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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Revelation 10:8 - 10:11
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NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rev_10:8-11
8Then the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me, and saying, "Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land." 9So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book. And he said to me, "Take it and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey." 10I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. 11And they said to me, "You must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings."
Rev_10:8 "the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again" There has been much speculation about the identification of the speaker. Some have asserted that it is God, or Christ, or the Holy Spirit, or one of the powerful angels.
In Rev_10:11 the voice is plural, possibly referring to the Triune God. The plurals used of deity in the OT (the name Elohim and the "us" of Gen_1:26; Gen_3:22; Gen_7:11; Isa_6:8) have been explained in several ways.
1. a grammatical form called "the plural of majesty" whereby the plural intensifies the concept or term
2. YHWH speaking collectively of the angelic council (cf. 1Ki_22:19; Job_1:6; Job_2:1; Jer_23:18; Dan_7:10)
3. an incipient form of the concept of a Triune God or Trinity (cf. Psa_110:1; Zech. 2:8; 17:10)
See hyperlink at Rev_1:8.
Rev_10:9 "'Take it and eat it'" This is an allusion to Eze_2:8 to Eze_3:14 or Jer_15:16-17. This symbolizes being commissioned to speak God's message. The little book symbolizes God's message which contains both assurance to believers (honey, cf. Psa_19:10-11; Psa_119:103) and judgment to unbelievers (bitter). This scroll is not the same as the one that Jesus opened in chapter 6. This refers to the message from the almighty angel (cf. Rev_10:7-11).
Rev_10:11 "they said to me" The powerful angel or the Triune God is affirming John as prophetic recorder and spokesman.
▣ "many peoples and nations and tongues and kings" This terminology is used of both unbelievers (cf. Rev_11:9; Rev_13:7-8; Rev_14:6; Rev_17:15) and believers (i.e.,before Judgment Day cf. Rev_7:9; Rev_15:4 and after Judgment Day cf. Rev_21:24; Rev_21:26; Rev_22:2). This verse could refer to preaching the gospel (cf. Rev_10:11; Rev_14:6) to all nations (cf. Mat_24:14; Mar_13:10) or the prediction of further temporal judgments of the wrath of God.
Revelation 11