5And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven 6and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay, 7but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.
8Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” 9So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” 10And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. 11And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”
5And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven 6and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay, 7but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.
This gives us a glimpse of what is coming up as we see another aspect of what we have seen when this Angel has appeared
This mighty Angel raised his right hand to heaven
By the way, this is where we get our ritual of taking an oath and swearing to tell the truth
This Angel swears by God, the One Who created everything
At first glance, this seems odd
Christ, the Creator, God in flesh, swearing by Himself?
We learn this mystery in the book of Hebrews 6:13
When God wanted to swear an oath to Abraham that He would keep His promises to him, we are told that because He could swear by no greater, He swore by Himself
This is what we are seeing here
There will no longer be any more delay
The mystery of God is about to be fulfilled
8Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” 9So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” 10And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.
The Angel hands John a little scroll
Is this opened scroll the very same scroll that Jesus took from the Father?
Or is this a different one?
Now there is a doctrine that is believed by most Western Christians that any pre-New Testament appearance of Yahweh on the earth is actually the pre incarnation of Jesus
While that could be possible, especially with some of the names given to the unidentified man in the Old Testament, it seems that this Angel of Yahweh is not either the Father nor the Son but an outward presence of both, especially since now we see them back together in Heaven and here the angel is representing Jesus
The Greek word for this little scroll is “Bibliaridion,” and means “Very small book,” as opposed to the word used to describe the scroll, or book, with seven seals, which is “Biblion”
The picture of this is that by ingesting this scroll, John is taking in this oracle in order to be able to prophesy about its contents
It was sweet because it is the Word of the Lord but turns sour when John realizes that it has some ghastly content
Often, like here, God will demand strange things from the prophet, as we see in Ezekiel, in order to create a living illustration of the divine message
Hoshea was commanded to marry a prostitute and then have three children with her, each to be given a name that symbolized how God intended to deal with Israel
The Jews study and interpret Scripture, especially prophetic texts, on many levels
They speak of these levels using terms such as:
P’shat – Plain and literal
Sod – Mysterious, secret, and hidden
In the Old Testament, the sort of symbolic illustrations, as seen with John but especially Hosea, that involve an action of some sort by Prophets is called “‘Ot”
A dramatic, sometimes bizarre, enactment designed to make an emphatic point
‘Ot is used especially by Ezekiel and his prophecies heavily influenced the book of Revelation
Some claim that this ordeal that John has just gone through symbolizes the sweetness of sin and the bitter pain from the outcome
Job 20
12Though evil is sweet in his mouth,
Though he hides it under his tongue,
13though he is loath to let it go
and holds it in his mouth,
14yet his food is turned in his stomach;
it is the venom of cobras within him.
15He swallows down riches and vomits them up again;
This would symbolize how mankind has turned from God and not just Israel
And at the same time it calls to mind how God is dealing with Israel caught in the act of adultery
This ‘Ot is slightly similar to the ritual of Numbers 5
It is the law of testing a woman accused of adultery by means of the ordeal of bitter water.
The ater ordeal for the woman accused of adultery went like this:
first the local court would question her and if she wouldn’t confess she was sent to the East Gate of the Temple.
There a priest (often the High Priest) would perform the ceremony found in Numbers 5.
At the gate she was shamed and publicly humiliated. A special offering of barley, the food of animals and of the very poor, was given to her.
The High Priest took dust from the Temple floor and mixed it with a cup of water taken from the laver where the priests and Levites would wash their feet and hands before performing their Temple duties.
A curse upon her is written on a scroll, along with God’s name, and then the ink is washed off into the cup
Wormwood and some bitter herbs were added to the mix and the priest had the woman swear an oath.
Then she drank the bitter water.
If she was guilty then her belly would swell up. If innocent, nothing bad happened.
The Jewish audience of the time in the churches would have noticed this immediately
The symbolism here of eating the scroll or the word of God is also a way of taking the truth and making it personal
It is now assimilated and becoming part of you
When John eats the scroll it is a symbol that he is taking it into himself and becoming personally involved with it
We see almost the same thing in Ezekiel chapters two and three
Ezekiel 2:9-3:3 NIV
Then I looked, and I saw a hand stretched out to me. In it was a scroll, which he unrolled before me. On both sides of it were written words of lament and mourning and woe.
And he said to me, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel.”
So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. Then he said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.”
So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth
Ezekiel was sent to deliver the message to Israel
Later in the chapter he says:
Ezekiel 3:14 NIV
The Spirit then lifted me up, and I went In bitterness and in the anger of my spirit with the strong hand of the Lord upon me
Ezekiel experienced what John is experiencing here
The prophecy tasted sweet at first
We taste the sweet promises of God as to exactly how He will work His will and purpose in this world, the mercy and judgment of perfect justice
Though, as we take it in and assimilate this word, becoming personally involved, it begins to become sour
We begin to understand how we are personally involved, not only in the outcome but in the need for judgments as well
We are overjoyed to see God deal with an ungodly world up until we realize from these sweet promises that we also have some things that we need to let go of and learn if we are to be a part of God’s plan
We have things that we hide in our hearts that need to be ripped away
There are biases, pet sins, and attitudes that need to be put away
We think of sin as a mistake but in actuality, any kind of sin is active rebellion and God wants us to be part of His program; not outside of it because of rebellion
This is where the word becomes sour; when we are affected by it, when it becomes part of us and just like the act of metabolism in our bodies, it becomes part of us
It shows in our lives and we flinch when the Word touches us personally
We discover that we aren’t as holy and godly as we once thought
We realize that we need to change because we were only listening to ourselves and not God
We must allow this Word to burrow into the deepest darkest parts of our hearts and change us
This is what is happening to John right here in chapter 10
He ate the scroll and it was sweet in his mouth but turned sour in his stomach
Other parallels to this are found in the book of Jeremiah
Jeremiah 15:16-17
“Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart….
You filled me with anger.”
The LXX has the word “Pikria,” or “Bitterness” instead of “anger or indignation” as some translations do
But then, and only then was he given a new assignment
11And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”
In Greek, he says “They said unto me,”
Who were They?
John doesn’t tell us but some speculate that it is the mighty angel while others say that it might have been the four living creatures
And he will do just that in the next couple of chapters as we see God and the Lamb serve judgment and justice in the chapters to come
Many commentators agree that this small scroll is the Book of Revelation being added to the Canon and being given to John to write
Walking by Faith 