"The Rainbowed Angel"

The Name of Glory, is again symbolically represented in the vision of the tenth chapter of the Apocalypse. The Revelator says:—“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” (Rev. x. 1). The similitude of the Son of man in multitudinous manifestation seen by the apostle John in his first vision, is made to reappear in this chapter. In the first, the clothing pertaining to His spiritual character and office is brought to view: in the vision of the tenth chapter, 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,” identifies His mission with that of the “fiery stream issuing forth from before the Ancient of Days” (Dan. vii.). The same mission is indicated by the feet of the symbolic Son of man, seen in the first vision, described by John as “like to fine brass glowing in a furnace.”

“His face as the sun,” is the same as that described in the first, as it saith: “His countenance as the sun shineth in his strength.” The rainbow over His head identifies the mighty angel and his glorious company with the rainbowed throne, and with the company of kings and priests surrounding it. These having all been purchased with the blood of the “Abrahamic Covenant,” the rainbow symbol, in token of the covenant, is given to this representation of the “Messenger of the Covenant,” with his multitude of redeemed ones.

In the hand of the angel was “a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth: And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: And when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.” The symbol of a lion is introduced in other testimonies, as descriptive of a certain element that is to characterize the Messiah in “the latter days.” He is styled, “the lion of the tribe of Judah” (Rev. v.). The prophet’s testimony concerning Him in that day, says: “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 iii. 16). In going forth for the deliverance of His people, the Spirit saith: “I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah.” “I will take away, and none shall rescue.” “They shall walk after the Lord: he shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west. 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” (Hos. v, 14; xi. 10, 11).

As the “Pillar of cloud” guided the children of Israel through the wilderness in “the days of old,” so the mighty angel of the Covenant, clothed with the cloud of spirit-hosts, will “bring them again from the depths of the sea”: and lead them to the promised land.

For full and complete expositions of the symbols related to this representation, as well as all other in the Apocalyptic visions, we must refer the reader to the works on the Apocalypse.

The same glorious host represented by the rainbowed angel, is seen again in the vision of chapter xix. And the same mighty angel appears as the “Binder of the Dragon,” in chapter xx.