The Mighty Angel With a Little Book
Beginning of Revelation 10
r10a
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.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:   Mighty angel We have good evidence from this verse that he is Christ. As we continue, we see that he speaks with authority. But is Christ an angel? Read the note for verse 1 below.
  Feet The same Greek word translates as "legs." Compare re0115.
.2 And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,   Little book open This turns our minds to the sealing of Daniel's book.
  Set his right foot upon the sea Powerful imagery. See the note for verse 2 below.
 3 And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.
 4 And when the seven thunders had 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.
 5 And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven,
 6 And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
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Note 10:1
The mighty angel

Let's identify the angel
   He is "another" perhaps in the sense being different from the seven trumpet angels, re1406a.
   The word "mighty" or "strong" also implies that he is different from ordinary angels.
   A rainbow was on His head. Where have we seen a rainbow?  "After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven. . . . And . . . behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald." (Rev. 4:1-3)
   His face was like the sun. "And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light." (Matt. 17:2)  "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Cor. 4:6). Compare with the pure woman who was clothed in the sun re1201
   Notice that his feet were like pillars of fire. "And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:" ex1321. You may recall that Christ was the Lord of the exodus, re0110.

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Come down
    In this chapter, Christ is not coming to receive His people jn1401 and to punish the wicked 1415. He is coming as represented by Ezekiel to investigate ez0104f and to judge his professed people ez09.

A cloud was His robe
    The "cloud" also directs our attention to Christ. The original language is a little more specific than translations indicate. John saw the mighty angel as "having been clothed with a cloud." In other words, He received it before the specific time in history represented by His appearance in our passage. When he left His disciples and ascended at the end of HIs ministry on earth, ". . . a cloud received him out of their sight." (Acts 1:9).
   We need to ask what the cloud is and how he may have become clothed with it. We expect it to be more than water vapor. By comparing verses describing Christ's return, we conclude that the cloud around Him will be a group of angels re0107a2. As we will discover below, He was surrounded by angels in heaven. We know that they ministered to Him on earth at critical times mt0411, lu2243, but on the cross He was shut off even from the Father mr1534. Certainly the angels must have eagerly surrounded Him at the resurrection. Then or at His inauguration in heaven, they again became His official cloud as they had been when, as Michael, they stood by Him in casting Satan out. Other texts associate Him as carried by or surrounded by a cloud or clouds ez0128, mt1701, ps10403.
   It's hard to escape the conclusion that the Lord Himself has come as the mighty angel and the events to unfold in this chapter have extraordinary significance.

Could Christ be an angel? (Texts linked to often include more than the verse indicated in the link code.)
   Not in the way we usually think of angels. The Greek word is aggelos which also means "messenger." In a special way, however, we might compare his being an angel to His taking humanity and assuming the title, Son of Man. Do you remember Joshua's special visitor? jos0513. If Christ could take the form of humanity, could He not as well have taken the form of angels?
   Twice in the book of Revelation an ordinary angel refuses to let John bow before him re1909. He refuses because he is not God. But the "man" accepts Joshua's worship, and commands Joshua to remove his shoes as he did in Exodus 3 when He spoke to Moses from the burning bush as the I AM. If the angel had not been Christ, He would not have permitted Joshua to worship Him.
   What did He mean by His identity as "captain of the Lord's host"? The host is the angels of heaven lu0213. In chapter 12, we will see Christ as Michael the archangel (or chief of the angels) re1207a,b.
   In Malachi 3:1 Christ is the messenger (angel) of the covenant mal0301.

Note 10:2
A little book open

John sees the mighty angel

.
Daniel helps us understand
   Keep the scene of the mighty angel in mind and turn to the book of Daniel, chapter 12. Beginning at chapter 12, Gabriel tells Daniel  that Michael will stand up, righteous ones will be saved, some will awaken, and the wise will shine like the stars. Then he addresses the prophet directly: "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." (v4).
   In the next two verses, we see the "mighty angel" although he isn't called that. Look at da1205ff. Did you recognize him. Perhaps the covering of light which John saw as a cloud, seemed more like a linen robe to Daniel. Take a look at an earlier description of the man in linen da1005 and compare it to the glorified Christ John saw re0113.

    If you read on though Daniel 12, you find that the resolution of the problems would come after the "wonders" involving persecution of God's people. This time is described in connection with verse 2 in our present chapter (Rev. 10). See note.



    The prophetic periods described in Daniel 7 to 12 find their fulfillment in the times of the New Testament.

Time Periods in Daniel
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