A Poetic Reading of Revelation Chapter Ten
by Max Carl Kirkupdated: Monday, February 18, 2013
10:1 Then I saw an angel, an immense, powerful and awesome angel, coming down to earth from the heavens above. He was wrapped in the garment of the Shechina cloud, for the Presence of the Blessed Holy One was made visible round about him, as in the days when the Holy One led Israel through the sea and through the wilderness.
There was a brilliant rainbow shining in a circle above the angel's head. Its radiation of light was like the radiating promise of redemptive fire glowing with its holy mystery.
The angel's face shone like a perfect mirror reflection of the very source of light, the eternal light that comes upon all creation. That is the light of God's first commandment, the commandment which gives Israel its faith, which also generates the temporal light of the sun and the stars. And the legs of the angel were white flaming pillars, like chariots of fire, like the pillars of Mashiach’s fiery legs, his leg of victory over death and and his leg of glorious regenerative and creative resurrection. It was those legs of Mashiach which came swiftly in answer to the prayer of Elijah on Mount Carmel.
2 This awesome angel held open a little scroll before him, and he prepared to read from it. While he held out the little scroll, he put his right foot on the seas of the earth and his left foot on the continents of the earth, so all the world was, as it were, conquered and still by the power of the fiery legs of Mashiach.
3-4 Then the angel spoke great words and his voice was like that of the angelic lion roaring before the throne of the Holy Creator. When he roared out his words, seven distinct peals of thunder came out of his roar, accompanying his roar like a harmony of echoing thunders. These thunderous voices issued seven great messages in their seven awesome, ringing voices of harmonic response.
When I heard the messages that the seven thunders sang out, I was preparing to write down what I had heard, but just then I heard the commanding voice of the Throne of Heaven say, “Seal up what the seven thunders spoke and do not write it down.”
5-7 It was then that my full attention was brought again to that great and tremendous angel, who was standing on the sea and on the land. I looked again at the little scroll open before him from which the messages of the seven thunders appeared to come. I saw that, while he was roaring out his words he had raised his right hand to heaven, in order to swear an oath in the authority of the revelation of Yehoshua the Mashiach. It was the mystery of that revelation which was now being made known to me. And I heard the angel swear by the one who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, and the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that “The time of the end of this present world would no longer be delayed."
This is what was made known to us in that oath of the angel: "In the days when the seventh angel is about to blow the seventh trumpet, the mystery of God is to be perfected in the world. At that time the stage will be completely set, the mystery of God will be perfectly formed in the world and will then, at that time, be revealed in all the world through God's Mashiach, just as he has foretold through his servants the prophets of Israel."
8 And, when I had witnessed this oath, the oath of this great and awesome angel, then the commanding voice that I had heard from the Throne of Heaven said to me, "Go and take the open scroll that is in the hand of the angel who is standing over all the seas and all the lands of the earth.”
9 So I went before the great and awesome angel who had roared out the voices of the seven thunders from the little book and asked him to give me that little scroll. He said to me, “Take this scroll and eat it. It will be difficult for you to digest and will make your stomach ache bitterly, but it is medicine, and its promise, its taste and its aftertaste, will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.”
10-11 So I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it, and it did taste as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach began to ache bitterly, just as I had been told. For this is the mystery of the concealment at the heart of the revelation of Yehoshua, who is for a time the hidden one, but who is the one anointed of God to be the everlasting king of Israel, the redeemer of the world. Then the one who commanded me and the one who gave me the little scroll to eat spoke to me again, so that I understood that the little scroll and what the seven thunders had said was sealed within in me.
I understood that the seven messages of the little book would be sealed within me and within the assembly of those who hear the spirit of this revelation until the time of the sounding of the seventh trumpet. For at that time all these seven hidden revelations will be made open revelations to all the world. For they who gave me this revelation told me, “You must prophesy again as you are doing now, to many peoples, nations, languages, and kings. For your prophecy is sealed up now at this point. It is forming the final form of the mystery of God now and does not reveal it now, but will reveal then, when that time comes.
At that time your prophecy will reveal all that these seven thunders of the holy word of God have said. For this message that is concealed is the message about what will become of the nations in the final hour of the fully open revelation of Yehoshua the Mashiach of Israel, the hour in which the name of the Father is revealed, when all nations stand or fall with Israel in the hour of her redemption.”
