A Long Time Ago...

Revelation 10.1-11

Does anyone remember what this part of Revelation is about?

Chapters 1-3 concern the seven churches directly. Chapters 4-5 give us a vision of the heavenly throne room where we watch the slain lamb receive the scroll containing God’s plan to heal the world. Chapters 6-8 detail the opening of the seven seals that kept the scroll from being read and God’s purposes form being known. The seventh seal initiated the blowing of the seven trumpets (chapters 8-9). Now John receives a little scroll, just before the seventh trumpet is blown.

But what is this little scroll?

Two things are worth mentioning here: first, the scroll is only “little” in verse 2; second, the angel holding the scroll is enormous. By verse 8, the scroll is no longer referred to as “little”, likely because at that point it’s being passed over to John.

Try and see this in your mind. A giant angel—so big he can place one foot on the land and the other on the sea, his head is covered in a rainbow and he wears clouds like billowy bathrobes from heaven—is holding a scroll. If the scroll were “normal” size, how do you think it would look in the hand of the giant?

Itsy.

Bitsy.

In chapter five, this same scroll was given to the lamb but because the lamb wasn’t a gigantic cloud-surfing titan, John didn’t feel the need to mention anything about its size. Once John receives the scroll in chapter ten, the size is again of no importance. On the contrary, the important bit is now that the scroll is open! What was once sealed is now accessible, and we’re finally going to find out what the contents of the scroll are in chapter eleven.

So, on the off-chance that you completely forgot there even was a scroll—or, by extension, a plan to eradicate evil and heal the world—then cheer up!

There’s actually a point