"The Rainbowed Angel"
Summary
Revelation 10 presents the glorified Messiah — the “Rainbowed Angel” — leading his immortalized people. The rainbow identifies the Abrahamic Covenant; his feet of fire and sun-like face echo Revelation 1. His lion-cry recalls Joel and Hosea’s prophecies of Israel’s final deliverance, and his cloud of spirit-hosts mirrors the pillar of cloud that guided Israel in the wilderness. Together these symbols portray the Messenger of the Covenant returning to lead his redeemed people home.
The Name of Glory appears again in Revelation 10, where John writes: "And I saw another mighty angel descending out of the heaven, having been clothed with a cloud, and the rainbow upon his head, and his face as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire" (Revelation 10:1)[1]. In Revelation 1, the vision focused on his spiritual character and office; here he appears clothed with his immortalized spirit-hosts — "a great cloud of witnesses, of whom in the day of their flesh the world was not worthy."
"His feet as pillars of fire" connects his mission to the fiery stream before the Ancient of Days (Daniel 7)[2]. John's earlier vision described the same feet as "like to fine brass glowing in a furnace."
"His face as the sun" echoes that first vision: "His countenance as the sun shineth in his strength." The rainbow over his head links him and his company to the rainbowed throne and the kings and priests surrounding it. All were purchased through the Abrahamic Covenant, so the rainbow — its covenant symbol — crowns this "Messenger of the Covenant" and his redeemed multitude.
He held an open book, stood with one foot on the sea and one on the earth, and cried out like a roaring lion — at which seven thunders spoke. The lion image recurs throughout prophecy as a mark of the Messiah in the last days; he is called "the lion of the tribe of Judah" (Revelation 5)[3]. The prophet declares: "The Lord shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem: and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel" (Joel 3:16)[4]. Hosea adds: "I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah" — and of the homecoming: "They shall walk after the Lord: he shall roar like a lion... They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will place them in their houses, saith the Lord" (Hosea 5:14; 11:10, 11)[5].
Just as the pillar of cloud guided Israel through the wilderness, the angel of the Covenant — clothed with his cloud of spirit-hosts — will bring them again from the depths of the sea and lead them to the promised land.
For a full treatment of these Apocalyptic symbols, see dedicated works on Revelation.
The same glorious host appears again in Revelation 19, and the same angel returns as the "Binder of the Dragon" in Revelation 20.