BIBLE STUDY #185 – SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2022
TITLE: THE MYSTERY OF THE UNIVERSE IN A CLAY VESSEL TODAY
Dr. William Soto Santiago
Sunday, August 10, 1997
(Fourth activity)
Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
Source Scripture: Revelation 5:1-10
THE MYSTERIOUS BOOK AND ITS TRAJECTORY
Dr. William Soto Santiago
Sunday, March 21, 1982
(Second activity)
Maturin, Monagas, Venezuela
Heaven, you know it is not a place to cry, Heaven is not a place to be sad, it is not a place to be lamenting; it is a place to enjoy the happiness, the joy of the Lord.
But John being in Heaven, and seeing the Almighty God sitting on the Throne with the Book in His hand, he wasn’t happy, he wasn’t rejoicing; he was very sad.
Can you imagine a person like the apostle and prophet Saint John, who gets to Heaven, where everybody wants to get to; and then, when he gets there and finds himself in the presence of God, then he starts crying when he hears that a powerful Angel, a Mighty Angel, comes and says: “Let someone come forward to take the Book and open its Seals”1?
Can you imagine a man like John weeping because there is no man there in Heaven to open that Book?
It is that John understood what that Book meant and he understood the meaning of the opening of that Book. He understood that if that Book wasn’t opened, the whole Creation was lost, the whole Creation would have a sad ending.
John wept a lot for that; he wasn’t comforted. There was only one consolation for John, and he didn’t see it, no one told him anything that could console him.
But suddenly came near, towards John the beloved disciple, an old man, and he tells him something that was going to comfort him: he speaks to him words of comfort, he speaks to him words that will change John’s sadness and weeping into joy and rejoicing; he says to him:
“John, weep no more. Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who has prevailed, who is worthy. Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah. John, weep no more. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the Book and to loosen its Seals.”2
(…) John sighed deeply: “At last, the Redeemer has arrived!”
What if he had not come? If he had not arrived, then John’s weeping would continue for as long as he existed; for weeping and pain would be for all mankind.
We find that John, as soon as he sees him, changes that attitude: he changes the attitude of sadness and pain, into an attitude of joy and rejoicing; because he knew what that meant, he knew that the Lord was there to reclaim all that He redeemed by His Blood.
There was the Redeemer to claim the Title Deed, the mysterious Book, which no one could even open, no one could take it, no one could even look at it. But there was one: the Redeemer, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who could look at it, could take it, and could open its Seals!
The one they were waiting for arrived, the Desired One3 of all in Heaven.
THE BOOK THAT A MAN ATE
Dr. William Soto Santiago
Sunday, March 21, 1982
Maturin, Monagas, Venezuela
We find that when the Mighty Angel descends, being the Lord in His Second Coming, that is nothing less than the fulfillment of the messianic promise among the gentiles.
But whose turn will it be to make known those great mysteries that were hidden in that Book? Whose turn will it be to make known the great mystery for which there was silence in Heaven for almost half an hour?
The Book comes open; the Seventh Seal was opened in Heaven, but what was in that Book wasn’t made known. So, we find that that Seal is opened or made known here on Earth. He who eats the Book will have that secret within, because he has eaten the Book that was opened in Heaven; for it was brought to him here on Earth that he might eat it and speak what was within.
He will not speak of himself, he will speak what he has within; for he has eaten it. And he ate it when he ate the little Book that the Mighty Angel brought open in His hand.
Now, you can see the path taken by that mysterious Book that was in Heaven: First we find it in the hand of Him who sat on the Throne, in the hand of Almighty God; then from there it passes into the hands of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who had been the Lamb interceding for all the elect at the Throne of Intercession in Heaven; then that Mighty Angel descends from Heaven, who is the Lord at His Second Coming, and comes with that Book open in His hand because He opened it in Heaven; and then He passes that Book into the mouth of a man.
Now, you can see that this man heard the Voice that told him: “Go and take the Book from the hand of the Mighty Angel, go and tell him to give it to you.” By what authority should he ask for that Book? It is that he has been chosen to… not in Heaven; not to take the Book in Heaven, from the hand of Him who sat on the Throne, but here on Earth to take that Book from the hand of the Mighty Angel who descends from Heaven.
And when he takes it in his hand, he will not pass it to another person. When he takes it in his hand, the Voice of the Lord says to him: “Put it in your mouth, eat it.” That is the safest place for such an important Book to be.
He had to eat that Book because he was a prophet. And since he was a prophet, then he had to eat that Book in order to be able to speak according to what he had eaten. And “man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
There you can see a man, a prophet, eating the Word of God, the Book of God; and with that he feeds his belly. In his mouth it is sweet but in his belly it was bitter.
And then it is said to him: “It is necessary that you did that, because it is necessary that you prophesy again.”
Ah, then, if it is necessary to prophesy again…: “It is necessary that you prophesy again,” then he had prophesied before.
Who will this man be? He had prophesied before on other occasions, but it was necessary for him to prophesy again, to prophesy once more; to walk the prophetic path once more.
Who will be that man who has prophesied on other occasions and who has that appointed ministry to prophesy for the last time on Earth?
That is none other than Elijah. Elijah is that prophet who has to eat that Book, because it is his turn to prophesy again and for the last time, in his fifth ministry. He can’t prophesy of himself, he has to prophesy the Word of God.
And there we have the prophet Elijah eating the Book, being typified by John the beloved disciple when he was —in that vision— eating that Book; John typified him.
Now, we have to understand these things, because these things are what will be happening in these last days.
(…) And if the time is over when that happens, where are you going to go? Where are you going to go if the time is over when that Mighty Angel descends from Heaven?
There is a place. If time is over, then you run for eternity. If you get out of time, you get into eternity.
Then for you it is not a cause for fear that time runs out, because when time runs out, eternity is there to receive you. Eternity descends to Earth so that the children of eternity may enter eternity.
(…) His Message then, prophetic, will be a Message that will have no limits: it can be translated into as many languages as possible, and the will of God will be done; because it is for many tongues.
That Message will be the last of the messages; after that Message no other message will come; because it is the greatest Message of all messages. It is the Message that had to come last, because the Lord leaves the best wine for the last.
And just as the wine stimulates, that Message, that divine revelation that that prophet Elijah will bring, will bring such a great stimulus to those who hear it and receive it, that they will be so rejoiced, they will be so happy and content, that they will be in the glorious Jubilee that was typified by God through the feast that He gave the people of Israel to keep, called the Year of Jubilee in the fiftieth year.
Printed in Puerto Rico
1 Revelation 5:2
2 Revelation 5:5
3 Haggai 2:7