot of what they write is in the same kind of language that John gives us here. But in most of those literature, and including in the book of Revelation, it's hard to know where the person is. Sometimes he's in heavens, other times he's in earth, and that's the same here with John. Sometimes we really don't know exactly what vantage point he is seeing things from. And so he can be transported back to heaven, just as quickly as he was transported back to earth here in this part of chapter 10. So, we're not really sure if there's any significance to John's movements in Revelation, but it does seem like here in chapter 10 verse 1, instead of the vantage point of heaven, now he is back on earth in this vision, having this vantage point as well. But while he's back on earth, what does he see next? Well, this is what he sees, verse 1. And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven. So if it's coming down from heaven, where's John's perspective? Back on earth, right? And this mighty angel, this other mighty angel coming down from heaven is 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. And he had in his hand a little book open, and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars." And we're going to just stop there because our focus for today is on this other mighty angel. Because it is this mighty angel who will recommission John as God's prophet. So, what can we learn about this angel? Well, the first thing that we learn is the great presence of this angel. We read about this in verse 1. What does this mighty angel look like to John? Most of what we just read describes him in very glorious and even divine terms. And if you've been with us any length of time in the book of Revelation, you've probably got that sense as we're reading through this. I mean, we're talking about a glorious figure. And there's descriptions of this angel that we've already seen describing the Lord Jesus and even what surrounds the throne of heaven itself. And so the very first thing that we learn about him is that, as John saw him, he was, he puts it, another mighty angel. Now, we've already seen that angels play a very prominent role in Revelation. In fact, the word angel is found 67 times all throughout Revelation. Whether it's singular or plural form, 67 times you will find angels somewhere in Revelation. Sometimes they're bad angels, obviously, but most of the time they are good angels. Does anybody remember what the meaning of angel is? What's the meaning of angel? Messenger, that's right. And so most of the angels that we find in Revelation are simply messengers for God, representatives of God, to bring messages to God's people in this world. Of course, in Revelation they are also, for the most part, God's ministering spirits. That's how they're described in Hebrews 1.14. So angels are not physical beings initially. They are primarily spiritual beings, invisible beings that can take on forms, that can take on visible physical features so that men can see them. And a lot of times what people see in those angels is what is part of their message, is what is part of what God wants them to know about himself through those angels. We've seen that already in Revelation. But there are only three times, so 67 times we see angel, somewhere in Revelation, but only three times do we find angels described as strong. As strong. The Greek word is iskeros. And of course, we know all angels have some kind of strength or ability all throughout Scripture. We also find in Scripture that there are different classes of angels. There are angels that have higher positions than other angels. And obviously here we have angels that are of greater strength than other angels. But there are three places where you find an angel described in Revelation as a strong or mighty angel. It's actually the, if you find strong or mighty, it's the same word, iskeros. In fact, go back with me to chapter 5, verse 2, where we will find the first time where we find a mighty or strong angel. Chapter 5, verse 2. And of course, this is in the throne room of heaven. And this is dealing with that scroll that the Lamb is going to be able to take from the Father and actually start unloosing those seals. But there in verse 2, John says, So that's the first place where we find a strong or mighty angel in Revelation. Then, of course, we come to chapter 10, verse 1. That's our second time. But then we have a third time, and this is all the way back in chapter 18. Why don't we go there for a second? Chapter 18, verse 21. And if someone could read that verse for us. Revelation 18, verse 21. All right, thank you. So that's the third time. So all three times, when we find a mighty or a strong angel, there's something significant that they're about to say to John, right? And that's no different here in chapter 10. So when we head back there, when we're talking about another mighty angel, it's in reference to the first mighty angel that he saw back in chapter 5. And so really, even in chapter 18, he could say another mighty angel. These are different angels. They're not the exact same angels. So it's another mighty angel. And so even though this angel here in chapter 10 is distinguished from the first mighty angel of chapter 5, that's why he uses the word another, he is still similar in strength and he's still similar in significance because of what he's about to say to John and what he's about to do even before John. But then John also notes in chapter 10 verse 1, not only is this another mighty angel, referencing back to chapter 5, he also saw him come down from heaven. The phrase coming down is actually a present participle, so the idea is he actually saw him in the process of coming down from heaven. And that's again why we feel like his vantage point has changed from heaven back to earth again. But the presence of this angel really impresses John. And again, just with those glowing pictures of glory throughout these verses. And I think when John is writing these things, he wants the impression to be made on us too. He wants us to see what he is seeing. He wants us to feel what he is feeling as he's seeing this angel coming down. And so he conveys to us four parts of this other mighty angel's body. And isn't this something that we've already seen in Revelation? There's a lot of description of the bodies of things and people. You know, he's described already in chapter 1 what Jesus looked like. He described in chapter 9 what the locusts look like and what the horses look like. And now, here again, he focuses on four aspects of this mighty angel to really give us an impression of how mighty and glorious he really is. And so the first thing that we find is the clothing of the angel there in verse 1. He was clothed with what? with a cloud. Now imagine what that must have looked like, all right? In some way, a cloud engulfed most of this angel's body so that it looked something like a robe. And again, Revelation is sort of a picture book. It's really trying to draw us in and to think about what John is seeing so that we kind of can see a little bit with him what's going on. So in some way, a cloud engulfed most of this angel's body, so it looked something like a robe, but it also kept his head and his legs visible to John, which we'll get to as we move forward. But what is the significance of being clothed with a cloud? Clouds are mentioned six times in four main places in Revelation. And really, all of them deal with and seem to be associated with Jesus and His second coming. In chapter 1, verse 7, John says, Behold, he comes with the clouds. So cloud is an important theme dealing with the coming, the second coming of the Lord Jesus. So that's the first main place where you find clouds. And it really lays out the whole theme of the book of Revelation. The second main place is here in chapter 10. But then also, the third main place is in chapter 11, verse 12, where we actually find the two witnesses and they're going to ascend up to heaven in a cloud, okay? And then, in chapter 14, that's the fourth main place where clouds are found several times, where we actually find the Son of Man coming in a white cloud into this world. So, that's really the fulfillment. Chapter 14 is the fulfillment of Chapter 1. So, of all the places you can spend the time looking at all those passages, most of the time in Revelation, clouds are associated with Jesus Christ and His second coming in some way. Obviously, when it's dealing with the two witnesses, they're going up in a cloud. It may or may not necessarily be the same cloud that Jesus is returning in, but it still has the association of a coming or a going to heaven. Also, clouds all throughout Scripture is a symbol of divine glory. And we know this, even when God showed Himself to the people there in Mount Sinai, Exodus chapter 20, He was there with a cloud. And so cloud, the Shekinah glory of God, is a symbol of His great glory. But this clothing of the angel gives us an impression of something heavenly, something truly glorious. We get a little sense of this same glory when we've been looking in John chapter 20. where if you remember that Mary Magdalene went into the tomb, the sepulcher of Jesus, to see where he lay, and there were two angels sitting in white. Now obviously they weren't wearing clothes like clouds, but still had that picture of glory, that picture of brightness, that picture of purity. And so I think the cloud has that same symbolic value, but that's what John sees. He sees another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud as if that were his robe. But then next, the focus is on the head of the angel. So he sees what's around him and then his immediate focus goes on to the head of the angel. And now we're told that there's something upon his head, sort of like a halo, all right? And I think this might be one of the ways, one of the reasons why we see a lot of those old masterpiece pictures and portraits where Jesus and angels and other saints have halos on their head. And the idea here is that there's a rainbow upon his head. Now, we've already seen this word, rainbow, in the book of Revelation. The Greek word is iris, and again, it has the same connotation of our eye, right? The iris of our eye surrounds the middle of our eye, which is the pupil. And so the sense is not so much a halo, all right, but rather a rainbow that is going all the way around the head. This is the iris of this man's, of this angel's head. The other time that we find it is in Revelation 4, verse 3, in the throne room of heaven, where we're told that there's a rainbow round about the throne. And that rainbow had sort of the hue of green, the hue of an emerald green around it. And so we see again the same picture coming down from heaven, surrounding this angel, clothed with a cloud, and has around his head this iris, this rainbow of beautiful color. We're not told that it's a specific color. It probably has more to do with all of the colors of the rainbow that we're familiar with. And John may have even written this in such a way to identify this rainbow with that rainbow. There are some Greek manuscripts that have the article before rainbow, and usually when that happens, it's a reference to point back to the first time you've seen that thing in any book or in any chapter, especially here in Revelation. So it may be that he was describing the same rainbow. But again, this gives us another impression of glory and of beauty. The other day, my wife and I were driving, and we were coming out of some thunderstorms, and I kept kind of looking toward the east to see if there would be any indication of a rainbow. There wasn't, but we love to see rainbows because they truly are beautiful. Even unbelievers that don't know the true significance of the rainbow appreciate the colors and the beauty of the rainbow. Of course, we know there's a lot more significance than just color and beauty because the rainbow in the Old Testament was a symbol of God's mercy and God's grace to Noah even after the great worldwide flood. And so this is a picture of glory and of beauty, but also of God's grace. God is gracious to recommission John to be his prophet to the world in the time of his life. There's another place in the Old Testament where this might also sort of inform the rainbow that we see here. The prophet Ezekiel saw a rainbow when he was first commissioned in Ezekiel chapter 1, so that might give us a a starting point to see the recommission of John here. We're going to go back eventually to Ezekiel chapters 1 and 2 where we find a lot that are paralleled in Ezekiel's commission to serve as God's prophet to John's recommission as God's prophet here in Revelation. So this is just one of those tie-ins. There was a rainbow present there in Ezekiel's time, and now we have this rainbow present here. So, once again, we're given a glimpse of heavenly glory in this rainbow that emanates from the head of this mighty angel. So, clothed with a cloud, head surrounded with a rainbow. The next thing that John focuses on is the angel's face, right? His face, he says, verse 1 continues, his face, was as it were the sun. Now, obviously this has the idea of something that is bright, something that is brilliant, even as bright as the sun itself. And I do kind of wonder if John might have sensed light and heat from the angel's presence as well. It might have also reminded John of what he first saw when he saw Jesus in chapter one. In fact, why don't we keep your finger here and go back to chapter one. Because, again, this is what John tells us Jesus looked like when he first saw him before he gets the entire revelation. In chapter 1, verse 16, of course, he's talking about the Lord. He had in his right hand seven stars, out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance, he says, was as the sun shineth in his strength. His countenance was as the sun shineth his strength. So you see the parallel between chapter one here and chapter 10. But there is a little bit of a difference, because in chapter one, it's the Lord's entire countenance, and really just another way to translate is a whole appearance, okay? His whole appearance is as the sun, whereas here in chapter 10, it's just the angel's what? face shines as a sun. Obviously he's still full of glory, he's got the rainbow around his head, he's still got the robe of a cloud, but still there's something of Christ's own glory in the face of this mighty messenger, this mighty angel. So again, we've got the body, we've got the head, we've got the face, and next he tells us there in verse 1 also about the angel's feet, right? His feet are as pillars of fire, we're told. More than likely, feet here would also include the angel's legs, and we would get that idea since they're described with the word pillars, all right? So it's not so much pillars laying down, but pillars that would be standing up. There is precedent in ancient Greek literature of feet, just the word feet, referring to legs as well, and so that's probably what's going on here. It's not just describing the feet, but even all of the legs that John could see that would be protruding underneath the great robe of the cloud. So, like the rest of him, the feet and the legs of this angel are bright and glorious as well. And again, this too would remind John of Jesus and his feet. Go back to chapter 1 again. I should have told you to stay there. But in chapter 1, verse 15, what were Jesus' feet like? They were like unto fire of brass, or fine brass, as if they burned in a fire. So again, this is a picture of great purity, of great glory, and you find it in both places. So at the same time, as he thinks about Jesus, the idea of pillars would also have brought to John's mind the pillars of God's presence during the time of the Exodus. If you remember when God guided his people through the wilderness, he did so with a pillar of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. And you can find that there in Exodus 13. So what an amazing sight John saw here, and what an encouraging sight he saw after thinking about all that he saw in the first six trumpet judgments, all right? All of these demonic, devastating pictures, and now he's given a picture of glory and beauty as this mighty angel comes down from heaven. Now, as we continue forward, I like what Robert Mounts wrote about this angel. He says, the description of the angel fits his message, all right? The description of the angel fits his message. So as you think about what John is seeing, and as he is telling us what he is seeing, it's to impress us, not only with the way he looks, but also with what he's going to do and what he's going to say. It is this mighty angel that will renew John's commission. Now with all these descriptions, obviously, that are heavenly and glorious and beautiful, a lot of people have wondered if Jesus himself is being seen and described here by John. And, you know, I've read quite a few commentaries about this particular passage so far, and many have concluded that this angel is Jesus. And actually I think the, it wouldn't be probably 50-50, you know, 50% would say it is Jesus, 50% would say it isn't Jesus. I think most would say that it's not Jesus. But there are a lot of people who would suggest that Jesus is being seen by John, just like he was seen back in chapter 1. And one of the reasons why they would say that is because, in the Old Testament, Jesus was often found as the angel of the Lord. And so they would say there's precedent in the Bible for Jesus to be described as an angel, to be described as a messenger from heaven. And how many times does he appear as the angel of the Lord? Quite a few times. And so that's one of the reasons why they would say and conclude that this is probably the Lord Jesus. I personally don't see it that way, and perhaps maybe the main reason is because of the description of another mighty angel. Because it's not pointing back to Jesus, it's pointing back to the strong angel that we saw in chapter five, which clearly was not Jesus, right? Because he's asking, who's worthy to open the scroll? And ultimately that leads to them finding the Lord Jesus. So even though the descriptions give us a sense of divine glory, the glory doesn't seem to be displayed in its fullest sense as it was in chapter one. I mentioned just when you think about the brightness of the appearance, the whole appearance of Jesus in chapter 1, and here we just have the brightness of the face of this other angel. It's almost as if John is seeing something that is just so glorious, but it doesn't quite get to the full glory that he saw around the throne in heaven. So that's one of the reasons why I don't think it's Jesus. Another reason is John's reaction to his vision of Jesus in chapter 1 is different than what his reaction is in this particular passage. In chapter 1, after he saw Jesus in all of his glory, we're told that he fell at his feet as dead. And certainly part of that was in worship and in awe of the one that was before him. Here he doesn't worship this figure at all. He doesn't worship this another angel in any way. And there are other times where he does fall down to worship angels. And so just the fact that he doesn't fall down like he did in chapter one kind of indicates that. Also, this does not seem to reveal the time when Jesus will touch down in the world. Of course, one of the key features to the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus is that He's going to actually return and eventually rest His two feet on this world. Zechariah 14.4 says that His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives. Well, when the two feet of this other angel actually set foot on the earth and the sea of this world, it's not quite time yet for that in the vision. It's told, or John says, he comes with the clouds, he comes with the clouds, he gets us right up to the point of the coming of Christ several times already, and I don't think that's what he's seeing here. I don't think that's what he is seeing here. So I take it as a true but mighty angel sent by the Lord to John as a representative of the Lord. I like what Ian Boxall writes. He says he looks like Jesus because he represents him. He looks like God because he represents God. Even Greg Beal, who I appreciate his commentary, it's about that thick, it's great commentary, he does think this angel is Jesus, okay? He does think it, but he still adds this possibility. I didn't put this on your message guide, but he says, it is possible that the angelic figure of 10-1 is merely an angelic representative of Christ. who therefore possesses Christ's traits. So, obviously, you can go either way. Not quite 50-50, but pretty close. Either way, the glory of this messenger would have encouraged John and would have enabled John to receive his message. So, that's just one of those things that, you know, you can go either way and still not lose anything when you come to this particular passage. But then that leads us to the next thing that he sees of this angel, and that is the great possession of the angel. If you go on to verse two, what does he have in his hand? A little book open. This is the great possession of the angel. Now as we go further in this chapter, this little book will play a major role throughout this commission of John. But there are two main things about this little book that are significant. The first thing is the placement of the book. The placement of the book, the angel has it where? in his hand, right? And it's also in an open position. So whereas if you remember in chapter five, the scroll that was in the father's hand, the one sitting on the throne, it was sealed up, right? This particular scroll, this little book, is not sealed up, it is fully open. And even though we're not told which hand it is in, more than likely it would have been in the left hand, because if you think about the rest of the passage in verses six and seven, More than likely, he's raising his right hand to make his oath. And I think this is not only common today. If you go into a courtroom and you're sworn in, you know, you put your left hand on your Bible or a Bible or whatever, I guess today, whatever book you hold is sacred, and then you raise your right hand. And that was something that was common even back in ancient times. They would raise the right hand of their power, the right hand of their authority, in order to make this oath. And so what we find here is this book is open, the scroll, again, probably it was a rolled up scroll, now it's open up as one full page. sitting there in his left hand, and that would make this book the basis of authority for both the angel and for John. Remember, if an angel is God's messenger, then the angel has no authority of his own. He has to receive that authority from God in order to confer it on John. And so, the fact that he has this little book from heaven is actually, shows him the basis of his authority to commission John for the Lord. Also, since it's open, it means that the contents of it are meant to be out in the open. Of course, we know that in the book of Daniel, just at the end of the book of Daniel, he was supposed to seal up words, right? And we get a connection between that and the sealed book that Jesus is about to open, right, in chapter five of Revelation. And now we have an open book. And all of its contents are meant to be given. And that's part of the commission of John. John, you've already ministered for God. Now you need to minister again. John, you've already preached for God. You've already prophesied for God. Now you need to do it again with the contents of this book. So he needs to take the book, make it known through his prophecy. So that's the first significance of this book. It's the placement. And then, of course, the second, perhaps even the most significant part is its size, the size of the book. It's a little book. Now in Revelation, there are three related words for book. And again, when we say book, we're just describing scroll. The codex style of book, which is what we have, what we're familiar with, started to appear around this time. It wasn't super popularized until probably the second century and beyond. But still in the first century, most literature were in rolls or scrolls. And so that's probably what he sees here is that it was a scroll that had been unrolled and now is in the angel's hand. But there are three main words for scroll in Revelation. I put them there on your lesson guide. The first main word for a book is biblos. Biblos, if you can see the English transliteration and the Greek there. This word is used five times. in the Book of Revelation. It is found where you find the Book of Life, and we've already seen that earlier in this book. Later on we'll find the Book of Life again, so it's the Biblos of Life. There's another place where it's called the Book of this Prophecy, and so it's describing the Book of Revelation itself. This is the main word for scroll or book in the Bible. In fact, that's how we get the word Bible, for our Bibles, it comes from Biblos, right? Well, there is another word for book in Revelation. This is used about 20 times in Revelation, and it's biblion, all right? So you can see the connection. Biblos, biblion. What's the difference? Well, this is known as a diminutive form of the main word. Basically, all it means is that it makes you think of an object that is smaller than the main object, okay? So, the Biblion would have been a smaller book than the Biblos. Now the interesting thing is that by the time Revelation was written, it seems like most of that smallness was lost in the word itself. So, you know, when we talk about a biblion or a biblos, you're pretty much talking about a regular book or a regular scroll. This is actually the word that is used for the scroll that Jesus had in his hand when he opened the seven seals. In fact, Biblion is found eight times in chapter 5. So keep that in mind. Even though you find Biblos, the main word for book, five times in Revelation, most of the time you find it here in chapter 5 dealing with a scroll that was open that had all of these trumpet judgments and vial judgments that we'll look at here again. But that's not the only word that we have for book or scroll. We have another word, and that is here in chapter 10, verse 2. And this is significant because it's only found in this chapter, in all of Revelation. Now, I have a hard time pronouncing this one, but it is Bibliaridion, all right? Bibliaridion, I think that's how you'd say it. That is another diminutive form. In other words, when you have the Biblos, that would be the main book. When you have a Biblion, it would be sort of a smaller book. And then you have a Bibliaridion, which is an even smaller book, maybe like a little pamphlet. But guess what? In our English versions, you don't see that. You just see little book, and yet it's really only one word. You only see one word here. This makes it a smaller book and a different book than any other book in Revelation, and that's the significant part. Because there's a lot of people that will say that the scroll here in Revelation 10 is the exact same scroll that Jesus was talking about, or that was talked about in chapter 5. And the very fact that they're two totally separate words means that the one is smaller than the other, means it doesn't have as much in it, and it is also different than the other. Even though it might be related to that scroll, it is certainly different than it. There is a lot of debate as to what that little scroll is. We will look more into that in a couple of weeks, but just kind of let you know that it is different because it's a different word. It's a different size. It is smaller, and that is significant. But it is that great possession of the angel that will give him the right to what we see next is the great position of the angel. Because if you go on in verse two, where does John see this angel coming out of heaven land? Right? He lands on the world and it says that he set his right foot upon the sea and his left foot on the earth. Now the way that John puts this makes us feel like this angel is of a colossal size. I mean, that's the picture that you get. And I think that's what he intends, that this angel is massive. In fact, this one especially is, remember he has feet and legs like pillars of fire. So remember the pillars that led the children of Israel through the wilderness. It wasn't just a little thing. It was a huge thing. It went up into heaven. So that's the picture here. It's probably a lot like that great colossus of Rhodes. which was probably straddling, some believe it wasn't straddling, the entrance of the harbor of Rhodes 300 years before Christ. And you might have seen pictures of that, where it has this great image of this colossus, this figure, and he's got big arms, he's very strong, he's got these big wide legs, and there's pictures where, or you know, paintings where ships were just going right between the legs. That's how big and massive it was. And that's kind of the idea. Now, by the time this was written, that colossus of Rhodes was in ruins, okay? But they still would have known about it. You know, these people are living in Asia and Greece is just over the Aegean Sea. So they would have known about the Colossus of Rhodes. They've been familiar with this. But the position of this mighty angel also is fit for his message. Because it displays, first of all, the very sovereignty of the messenger. The sovereignty of the messenger over all creation. And that's the idea of putting his feet on land and sea. Now in the Old Testament, when something was under someone's foot, it was under their control, it was under their dominion. I found this interesting though, this was also a common symbol in ancient Rome as well. There was a relief, sort of a, I think it was made out of plaster, that was found in the ruins of a city. And this relief was made around the same time as the book of Revelation was written. I found this interesting. There's an image in this relief of the Emperor Claudius. And it is standing with his feet on land and on sea. And I thought that was really interesting because it was to show the universal sovereignty of Rome. Now that does not mean that John is getting this image from that. There are some that would say that. Well, John is just trying to portray what, in terms that the Romans, Roman citizens would have understood. But it certainly gives us an idea of what that symbolism was, because that shows universal power. This angel represents the true comprehensive sovereignty of the living God. Now, in context of revelation, there's even something more impressive than that image of the emperor. And that is in chapter 13. We're going to actually find that there are not just one beast, there are actually two beasts, right? And it's interesting because the first beast John sees coming out of the sea. And the second beast he sees coming out of the earth. Now if I were to write, if I saw someone standing on land and on sea, that's probably how I'd put it. He's got one foot on land, one foot on sea. Because where do we live? We live on the land. Now maybe a sailor would say, or maybe a fisherman would say, sea versus land. But I think it's interesting that the order is the same in which we see the beast in chapter 13. We have the beast coming out of the sea, and this angel's foot is on the sea. And then we have another beast coming out of the earth, and then we have that angel's foot on the earth. So no matter who claims authority, those beasts in chapter 13 will claim authority and sovereignty, yet who is in charge even of them? God is. And certainly that is part of the message that God is portraying to John, his absolute sovereignty. It is also suggested that the position and stance of this angel displays the scope of the message that he will give to John. Because when you think about the earth and the sea, you basically are talking about the whole world, right? It refers to God's creation as a whole. And that, you can find that many places throughout the Old Testament. But then that leads us, and we're going to go through this quickly, to the great power of the angel. And this is the very first part of verse 3. John tells us that he cried with a loud voice as when a lion roareth. a loud voice. Now, already we find that phrase in Revelation, loud voice. In fact, you find it 20 different times. Every time you find that, the reason for a powerful voice is always to get our attention, just like it does for John. And so, we ought to pay attention any time you come to Revelation and you hear a loud voice, because something significant is about to be shown to us or told to us. So the reason is to get our attention. just like it did his. And then, when we come to the roaring of that powerful voice, it was like that of a lion's roar, he says. And of course, a lion's roar would strike fear into anyone who hears it. Now, the only time that we've found lion in Revelation so far was, again, Jesus, right? He is the lion of the tribe of Judah. Once again, this angel represents Jesus, and so he also will sound like Jesus. But I really wanna focus on the word roar here. It's interesting because it's usually described, it's usually used to describe not the roar of a lion, but rather the bellowing of an ox. The Greek word is, get this, mu-ka-a-mai, okay? Mu-ka-a-mai. What do cows say? I think I've told this to Christian a few times, I already said, what do cows say? They say moo, that's right, they bellow. So why is it that John says he mooed like a lion? He bellowed like a lion. Well, obviously a lion's roar is different than the bellowing of a cow. So why join these two things? I think perhaps to describe the lion-like sound as something that is long and lingering. It's not just one roar, it's just an ongoing roar. It is a bellowing roar. It's kind of like the thunders that are gonna respond to this roar, all right? When you think about thunder, it just continues to reverberate, right? It just continues to move on. So there is something very powerful and solemn in the voice of this angel. Many have related this verse to an Old Testament verse. It says this, listen to these words. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? Now if you're somewhere besides a zoo and you hear a lion roaring or maybe bellowing his roar in a long, lingering way, you're gonna be afraid. But listen to this. The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy? This is God's recommissioning of John to prophesy. And here he hears a lion roaring. So since God, through this angel, is roaring his message to John, he must hear and fear and prophesy according to God's will. There's one thing missing in this description though. What does the angel cry out? We're not told. Was it just to be a signal? John, I want you to get your attention." I mean, obviously he got John's attention already by coming out of heaven, right? Or were there actual words that brought about this response later of the thundering voice of God, which we will hear about again next time. Some suggest that it was a sound that commanded the thunders. Fact is, we just don't know what was uttered. It could have just been a signal. It could have just been a sound to get John's attention. But overall, the main point of this mighty angel at the very outset of this chapter is to impress John and to impress us about the commission that we all have to declare the Word of God to this world. I hope this image impressed you just like it impressed John.