Sunday School Notes: Introduction to Revelation 10

These notes won’t be as long as usual, since we spent most of our time recapping chapter 9, and digging a little deeper into 9:21. I think much of what we discussed is at least touched on in the notes from last time.

We did make a start with chapter 10, but really just to get a general overview of the chapter. It seems clear we have a break in the action again, as we did after the sixth seal, before the seventh seal. I believe this pattern of six, a break, then a seventh suggests to us how we are to read these visions. They aren’t meant to be chronologically sequential (i.e., the events of the seals are followed by the events of the trumpets), but are supposed to be layers. We’re looking at the same time period (Resurrection to The Second Coming) from two different perspectives (the seals more “earthly” and the trumpets more “spiritual”–we’ve discussed this before), with successive calamities building up to the end times. Someone in the group also noted that this pattern follows Creation: six days of labor, then the seventh, when God rests. Perhaps the reason why there are seven seals and seven trumpets is not simply because “seven” represents completion, or fulfillment. It also represents the end of God’s labor. So when the seventh trumpet blows, God will bring an end to sin and to the suffering of His people. Just as He rested from His work of creation on the seventh day, He will bring about final rest for those who are in Christ, and final judgment upon the rest of the world, when that seventh trumpet sounds.

I posed the question whether there is a similar intent behind this break and the previous one. The sixth seal posed the question, “who can stand the wrath of the Lamb?” Chapter 7 then answered that question, when John was given a vision of the multitude of the “sealed”–those whom God had chosen from both Jew and Gentile, from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, those who are saved. These are the ones for whom the Lamb shed his blood. We have seen already that protection is afforded to the sealed; they are not subject to God’s judgment because they are covered by the blood of the Lamb. So chapter 7 is there not to show us something that will happen, but to answer that question, and to give important information prior to describing the seventh seal. Christians need to know that while calamity falls upon the earth, they have already been kept by God, certainly spiritually, and possibly, to some extent, physically too. Is this break, chapters 10 and 11, performing a similar function, providing needed information before we get to the seventh trumpet? I think that’s a possibility we need to entertain as we study.

We read through chapter 10, and made some general observations. Note that verse 6 says there will be no delay to the seventh trumpet. This suggests we shouldn’t take chapters 10 and 11 as a pause in the action. These are not visions of things that will happen between the sixth and seventh trumpets, because nothing else will happen prior to the Lord’s return. This further supports the idea that the visions John receives in 10 and 11 are supposed to help explain what’s going to happen. We also considered the “mighty angel” in 10:1, and how he is described: coming in a cloud, with a rainbow about his head, and with legs as fiery pillars. This is no ordinary angel, and indeed these descriptions have divine connections (Jesus coming on a cloud, the rainbow as God’s covenant sign, the fiery pillar that led Israel from Egypt).

Next time, we’ll start chapter 10, and dig further into who this angel is, and what he wants John to do…