Reflections on Revelation chapters 10 & 11

Reflections on Revelation 10 & 11

Visit HERE for Reflections on chapters 6-9.  Again, the bulk of this material comes from Mitchell Reddish’s fantastic commentary, Revelation.  

 

Woodcut by Albrecht Durer:  St. John the Divine Devouring the Scroll 

 

CHAPTER 10

 

• Verse 7 reads: “but in the days when the seventh angel is to blow his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled, as he announced to his servants the prophets.”  
  • We are given an important nugget of information here!  The “mystery of God” will be fulfilled when the seventh angel blows his trumpet.  
  • We don’t have to wait long to have the mystery of God revealed to us.  Rev. 11:15-19 is the story of what happens when the 7th trumpet is sounded (7, once again, means completion or wholeness).   Here we learn that judgment has passed, the saints are vindicated and praising God and the Lord is on the throne over all the “heavens and earth” and every nation.    
  • Is this the end?   It seems like it is.  We get a snapshot at the end of chapter 11 of God’s completed work on earth.   It is like one version of the end and then, come chapter 12, John will further describe the scene we just witnessed with the 7 trumpets being blown.   This should caution us against reading Revelation chronologically, as if John is dictating a series of events that unfold in a particular, linear order.

 

• Verse 4 reads: And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.
  • John is kept from writing something down
  • Humanity does not discover God;  God reveals God’s self to the world.  The title of this book is “Revelation,” a reminder that the understanding of God John communicates is God-given and not something John (or any human) can devise themselves.  We only know God insofar as God allows God’s self to be known.
  • Some aspects of God are to remain hidden or undisclosed to humanity.  Failure to recognize that we cannot and will not know God fully is a failure to recognize a distinction between Creator and creature.  
  • This reminder to us ought to make us humble.   All our efforts to speak about God are limited and partial at best.  None of us should ever claim to know “fully.”  
  • The mystery of God should be part of our worship.   When we become to “chummy” with God we may be in danger of reducing God to just a bigger, better us.  God is not like us.  God is wholly other than us.   While God has come near to us in Jesus Christ and abides in and with us through the Holy Spirit, we should hold this in tension with the fact that God transcends God’s creation.   We should be in awe of this God.  

 

• Verse 9 reads: So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll; and he said to me, ‘Take it, and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth.’
  • First, this is John’s commissioning as a prophet in the same vein as Ezekiel (see Ezek. 2:1-3:11).  The task to proclaim God’s word can be sweet at times but can also be bitter.  Eugene Boring writes, “Every person who struggles to preach and teach the word of God knows this taste, this satisfaction, and this sickness in their stomach.”  
  • Second, to speak the word of God (to live the word of God) can be both sweet and bitter.  There are times we can feel the joys and sweetness of life with God and other times when we will feel the sharp sting of bitterness.   Life with God is not about making our bed in roses.    As John well knows, it can cost us our very lives.  

 

CHAPTER 11

 

• The seventh trumpet brings about celebration and praise, not woeful events.   This is the culmination of God’s plan!   Rejoice!  
• In the second half of Revelation John will clarify who “those who destroy the earth” are.   We will see they are the dragon, the beasts and those who follow them.  
• Chapter 11 starts out with John measuring the temple. 
  • A reminder that even in the midst of chaos, difficulties and uncertainties, God is still central, alive, active and on the throne.  We have picture of sanctuary painted for us in the middle of judgment and chaos.   
• The Two Witnesses
  • Reminds us that the cost of being a faithful witness for Christ can be very costly – even costing us our very lives.
  • Authentic witnessing involves not just witnessing “to” but also witnessing “against.”   Reddish writes, “The true witness is the one who is willing to confront the power structures and the power brokers, to challenge the system when it demoralizes, demeans and crushes the innocent” (224).   Such witnessing can be dangerous (consider Martin Luther King Jr).  
  • Where in our communities does an authentic Christian voice need to be heard?  Who will be willing to confront the beasts of modern society with the message of God?  
• Celebrate 
  • The chapter ends with joyous song and praise.   How can we celebrate when evil has not yet been eradicated?   We live in an age where the evils of the world are all too readily apparent.  The Church is composed of people who see the world differently.  We were once blind but now we see.   The Church points to a future hope where God will make all things new.  Even in the face of evil we can celebrate, for we know who is on the throne.   
  • We celebrate what is already begun with us and in us.  The Church should be a place where the “kingdoms of the world” are not found but a people being transformed into the “kingdom of God.”   
  • When we pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done” we are placing ourselves under God’s sovereign rule.  We should not pray this lightly.   Praying this is to ask God to bring God’s sovereignty (which includes God’s justice, of course) not just into the world but into our own lives.   
    • Are we willing to relinquish all control, all claims to power, all prestige and dominance to the one who is Lord and sits on the throne?