Revelation 10:7

10:1-7 The apostle saw another representation. The person communicating this discovery probably was our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, or it was to show his glory. He veils his glory, which is too great for mortal eyes to behold; and throws a veil upon his dispensations. A rainbow was upon his head; our Lord is always mindful of his covenant. His awful voice was echoed by seven thunders; solemn and terrible ways of discovering the mind of God. We know not the subjects of the seven thunders, nor the reasons for suppressing them. There are great events in history, perhaps relating to the Christian church, which are not noticed in open prophecy. The final salvation of the righteous, and the final success of true religion on earth, are engaged for by the unfailing word of the Lord. Though the time may not be yet, it cannot be far distant. Very soon, as to us, time will be no more; but if we are believers, a happy eternity will follow: we shall from heaven behold and rejoice in the triumphs of Christ, and his cause on earth.

7 . when he shall begin to sound ] More accurately, “when he shall be about to sound .” the mystery of God ] Here Abp. Whately’s paradox is hardly an exaggeration, that for “mystery” one might substitute “revelation,” without altering the sense: see on Revelation 1:20 . shall be finished ] The construction in the Greek is curious, but it is probably a mere Hebraism, and the sense of the A. V. right. declared ] The word is the characteristic evangelical one, “told the good news.”

But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel; of whom, and his sounding, we shall read, Revelation 11:15 . When he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished; from that time that he beginneth to sound shall begin the mystery of God to be finished; either the mystery mentioned Revelation 11:15 , when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord, and his Christ; or, more generally, whatsoever God hath revealed concerning the propagation of the gospel, the ruin of antichrist, and the end of the world. As he hath declared to his servants the prophets; whatsoever God hath declared by his servants the prophets about these things, (as to which see Isaiah 24:1-23 26:1-27:13,66:1-24 Daniel 7:11,12 Zec 14:1-21 Malachi 3:4 ), it shall be fulfilled, and begin to be fulfilled when the seventh angel shall begin to blow; within which period of time most interpreters judge we are, as being begun some time since.

Revelation 10:7 . Καὶ ἐτελέσθη ) καὶ has a consecutive force, and then , as John 4:35 , ἔτι τετράμηνός ἐστι , καὶ ὁ θερισμὸς ἔρχεται .— τὸ μυστήριον — τοῖς προφήταις , the mystery—to the prophets ) D. Joach. Lange, in his Glory of Christ , has illustrated this mystery in a striking manner, by most copiously comparing the Apocalypse with the prophets of the Old Testament. But we have shown the time of the completion of this mystery, lately at Revelation 10:6 , and in other places repeatedly. It was not only announced by prophets, but also to the prophets themselves: Daniel 10:12 .

Revelation 10:7 . Vav consec. with the Heb, pf. (LXX= καὶ and fut. indic.) here by an awkward solecism ( cf. on Revelation 3:20 ) = “Then is ( i.e. , shall be) fnished the secret of God.” The final consummation (inaugurated by the advent of messiah, 12.) is to take place not later than the period of the seventh angel’s trumpet-blast, which ex hypothesi is imminent. The μυστήριον is plainly, as the context implies, full of solace and relief to God’s people.— εὐηγγ . The total (exc. Revelation 16:6 ) omission of εὐαγγέλιον and the restricted use of its verb in the Apocalypse may have been due to the fact that such terms had been soiled by ignoble usage in the local Ionian cult of εὐάγγελος ( e.g. , at Ephesus), with its oracular revelations and fellowship of Euangelidae . The Asiatic calendar of Smyrna contained a month called εὐαγγέλιος .—The connexion between μυστήριον = “secret purpose or counsel” (as here) and μ . = “symbol, or symbolic representation” ( Revelation 1:20 , Revelation 17:7 ) is due to the fact that in the primitive world the former was enigmatically conveyed by means of symbolic-representations in word, picture, or deed. As “every written word was once a μυστήριον ,” it was natural that the word used for the sign came to be employed for the thing signified (Hatch, Essays in Bibl. Greek , 61).

The near approach of the end had been for years a matter of confidence and joy to the Christian prophets—for it is they and not their predecessors who are specially in view. The special and solemn contribution of John’s Apocalypse is to identify certain events in the immediate future with the throes out of which the final bliss was to be born. These throes include the downfall of the dragon from heaven, the subsequent climax of the Beast’s influence on earth, and the assertion of God’s authority over his own and against his foe’s adherents ( Revelation 12:1 to Revelation 14:20 ). The great and glad revelation is God seen in action, with his forces deployed for the final campaign which, with its issues of deliverance and triumph (Revelation 15-22.), forms the climax of this book. The apotheosis of the Cæsars in their life-time—above all, of Domitian—marked the pitch of human depravity; divine intervention was inevitable. Up to the end of Revelation 9, the Apocalypse is fairly regular and intelligible; thereafter, criticism enters upon an intricate country, of which hardly any survey has yet succeeded in rendering a satisfactory account. The problem begins with Revelation 10. Although Revelation 10:1-7 complete the preceding oracles by introducing their finale (7 = Revelation 11:14 f.), while Revelation 10:8-11 connect more immediately with Revelation 11, this forms no reason for suspecting that the oracle is composite.

7. But—connected with Re 10:6. "There shall be no longer time (that is, delay), but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to (so the Greek) sound his trumpet (so the Greek), then (literally, 'also'; which conjunction often introduces the consequent member of a sentence) the mystery of God is finished," literally, "has been finished"; the prophet regarding the future as certain as if it were past. A, C, Aleph, and Coptic read the past tense (Greek, "etelesthee"). B reads, as English Version, the future tense (Greek, "telesthee"). "should be finished" (compare Re 11:15-18). Sweet consolation to the waiting saints! The seventh trumpet shall be sounded without further delay. the mystery of God—the theme of the "little book," and so of the remainder of the Apocalypse. What a grand contrast to the "mystery of iniquity Babylon!" The mystery of God's scheme of redemption, once hidden in God's secret counsel and dimly shadowed forth in types and prophecies, but now more and more clearly revealed according as the Gospel kingdom develops itself, up to its fullest consummation at the end. Then finally His servants shall praise Him most fully, for the glorious consummation of the mystery in having taken to Himself and His saints the kingdom so long usurped by Satan and the ungodly. Thus this verse is an anticipation of Re 11:15-18. declared to—Greek, "declared the glad tidings to." "The mystery of God" is the Gospel glad tidings.

Verse 7. - But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel. The meaning naturally seems to be, "There shall be no longer time; but, on the contrary, in the days of the seventh trumpet, the last judgment shall tall, the end will come, and all things will be made manifest; the mystery of God will be finished." Wordsworth renders, "No delay, save only in the days," etc., and believes that the passage points to a brief respite, during which men may yet repent. When he shall begin to sound ; when he is about to sound [his trumpet]. Alford points out the propriety of the expression. "When the seventh angel does sound, the completed time of the fulfilment is simultaneous with his blowing (cf. Revelation 11:18 ), so that it is properly said that the fulfilment comes in the days when he is about to blow." The mystery of God should be finished; also (or then , as Revised Version) the mystery of God was fulfilled. "The prophetic past" (Wordsworth). "The mystery of God" is all that man does not now understand in connection with God's dealings with man, but of the existence of which he is cognizant, e.g. the existence of evil in the world, and God's modes of dealing with that and all mankind, which we only know in part. God's plans are being steadily and surely worked out, though we are not able to comprehend them.