The End of All Delay Text: Revelation 10:1-7
Introduction: An Interlude of Authority
The book of Revelation is structured like a great symphony, with thunderous movements of judgment followed by quieter, clarifying interludes. We have just come through the sounding of the sixth trumpet, with its horrific vision of a demonic cavalry bringing death and destruction. And yet, humanity in its rebellion did not repent. Before the seventh and final trumpet sounds, which will bring the entire matter to its climax, God gives John this vision in chapter 10. This is a pause, a moment to understand who is orchestrating these events and why.
We must remember the context. John is writing to first-century Christians who were being told that the time was near. The events of this book were to shortly take place. The primary focus of this great judgment is the apostate covenant people, the Jerusalem that had rejected her Messiah and was about to be utterly dismantled in A.D. 70. This is not, as many excitable commentators would have it, a detailed blueprint of events two thousand years in our future. It is a prophetic and symbolic unveiling of the judgment that Christ promised would befall that generation. This interlude serves to reinforce the authority of the one bringing the judgment and to declare that the appointed time has finally come. The long centuries of prophetic waiting are over.
What we see here is not just a random powerful angel. We are being shown the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, taking possession of the world He redeemed. This is a scene of ultimate authority, a declaration of ownership, and a solemn oath that the final act of this particular drama, the destruction of the old covenant order, is now imminent. There will be no more delay.
The Text
Then I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, clothed with a cloud, and the rainbow was upon his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire; and he had in his hand a little scroll which was open. He placed his right foot on the sea and his left on the earth, and he cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. And when he had cried out, the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices. And when the seven peals of thunder had spoken, I was about to write; and I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken and do not write them." Then the angel, whom I saw standing on the sea and on the earth, lifted up his right hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, WHO CREATED HEAVEN AND THE THINGS IN IT, AND THE EARTH AND THE THINGS IN IT, AND THE SEA AND THE THINGS IN IT, that there will be delay no longer, but in the days of the voice of theseventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He proclaimed good news to His slaves, the prophets.
(Revelation 10:1-7 LSB)
The Mighty Angel (v. 1-2)
The chapter opens with a glorious vision of a "strong angel."
"Then I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, clothed with a cloud, and the rainbow was upon his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire; and he had in his hand a little scroll which was open. He placed his right foot on the sea and his left on the earth," (Revelation 10:1-2)
We must not be thrown by the word "angel." It simply means messenger. The context and the description make it abundantly clear that this is no created being; this is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The description here is a collage of attributes ascribed to God and to the glorified Christ elsewhere in Scripture. He is clothed with a cloud, a common indicator of divine presence (the Shekinah glory). A rainbow is on His head, reminiscent of the covenant sign around God's throne in Revelation 4 and in Ezekiel's vision. His face is like the sun, just as it was in the Transfiguration and in John's first vision of Christ in chapter 1. His feet are like pillars of fire, again matching the description in Revelation 1. This is the Lord.
He descends from heaven holding a "little scroll which was open." This is likely the same scroll from chapter 5, the title deed to the world, which only the Lamb was worthy to open. Now that the seals have been broken, the scroll is open. The judgment it contained is being executed. Christ holds the decree of God in His hand, and it is an open decree. The verdict is in, and the sentence is about to be carried out.
His stance is one of absolute dominion. He places His right foot on the sea and His left on the earth. This is a powerful symbol of universal sovereignty. He is claiming total ownership of the entire globe. In the symbolic language of Revelation, the "earth" or "land" often refers to the covenant land of Israel, while the "sea" represents the Gentile nations. So Christ is here asserting His authority over both Jew and Gentile. The old distinction is being abolished in Him, and He is Lord of all.
The Lion's Roar and the Sealed Thunders (v. 3-4)
The angel's voice carries the authority of the king of the beasts, and it elicits a heavenly response.
"and he cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. And when he had cried out, the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices. And when the seven peals of thunder had spoken, I was about to write; and I heard a voice from heaven saying, 'Seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken and do not write them.'" (Revelation 10:3-4 LSB)
He cries out like a roaring lion. This is the voice of the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Rev. 5:5). His roar is a declaration of impending judgment. This is not a whisper; it is a public proclamation of His authority and His intent. When the lion roars, who will not fear? (Amos 3:8).
His roar is answered by seven peals of thunder. In the Old Testament, thunder is consistently identified with the voice of God. Psalm 29 is a magnificent poem celebrating the power of the "voice of the Lord" over all creation, and that voice is repeatedly described as thunder. So when Christ roars, the Father answers with His own voice, the sevenfold, perfect voice of thunder, affirming the action of the Son.
John, being a faithful prophet, prepares to record this divine speech. But he is commanded not to. He is to "seal up" what the thunders said. This is significant. John was told earlier not to seal up the prophecy of this book because the time was near (Rev. 22:10). The bulk of Revelation concerns the imminent judgment on Jerusalem. However, this sealing of the thunders indicates that some aspects of God's plan, revealed to John, were not for that immediate context. They were reserved for a later time, a fulfillment beyond the scope of the A.D. 70 crisis. While the central message of Revelation was for them, right then, God always has more to say. His plan did not end in the first century, and this is a small reminder of that fact.
The Divine Oath: No More Delay (v. 5-7)
What follows is one of the most solemn moments in the book: a divine oath that the time for waiting is over.
"Then the angel, whom I saw standing on the sea and on the earth, lifted up his right hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, WHO CREATED HEAVEN AND THE THINGS IN IT, AND THE EARTH AND THE THINGS IN IT, AND THE SEA AND THE THINGS IN IT, that there will be delay no longer, but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He proclaimed good news to His slaves, the prophets." (Revelation 10:5-7 LSB)
The angel, who is Christ, lifts his hand to heaven and swears an oath. He swears by the eternal Creator of all things. When God wants to make an ultimate, unbreakable promise, He swears by Himself, for there is no one greater (Heb. 6:13). This is Christ, the agent of creation, swearing by God the Father, the source of all things. This is the Godhead binding itself by an oath to act.
And what is the content of the oath? "That there will be delay no longer." The Greek is chronos, or time. Some translations have "time shall be no more," which has led to much confusion about the end of the world. But the context makes it clear. The souls of the martyrs under the altar had cried out, "How long, O Lord?" (Rev. 6:10). They were told to wait a little longer. This oath is the answer to their prayer. The waiting period is over. The "delay" is finished. The time for the final judgment on Jerusalem, the great persecutor of the prophets and the saints, has arrived.
When the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, the "mystery of God is finished." What is this mystery? Paul tells us plainly in his epistles. The mystery, hidden for ages but now revealed, is the inclusion of the Gentiles into the people of God. It is the creation of one new man in Christ, where the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile is torn down (Eph. 2:14-16, Eph. 3:3-6). This mystery had been proclaimed to the prophets for centuries, that the Messiah would be a light to the Gentiles. But as long as the Temple in Jerusalem stood, with its physical barriers and its ceremonial law, there was a constant pressure for Gentiles to become Jews in order to become Christians. The full finishing of this mystery required the removal of that old system. With the sounding of the seventh trumpet and the destruction of the Temple, that old world would be swept away, and the nature of the one, new, international body of Christ would be established for all time. The gospel age would be fully and finally inaugurated.
Conclusion
This chapter, this mighty angel, stands at the center of history. Christ has come. He has conquered sin and death. He has taken possession of the world. And in the first century, He came in judgment upon the system that rejected Him, just as He promised.
The oath sworn here is a profound comfort to the saints. Our Lord is not passive. He hears the cries of His people. And though He may seem to delay, His timing is perfect. He swore that the time for delay would end, and it did. The old covenant world was brought to a crashing halt, and the mystery of God, the glorious, global, Gentile-including church, was finished, established as the new reality.
We live in the age that this oath inaugurated. We are the fulfillment of that mystery. We, a people gathered from every tribe, tongue, and nation, are the one new man in Christ. And the same Lord who stood astride the world then, stands astride it now. He holds the title deed. He is the Lion who roars. And He is still working all things according to the counsel of His will, until all His enemies are made a footstool for His feet. Therefore, we should live with confidence. The mystery is finished, and the Man has come around.