Clothed in a Cloud

As chapter ten opens, John sees yet another angel, clothed in a cloud with a rainbow upon his head.  It strikes me as significant that John sees the rainbow again.  The rainbow is the token of the covenant God made with the world in the days of Noah.  John first sees the rainbow in the temple setting where his vision begins.  I love this reference to covenants that remind us that God's promises are eternal, in heaven and on the earth. 

Two things strike me in this chapter.  The first involves the seven thunders. John is forbidden to write what these revelatory entities have told him.  He is commanded to seal those things up.  I believe that prophets of God frequently see and experience more than they are allowed to tell us.  God gives us only as much as we are able to comprehend - and to live.  To give us more knowledge than we can handle is to give us knowledge to our condemnation.  John is not the only prophet in the history of the world who is told not to write something he himself has come to know.

The second thing involves the small book or scroll which the angel with the rainbow gives to him.  This is another pattern seen before in the revelations God gives to His servants, the prophets.  Ezekiel also was given a small book and commanded to eat it, just as John was.  God puts His words into these prophets' mouths.  I think it upset John's stomach because God's word is sometimes difficult to bear, especially when he took it in completely and made it a part of him.  It is sweet in his mouth because he is being commissioned again to preach God's word, which is the word of salvation.

The Prophet, Joseph, asked about this reference to a book and this is what he was told:
  Q. What are we to understand by the little book which was eaten by John, as mentioned in the 10th chapter of Revelation? A. We are to understand that it was a mission, and an ordinance, for him to gather the tribes of Israel; behold, this is Elias, who, as it is written, must come and restore all things. (Doctrine and Covenants 77: 14).

Prophets are called to gather God's lost sheep and to preach repentance and the Good News of the Kingdom.  That they do so, even when it seems to be a lost cause, is a manifestation of God's love for all of His children.  Will I heed His call in these last days?  Will you? 

Text copyright Gebara Education February 2013

 

Picture of the Apostle John from www.sodahead.com