And I saw another angel ascending from the east; from the rising of the sun. Again no individual angel is particularized, though an archangel may be intended, as he has authority over the first four.
He proceeds from that quarter whence comes light; and, like the Sun of Righteousness, he rises with healing in his wings; for his mission is to render secure the servants of God. Wordsworth thinks Christ, or a messenger from Christ, is meant—a view shared by Hengstenberg; Vitringa says the Holy Ghost; Victorinus, the Prophet Elijah.
That this angel was of like nature with the first four appears probable from the words in Revelation 7:3, "till we have sealed the servants of our God." Having the seal of the living God. The sealing instrument with which they seal God's servants.
Of its nature we are told nothing beyond what is contained in Revelation 7:3. He is specially referred to as "the living God," since, by this sealing, life is imparted. We have here the shorter expression, "the living God," not, as in all ether places of the Apocalypse, "him that liveth forever and ever" (see Revelation 4:9; Revelation 5:14; Revelation 10:6; Revelation 15:7).
And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels (cf. Revelation 1:10; Revelation 5:2; Revelation 6:10) to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea; that is, by letting loose the winds, as shown by Revelation 7:1 and Revelation 7:3.
Bengel and Rinck, looking only at the immediate context, thought that the hurt was done by preventing the winds from blowing on the earth and cooling it in the scorching plagues which follow (Revelation 8:7).
The trees are not mentioned, being included in the earth; and this appears to indicate that the expression, "the earth, the sea, and the trees" (Revelation 7:1 and Revelation 7:3), signifies the world in general, without being intended to represent individual parts, as the great men, etc.
(see on Revelation 5:1).