God Speaks
Then 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 flashed with fire. 2 And he held open in his hand a small scroll. He set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the earth 3 and gave a great shout—it was like the roar of a lion—and the seven thunders crashed their reply.
4 I was about to write what the thunders said when a voice from heaven called to me, “Don’t do it. Their words are not to be revealed.”
5 Then the mighty angel standing on the sea and land lifted his right hand to heaven 6 and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and everything in it and the earth and all that it contains and the sea and its inhabitants, that there should be no more delay, 7 but that when the seventh angel blew his trumpet, then God’s veiled plan—mysterious through the ages ever since it was announced by his servants the prophets—would be fulfilled.
8 Then the voice from heaven spoke to me again, “Go and get the unrolled scroll from the mighty angel standing there upon the sea and land.”
9 So I approached him and asked him to give me the scroll. “Yes, take it and eat it,” he said. “At first it will taste like honey, but when you swallow it, it will make your stomach sour!” 10 So I took it from his hand, and ate it! And just as he had said, it was sweet in my mouth, but it gave me a stomachache when I swallowed it.
11 Then he told me, “You must prophesy further about many peoples, nations, tribes, and kings.”
Source: The Living Bible: BibleGateway.com
We Respond
Reflection: The mighty angel who comes down from Heaven and stands with his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, may well be Jesus Christ the Son of God. He often, but temporarily, appeared as the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament. The description of this mighty messenger correlates well with many characteristics of the resurrected Christ. He held a small scroll open in his hand and roared like a victorious lion. Seven thunders answered him, but when he went to write down what they said, John was told by a loud voice from heaven not to do so: these words were to remain a holy secret until the seventh trumpet is sounded. Then, God’s plan, which the prophets through the ages had foretold, will be fulfilled. The mighty angel took an oath by the Great Creator God. John was told to take the little scroll and eat it. When he did, it was sweet in his mouth but sour in his stomach. The scroll represented the Word of God which John and others were to take to all the peoples, nations, tribes, and rulers of the earth.
Prayer: Dear all-knowing Father God, thank You for revealing Your plans to Your servants like the Apostle John and the prophets. I believe that the mighty angel who came down from heaven and stood with his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land was You, Jesus. You roar as the Lion of Judah, and the seven thunders respond to You. Your first advent was part of a holy secret from before the beginning of time. Your second advent (coming) is part of that holy secret as well. I believe that the time of the seventh trumpet is near. As we anxiously await its sounding, enable Your servants, including me, to take the Word of God to all the peoples, nations, tribes, and rulers of the earth. For the glory of Your great name. AMEN
Action: (Ask God, the Holy Spirit, which one of these He wants you to work on or something else more personal that He points out.)
- I will use various Bible study guides or a search engine like Google or Bible Gateway to look up occasions when the Angel of the Lord appeared on earth before Jesus’s birth.
- I will look for lists of verses that prophesy of Jesus’s birth–trying to answer the questions: who, where, when, how, why, and what it meant.
- I will tell someone, who perhaps doesn’t know these things, what I found.
- I will do a similar search about His second coming and share it as well.
Share: I plan to share what I’ve learned with __________.