‘And he had in his hand a small scroll open, and he set his right foot on the sea and his left on the earth, and he cried with a great voice like a lion roars, and when he cried the seven thunders uttered their voices.'
We have here a good example as to how time has become irrelevant in the visions of John. He moves from one time sphere to another in vision without any difficulty. Here he seemingly moves on to the time of the end when ‘there will be time no longer'.
The angel is clearly huge and powerful for he bestrides land and sea, demonstrating mastery over both (compare Deuteronomy 11:24). It also demonstrates that he is taking possession in the name of God. The picture is vivid. When the lion is hungry it puts back its head and roars to strike fear into the animal kingdom. This strong angel, having taken possession of land and sea, roars, and heaven and earth tremble (compare Joel 3:16; Jeremiah 25:30-31), and his roar is accompanied by the voices of the seven thunders.
Thunders connected with voices occur in Revelation 4:5; Revelation 8:5; and Revelation 11:19. (Revelation 6:1 and Revelation 14:2 refer only to voices that sound like thunder and can therefore be discounted). Thus the thunders are connected with special moments related to the judgments of God on earth, the opening of the seven seals (Revelation 4:5), the sounding of the seven trumpets (Revelation 8:5) and the opening of the Temple in Heaven for the final pouring out of the seven bowls of the wrath of God (Revelation 11:19 with Revelation 16:1). So the voices of the seven thunders, the divinely perfect and ultimate in thunders, express the severity of what the scroll contains, and relate to the three sets of seven. These are the final stages of all that the seals, trumpets and bowls represent.
‘A small scroll open'. There must be no danger of mistaking this scroll for the one sealed with seven seals so it is said to be a comparatively ‘small' one. Ezekiel was given a scroll containing ‘lamentations and mournings and woe' and he had to eat it and it was in his mouth as honey for sweetness (Ezekiel 6:9 to Ezekiel 7:2). John has to do the same with this scroll and it has the same consequences except that this one is then bitter to the stomach. Thus the content is similar to that of Ezekiel's, except harder to bear. It speaks of lamentation, mournings and woe. The eating of the scroll means devouring its contents. So John, having ‘eaten it' must ‘prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings' as he will do in coming Chapter s (Revelation 10:11).