Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

10:1
10
THE FAITHFUL WITNESS
The Witness to the New Creation (10:1-7)
1 And I saw another strong Angel coming down out of
heaven, clothed with a cloud; and the rainbow was on
His head, and His face was like the sun, and His legs like
pillars of fire;
2 and He had in His hand a little book that was open. And
He placed His right foot on the Sea and His left on the
Land;
3 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.
4 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 that the seven peals of thunder have
spoken, and do not write them.
5 And the Angel whom I saw standing on the Sea and on
the Land lifted up His right hand to heaven,
6 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
shall be delay no longer,
7 but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when
he is about to sound, then the Mystery of God is
accomplished, as He preached the Gospel to His servants
the prophets.
1 The strong Angel can be none other than Jesus
Christ Himself, the “Angel of the LORD” who appeared
in the Old Testament. This will be clear enough if the
description of this Angel is compared with that of
Christ in 1:14-16, and of God on His throne in Ezekiel
1:25-28. There are, however, further indications of the
divine identity of this strong Angel.
First, the Angel is seen clothed with a cloud – an
expression that should call to mind the Glory-Cloud.
And while the Cloud is filled with innumerable angels
(Deut. 33:2; Ps. 68:17), there is only One who could be
said to be clothed with it. Compare Psalm 104:1-3:
O LORD my God, Thou art very great;
Thou art clothed with splendor and majesty,
Covering Thyself with light as with a cloak,
Stretching out heaven like a tent curtain –
The One who lays the beams of His upper chambers
in the waters;
Who makes the clouds His chariot;
Who walks upon the wings of the wind. . . .
The basic reference for this, of course, is the fact that
God was indeed “clothed with the Cloud” in the
Tabernacle (cf. Ex. 40:34-38; Lev. 16:2). This could not
be said of any created angel. To be clothed with the
Cloud is to be clothed with the entire court of heaven;
it is, in fact, the created angels who form the Cloud.
Jesus Christ is wearing the host of heaven (cf. Gen.
28:12; Jn. 1:51).
Second, the Angel had the rainbow upon His head.
We have seen the rainbow already in 4:3, around the
throne of God; and Ezekiel says of the One whom he
saw enthroned that “there was a radiance around Him.
As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a
rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding
radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of
the glory of the LORD” (Ezek. 1:27-28).
Third, the Angel’s face was like the sun. This fits the
description of Christ in 1:16, and in Matthew 17:2, the
account of Christ’s transfiguration (cf. Ezek. 1:4, 7, 27;
Acts 26:13; 2 Cor. 4:6). He is “the Sun of
righteousness” (Mal. 4:2), “the Sunrise from on high”
(Lk. 1:78; cf. Ps. 84:11; 2 Pet. 1:16-19). In particular,
the imagery of the sun and sunrise – as we have already
noted with the words day and light – is often used to
describe the glory of God shining in judgment (cf. Ps.
19:4-6; Ezek. 43:2; Zech. 14:7; Mal. 4:1-3; Rom. 13:12);
and the “flaming fire” of judgment is spoken of by Paul
as Christ’s “face” and “glory” (2 Thess 1:7-9). 1 This is
especially appropriate here, since Christ has come to
St. John to announce the annihilation of Jerusalem.
Fourth, His legs were like pillars of fire. This refers to
some of the most complex imagery in all the Bible.
Obviously, the phrase is intended to remind us of “the
pillar of fire and cloud” – the Glory-Cloud of the
Exodus (Ex. 14:24). As we have seen, it is the Lord who
“wears” the Cloud (Deut. 31:15), and the Cloud is also
identified as the Angel of the LORD (Ex. 32:34; 33:2;
Num. 20:16). It appears that the dual aspect of the
Cloud (the smoke and the fire) symbolically
represented God’s legs. Thus, the LORD walked before
the people in the Cloud (Ex. 13:21-22; 14:19, 24;
23:20, 23); He came in the Cloud and stood before
them (Ex. 33:9-10; Num. 12:5; Hag. 2:5). In terms of
this imagery, the Bride describes the Bridegroom’s legs
as “pillars” (Cant. 5:15). We should also note that the
dual nature of the pillar, representing the legs of God,
was incorporated into the architecture of the Temple (1
Kings 7:15-22; 2 Chron. 3:15-17); thus “the ark of the
covenant located beneath the enthroned Glory is
accordingly called God’s footstool (Isa. 60:13).” 2 The
significance of all this, and its relationship to the
passage as a whole, will become apparent below.
Enough has been seen, however, to demonstrate
1. Cf. Meredith G. Kline, Images of the Spirit (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House,
1980), pp. 108, 121.
2. Ibid., p. 19; cf. 1 Chron. 28:2; Ps. 99:5; 132:7. In the larger, cosmic Temple
(“the heavens and the earth”), the earth is called God’s footstool (Isa. 66:1),
and thus the earth is said to have pillars (1 Sam. 2:8; Job 38:4-6; Ps. 75:3;
104:5; Isa. 51:13, 16; 54:11), and sockets to hold the pillars (Job 38:6; the
same word is used for the pillar sockets in the tabernacle, in Num. 3:36-37;
4:31-32).
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