K-10. THE BOOK OF REVELATION CHAPTER 10.

 

             Rev. 10:1 "And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:"

 

              Rev. 10:2 "And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth,"

                          Rev. 10:3 "And he cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars: and when he cried, seven thunders uttered their voices."

                          Rev. 10:4 "And when the seven thunders uttered their voices, I was ABOUT to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, SEAL UP those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them NOT."

                          Rev. 10:5 "And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven."

                           Rev. 10:6 "And swore by him that lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:

 

              Now, I myself see that this angel or messenger as being Jesus who is basically pleading as our mediator with Almighty God NOT to loose these seven thunders lest all flesh on the earth be killed and time should be NO MORE. So to me, I see that this is the place where the days are shortened for the elect's sake that all of mankind will not be destroyed BY NOT having the seven thunders written down and prophesied over the earth.

             In other words, IF the seven thunders were allowed to be written, then they would be prophesied and thus have to be administered because they would then be a part of the prophecy. However, by forbidding John to write these seven thunders the days, as in, the SEVERITY of the judgments during the 3 1/2 years of great tribulation was lightened for the elect's sake. The total number of days was NOT shortened because it is prophesied that there would be 1260 days, or forty-two months of 3 1/2 years of 360 days a year for the length of the great tribulation.

             Back in Revelation 8:12 we saw that the days and nights were 1/3 less than normal. Or in other words, instead of being 12 hours in a day and 12 hours in a night the days are shortened to have only 8 hours in a day and 8 hours in a night. But in order for this to happen the very orbit and or rotation of the earth would have to change. The Bible has quite a lot to say about this subject of what appears to be the earth being moved out of its orbit AT the SECOND coming of Jesus, so if you want to know more, please read the "THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS". But what happens in Revelation chapter 8 is during the time of great tribulation, which is BEFORE the second coming of Jesus. So rather than the days being shortened by the NUMBER of days or the days being shortened by the HOURS in a day let us take a closer look at the meaning of the Greek words that is TRANSLATED as shortened.

             When we look up the Greek word translated as shorten we see that it means "LOPPED", as in, something during these days is lopped off or taken out, removed, which fits perfectly with what we just read in Revelation 10:1-6 about the seven thunder be lopped off by NOT being written down as prophecy. So for ME, this is how I myself see that the days have already been shortened or lopped off. Moving on to the next verse.

 

             Rev. 10:7 "BUT in the days of the voice of the SEVENTH angel, when he shall BEGIN to sound, the MYSTERY of God should be finished, as he has declared to his servants he prophets."

 

             I want you to notice that the seventh trumpet, which is the LAST TRUMP is not being sounded just yet, but we are being told that WHEN this LAST or SEVENTH TRUMP shall BEGIN to sound that the MYSTERY of God should be finished, completed, done, performed, or accomplished.

             So then, what is this MYSTERY of God that John says we were told about? Open your Bible and turn to 1 Corinthians 15:51,52

 

          "Behold  (look and see or see and understand) I show you a MYSTERY: we shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed, (when will we be changed?)

         52. In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, AT the LAST TRUMP: (or at the exact moment when last [7th] trumpet shall begin to sound) for the TRUMPET shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incoruptible, and we shall be changed."

 

             You see, AT the time that the seventh and LAST trumpet is sounded, AT the LAST TRUMP, the MYSTERY of God shall be accomplished, performed, will have just taken place, or should be finished, precisely AT the time that the seventh trumpet BEGINS to sound. The RAPTURE of the church is the MYSTERY of God when our CHANGE from mortal to IMMORTALITY shall take place. So then, the FIRST SIX trumpets MUST take place BEFORE the rapture of the church. For a deeper understanding on this subject please read the study entitled "THE GREAT TRIBULATION" and "THE WRATH OF GOD VERSES THE GREAT TRIBULATION".

 

             Rev. 10:8 "And the voice which I heard from heaven spoke unto me again, and said, Go and take the book which is open in the hand of the angel which stands upon the sea and upon the earth."

                            Rev. 10:9 " And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make your belly bitter, but it shall be in your mouth sweet as honey."

 

             I believe that the little book is the word of God or at least the part of God's word that he will reveal to believers in the last days to DO. The word of God will be sweet to eat like honey. In other words, we will have a hunger and deep desire to read God's word, but the revelation that we receive from God will be bitter to us and hard to accept. It will not be pleasant to digest and OBEY. Our flesh will not be ready for these things to come to pass because it will be a time of great persecution from the world and many Christians will face Martyrdom for their faith in Jesus. Christians who are in Muslim dominated countries who are witnessing to Muslims are being martyred for their faith in Jesus. Even the Muslims who receive Jesus as their Messiah are being killed by their own people and sometimes by their own family.

              Also, the word honey is used in connection with knowing how to REFUSE to do evil and to CHOOSE to do right. In other words, living our lives without sin. And again the flesh does not want to give up the pleasures of sin, but we will know that hour of our Lord's coming is so close our inner man will be strengthened to say no to the flesh and not sin. And again, for a Muslim to refuse Isalm and to choose Jesus is bitter to the FLESH but sweet to the inner man. God's WILL is that all men be saved and thus many Christians do not want to see these plagues come upon even our enemies. So in that sense, it is bitter to us to have to prophesy these plagues but we know it must be done.

             Please read Job 5:17-24.

             "Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: 

            18.   For he makes sore, and binds up: he wounds, and his hands make whole. 

            19.  He shall deliver you in SIX troubles: yea, in SEVEN there shall NO evil touch you. (Again the SEVENTH is the WRATH of God and we are NOT appointed to the WRATH of God.) 

            20.  In famine he shall redeem you from death: and in war from the power of the sword. 

            21.  You shall be hid from the scourge of the tongue: neither shall you be afraid of destruction when it comes. 

            22.  At destruction and famine you shall laugh: neither shall you be afraid of the beasts of the earth. (because whether we live or whether we die we KNOW that we shall live with Jesus forever Amen. Just a thought that I have. The "beasts" of the earth may be literal animals or they may beast people, as in, the beast in Revelation and the mark of the beast where I myself am seeing as Islam. In other words, there are some Muslims who are helping Christians. There are some peaceful Muslims who are in "league" with God's people the Christians and the Jews. Mainly they are helping Christians at the present time but the truly peaceful Muslims do not want to see any innocent person be killed by the radical Islamic Muslims.)

            23.  For you shall be in league with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you. (If God leads us to flee into the wilderness we need not fear the wild beasts in the woods or forest. And if the beasts are referring to those who have the MARK of the beast then we will not be afraid of them. We will not fear death.) 

             24.  And you shall know that your tabernacle shall be in PEACE; and you shall visit your habitation (judge ourselves lest we be judged, watch in prayer, hide God's word in our heart), and shall NOT SIN."

                           Again, I am merely giving you the speculations that I have heard and my own personal opinion on what some of these verses mean. Some things are just too vague to be able to say exactly what they mean. But I do believe that part of the power that the two witnesses will be given will be the power to overcome all sin in our lives in the last days.

             Rev. 10:10 "And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter."

                           Rev. 10:11 "And he said unto me, you must prophesy again before many people, and nations, and tongues, and kings."

 

             This revelation that the Holy Spirit of God will teach us or is teaching to us in the last days must be prophesied and be taught to all people of all nations and even to the leaders of these nations. So this revelation that comes from God is not just for the church for our own private interpretation but is also for the whole world. I believe that President Donald Trump has been taught some of the events of the last days as prophesied in the Bible.

              Now please do NOT misunderstand verse 11 here when John is told that HE must prophesy AGAIN. Verse 8 begins by saying that the voice he heard from heaven spoke to JOHN AGAIN saying to JOHN to take and eat the little book where it was REVEALED to JOHN what HE must prophesy AGAIN. And what John saw, heard and wrote in chapter 11 was both sweet and BITTER. Sweet because of the judgment of the wicked, but BITTER in that many saints and Jews would be heavily persecuted and killed for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus.

              Some have written to me thinking that the book of Revelation is completely chronological in order. But you see dear children of God there is NOT going to be SEVEN RAPTURES and the WRATH of God is not going to be poured out SEVEN times. This is why we must read the book of Revelation as REPEATING itself over several times. You will see what I mean as we continue this verse by verse study of Revelation. Please click on the link to continue reading CHAPTER 11.