The little scroll.
Events associated with the fourth trumpet announced three woes that would affect the people on the earth. However, the events associated with the fifth trumpet demonstrate that the people’s sufferings did not lead them to repent their evil activity. The sixth trumpet demonstrates that one-third of the people on Earth were killed by plagues associated with the sixth trumpet. However, the remaining people did not repent of their evil ways. “Furthermore, they did not repent of their murders, of their magic spells, of their sexual immorality, or their stealing. Revelation 9:21, NET. The people on the earth were progressing toward self-destruction.
John now observes the events leading to the sounding of the seventh trumpet. The world must be informed that God will soon act. In a short time, he will re-create humanity and restore it to him as his children. “Then I saw another powerful angel descending from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun and his legs were like pillars of fire. He held in his hand a little scroll that was open, and he put his right foot on the sea and his left on the land.” Revelation 10:1 – 2, NET. The little scroll was open. It signified that the events depicted in the little scroll had not been accomplished yet. The people on earth must be informed of what God will accomplish when the seventh trumpet is sounded.
“Then they told me: You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.” Revelation 10:11, NET. What must be prophesied again? The message in the Little Scroll must be proclaimed because time is near, and there will be no delay. This is the message God proclaimed through his servants, the prophets. “Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city to finish sin, to set an end to sin, to wipe out lawlessness, to atone for wrongdoings, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Holy of Holies. You shall know therefore and understand That from the going forth of the word to be answered and to build Jerusalem, until Christ the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. Daniel 9:24 – 25, the Septuagint. The time for the coming of Messiah, the Christ, has been set. The world must be informed of it. The Messiah would minister during the seventieth week in the above prophecy.
Continued in the next blog.
