CHAPTER
TEN
After
the sixth seal was opened we have the
parenthetical passage in chapter 7. Now after the sixth trumpet
is sounded
we have another parenthetical passage from 10:1 to 11:12.
Here we
see a “mighty angel come down from
heaven”. There is so much speculation as to who this angel is. Some
say he
is Christ, while other writers say he could not be Christ. It is true
that
usually in the Old Testament when Christ is spoken of as an angel He is
designated as the “Angel of the Lord”.
There is, however, at least one exception to this rule. In Genesis
18 we
see three angels visiting Abraham. One of these three angels was the
Lord
Himself according to verses 22 and 33.
This
angel’s appearance certainly resembles the
appearance of our Lord in 1:13-15,
but some commentators say this does not necessarily prove this angel to
be
Christ because the angel in 18:1 lightens up the earth with his
glory.
It is true that some of the angels have great power and glory. So it
seems, on
the surface, that it is impossible for us to know just who this angel
is. But
verse 3 of chapter 11 should remove all doubt as to who
he is.
Here we read “I will give power
unto my two witnesses.” A created angel would be as much out of
place
making this statement as the pope of Rome is in all of his gloating and
boasting. Created angels have no witnesses to send anywhere. It is the
angel
who is the Lord of glory that has the witnesses to send whithersoever
He wishes
to send them.
It
seems that there are those who spend more
time trying to determine what has not been revealed than they do trying
to
understand that which is revealed. Verse 4 tells us that John
was about
to write what the seven thunders had uttered, but he was not permitted
to do
so. The old devil would like so much to have us waste our time trying
to figure
out what it was that John was not permitted to write. You see while we
are
doing that we are not learning anything about what has been written.
So, in
order that we may not be too pleasing to old Satan, let us be more
concerned
about that which is written, and in doing so we will be more pleasing
to our
Lord.
This one who has one foot on the sea and the
other on the earth swares by the creator of all things, that is, by
Himself
that there shall be no longer delay. Our authorized version says “time no longer”, and the word CHRONOS
does mean time, but it also
means delay. In verse 4 of chapter 20 we learn that
some people
who are dead are to live again and reign with Christ a thousand years.
This
must take place after the sounding of the seventh trumpet, and a
thousand years
is still time. Verse 6 should end with “delay no
longer,” and other translations do end it that way. But
delay concerning what? Verse 7 tells us that it is concerning
the
mystery of God which He has declared to his servants the prophets.
God
has declared things to His prophets that
have been a mystery through the centuries, but now the time has come
for these
mysteries to be made known. In Daniel 2:44 God declared to
Daniel that
He would set up a kingdom in the days of these kings, and that His
kingdom
would break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms. And verse 45
tells
us that it is to be accomplished by the stone cut out of the mountain
without
hands. He declared to Isaiah that the time would come when the wolf and
the
lamb would dwell together, and the ferocious lion would eat straw like
the ox, Isaiah
11:6-9. He further
declared to him that the thorn tree must give way to the fir tree and
the briar
to the myrtle tree, Isaiah 55:13, and that the mountains and
the hills
are to break forth into singing, Isaiah 55:12, and that the
great
Euphrates River is to be dried up and the river bed become a highway
for His
chosen people of Israel to travel on as they go home to Palestine, Isaiah
11:15-16. All these along with many
others will be understood when this time comes. There will be no
further delay.
In
verses 8-10 we see John taking the
little book of verse 2
and eating it. This book was sweet as honey in the mouth, but when
swallowed it
became bitter. Some hold this book to be the same book we saw in
chapter 5. But the book in the fifth chapter is
our Lord’s title deed to His redeemed inheritance. So why would He ask
John to
eat His title deed? Just what would be accomplished by John’s eating
our Lord’s
title deed? I prefer to say it is the same book we see in Ezekiel
2:8-3:11. Here Ezekiel was to eat
the book and then speak to the house of Israel. In Revelation
10:11 we see that John was to prophesy after
eating the book. Before you and I try to speak to the people, we need
to eat
the book. There is absolutely nothing else that God wants us to give to
the
people. To eat the book simply means to meditate on that portion on
which we
are to speak, and as we do this we will very likely come to see that
our
message will not be believed by the great majority of the people. This
produces
the bitter taste, but as Ezekiel was to prophesy when he knew the
people would not
hear, or believe him, so we are to preach the truth even when we know
it will
not be believed. When you hear a preacher giving the people everything
but the
book, you may know he is the other fellow’s preacher and has not eaten
the
book. Harry Emerson Fosdick the Baptist (?) preacher in New York who
once said
he did not believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ, and that he did
not
know a sound preacher who did, has also said that expository preaching
is the
poorest type of pulpit ministry. His reason for saying this was
“because it
leaves so little scope for the imagination”. Fosdick was not bothered
with that
bitterness that Ezekiel and John felt, because he preached what the
masses of
the people wanted to hear. It makes a world of difference. It is to be
feared
that a great gulf will be fixed between Harry Emerson Fosdick and
Ezekiel in
the coming day. In the mouth the Word of God is sweet, but when we
really
meditate and digest what we have read, we come to see just how rotten
and
filthy even the best of us are. How bitter it is, not only to see that
the
people will not believe the truth we preach, but to see how rotten and
filthy
we are ourselves.
I
would like to be a sinless person. I would
like to live up to every admonition given in the precious Word, but
when I eat
the book, I find I am utterly unable to attain to such a wonderful
goal. I come
to see that any perfection, any good thing connected with me in any way
is now,
and forever must be in Christ my precious Lord.
Go
To
Next Chapter
Return
To Index
Return To Baptist
Authors
Return To PBC Home
|