Revelation Chapter 10 Safety and Suffering of God's Witnessing Church

God's Secret Purpose for the role of His church in the Apocalypse, is revealed in Revelation chapter 10. The safety and suffering of His witnessing church is revealed in the Interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpet in Revelation chapter 10:1-11:14.

Revelation chapter 10:1-11:14
God’s secret purpose for the role of the church
In the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth

So far, in Revelation, John's vision has not revealed God's secret purpose for the church in establishing His kingdom on earth. That occurs only in the interlude between the sixth and seventh judgments of the trumpet series, Rev 10:1-11:14.

We saw the first appearance of scroll in Rev 5:1-9, where the lamb is declared worthy to open the scroll in God's hand, by breaking its seven seals.

The opening of this scroll is to reveal how, what up to this point in time, is God's secret purpose, how the Lamb's victory is to become effective in establishing God's rule over the earth.

Only the lamb can open the scroll and reveal its contents, because it is His victory which makes possible the implementation of God's purpose contained in the scroll.

More specifically, in Revelation chapter 10, we shall see how believers in Jesus Christ are to participate in the fulfillment of God's kingdom on earth, by following Him in witness, sacrifice and victory.

Because Jesus had conquered, He is the one who can reveal how His disciples are also to conquer. 

The seventh trumpet reveals the mystery of God

Revelation 10:1-7 English Standard Version
The Angel and the Little Scroll
10 Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire. 2 He had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land, 3 and called out with a loud voice, like a lion roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded. 4 And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.” 5 And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven 6 and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay, 7 but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.

Neither the series of seven judgments which accompany the seal openings, nor the series of seven trumpets sounding, is the content of the scroll.

The communication of the content of the scroll happens in the interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpet blasts, Revelation chapter 10:1-11-13

Up to this point in the Revelation to John, John has not seen the content of the scroll, only the visions of what accompanies each scroll being opened.

All three series of judgments are closely related to God's holiness and sovereignty, which is revealed in Revelation chapter 4. These three series of judgments bring God's holy will to bear on the evil world.

But, the judgments up to and including the sixth trumpet, are strictly limited in severity. They are intended to bring humanity to repentance. Revelation 9:20-21 clearly state humanity's rejection of God's warning to repent.

Judgments alone, do not lead to repentance and faith.

This is why, a further series of judgments, the seven thunders, Revelation chapter 10:3-4, were revoked. Unlike the scroll, they are to remain sealed in John's prophecy of his vision in the Revelation to John.

Since judgments alone, do not lead to repentance, judgments of increasing severity is not to be extended any longer.

So, as we likely suspected, a series of judgments that affected one quarter of the earth, and then one third of the earth, will not be extended to one half half the earth.

Now, there is only to be the final judgment, and there will be no more delay. When the seventh angel blows the seventh trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled (Revelation chapter 10:6-7).

Later, the details of the seventh trumpet are revealed in detail via the seven bowls in Revelation 15, the judgments are total, not limited judgments (Rev 16:2-21), but the final annihilation of the unrepentant.

The seven thunders will remain sealed, but what is revealed to John now, is the actual content of the scrolls, the so far unrevealed purpose for achieving what warning judgments have failed to achieve, the repentance of humanity.

John's "eating" of the scroll, (Rev 10:9-11), symbolizes his reading and understanding of what the scroll says and means for humanity during the Apocalypse, the second coming of Jesus the Christ.

Participating in God's judgment of the ungodly and vengeance for believers is both sweet and bitter/sour. John is joyful for God's final judgment against evil, but is sorrowful for many he knows who have refused to believe and proclaim that Jesus is Lord.

The command to John to "again prophecy" (Rev 10:11), refers not merely to John's activity as a New Testament prophet before now, but also with all the previous prophetic revelation of all the prophets of both the Old and New Testaments, up to now, when John receives the Revelation.

What has never been revealed so far in prophecy, is the role of believers, disciples of Jesus Christ, in bringing the world to repentance and faith through their witness, perseverance and faithfullness, throughout their life.

The content of the scroll is not that faithful believers in Jesus Christ are to required to suffer martyrdom or that their martyrdom will be their victory. The way believers in Christ conquer, is to persevere through persecution because of their faith in Jesus, and remain faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ, until the end, their death, no matter the cause of thier death. This is made clear in the following verses.

Revelation 6:9-11 ESV
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
Rev 9:9-14
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” 13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Rev 9:9-14 ESV
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” 13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

The actual content of the scroll is revealed, in summary, in Revelation 11:1-13. This passage, in a nutshell, is the central message of John's whole prophecy, in the Revelation to John, the Apocalypse.

It is placed here, to indicate how the church's witness to all the nations of the world intervenes before the final judgment (Rev 11:15-19).

Then, in Revelation chapters 12-15, the church's victorious conflict with the powers of evil is given a much more extended treatment, which is then integrated into the extended account, which follows, of the final judgment and its results (Revelation chapters 15-22).

The main message of Revelation chapter 10, might well be the phrases "there will be no more delay" and "the mystery of god would be fulfilled."