December 27 A READ REVELATION 10–13
Describing the Seven Signs
OVERVIEW
Before the seventh trumpet sounds, John sees a vision of a mighty angel and a small scroll. John is instructed to eat the scroll, which proves sweet to the taste but sour to the stomach. Next, John sees two witnesses who have an astonishing ministry on earth for 1,260 days but then are martyred for their testimony and then brought back to life. The sounding of the seventh trumpet is followed by a description of seven persons in chapters 12 and 13. The first four (a sun-clothed woman, a dragon, a male child, and the angel Michael) are all engaged in a struggle that begins in heaven and ends on earth, where the dragon displays his wrath against the fifth, the “rest of [the woman’s] children” (12:17). John then sees the final two figures in the drama: the beast from the sea (13:1-10) and the second beast from the earth (13:11-18).
MY DAILY WALK
Here is a thought worth pondering: You are indestructible until God’s purpose for your life is completed.
Nowhere is that statement more eloquently illustrated than in the lives of the two witnesses John describes in 11:3-12. Though they face a seeming “suicide mission,” they are divinely protected until they “complete their testimony” (11:7). Only then are the forces of evil permitted to “conquer them and kill them.” But no power on earth can hold them in the grave. At the appointed time, they ascend to heaven to receive God’s commendation: “Mission accomplished.”
You are under this same umbrella of God’s protection today. He has a purpose for your life on this earth; and no matter what the obstacles, he will preserve you until your mission is accomplished. Let that assurance of God’s hand on your life give you added boldness as you testify for him today. But remember, time is short. There is no guarantee that you, like the two witnesses, have 1,260 days to finish your God-given mission!
SEEK NEITHER MORE NOR LESS THAN GOD’S WILL FOR YOU.
INSIGHT
A Diet of Scrolls | Rev. 10:9
If the command to eat a scroll (10:9) seems familiar, that’s because Ezekiel was given the same instruction (Ezekiel 3). In both John’s and Ezekiel’s experience, the scroll tasted sweet and contained words of judgment. But whereas the words of Ezekiel’s scroll were directed at Israel—not “to a foreign people whose language you cannot understand” (Ezekiel 3:5)—John’s scroll was a message about “many peoples, nations, languages, and kings” (Revelation 10:11).
INSIGHT
The Beast of Revelation | Rev. 13:1
Of the thirty-eight occurrences of the word often translated “beast” (Greek, therion) in the New Testament, thirty-seven of them are found in the book of Revelation (see 13:1). The other is in Hebrews 12:20, where it is usually translated “animal.”
The Angel and the Small Scroll
1Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, surrounded by a cloud, with a rainbow over his head. His face shone like the sun, and his feet were like pillars of fire. 2And in his hand was a small scroll* that had been opened. He stood with his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. 3And he gave a great shout like the roar of a lion. And when he shouted, the seven thunders answered.
4When the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write. But I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Keep secret* what the seven thunders said, and do not write it down.”
5Then the angel I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand toward heaven. 6He swore an oath in the name of the one who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and everything in them, the earth and everything in it, and the sea and everything in it. He said, “There will be no more delay. 7When the seventh angel blows his trumpet, God’s mysterious plan will be fulfilled. It will happen just as he announced it to his servants the prophets.”
8Then the voice from heaven spoke to me again: “Go and take the open scroll from the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”
9So I went to the angel and told him to give me the small scroll. “Yes, take it and eat it,” he said. “It will be sweet as honey in your mouth, but it will turn sour in your stomach!” 10So I took the small scroll from the hand of the angel, and I ate it! It was sweet in my mouth, but when I swallowed it, it turned sour in my stomach.
11Then I was told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.”