What has been proclaimed by the prophets is fulfilled
1 Then I saw another mighty angel com ing down from heaven wrapped in a cloud. A rainbow was around his head, his face was like the sun and his legs like pillars of fire.
2 I could see a small book open in his hand. He stood, his right foot planted on the sea and his left on the land,
3 and called in a loud voice like the roaring of a lion.
4 Then the seven thunders sounded their own message.
I was about to write what the seven thun ders had sounded, when a voice from heaven said to me, “Keep the words of the seven thunders secret and do not write them down.”
5 And the angel I saw standing on the sea and land, raised his right hand to heaven,
6 swearing by him who lives for ever and ever, and who created the heavens, the earth, the sea and everything in them.
He said, “There is no more delay;
7 as soon as the trumpet call of the seventh angel is heard, the mysterious plan of God will be fulfilled according to the good news he proclaimed through his servants the prophets.”
8 And the voice I had heard from heaven spoke again, saying to me, “Go near the angel who stands on the sea and on the land, and take the small book open in his hand.”
9 So I approached the angel and asked him for the small book; he said to me, “Take it and eat; al though it be sweet as honey in your mouth, it will be bitter to your stomach.”
10 I took the small book from the hand of the angel, and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, it turned bitter in my stomach.
11 Then I was told, “You must again proclaim God’s words about many peoples, nations, tongues and kings.”
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Comments Revelation, Chapter 10
• 10.1 Once again, the end of everything was expected with the seventh trumpet. Yet, before it is sounded, suddenly the seven thunders proclaim a mysterious word for human kind and it is said that: The mysterious plan of God will be fulfilled just as it has been proclaimed (v. 7).
The secret word (v. 4) may very well be the news that the Word of God became human. As to the small book, it contains new events that will accompany the spread of the Gospel. This means that Christ’s coming does not put an end to history, nor does it bring heaven on earth.
John must eat the book, an expression that we already found in Ezekiel (2:8–3:4). It is both sweet and sour: the voice is sweet, but the task is difficult. Thus we understand that the history of Israel, imaged by the book of the seven seals (5:1), was not all of sacred history but only its first part, the Old Testament.