Revelation Now :

Daily Devotional Bible Studies in Revelation

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The Little Scroll as Sweet as Honey : Day 40

Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me once more: "Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land." So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, "Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey." I took the little scroll from the angel's hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. Then I was told, "You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings." (Revelation 10:8 to 11)

The Little Scroll

The prophet Ezekiel had a vision like John to eat a scroll filled with judgments. John is given a little scroll containing a final revelation of judgment which tasted as sweet as honey in his mouth, but it is bitter in his stomach. The word for "little scroll" is an unusual one not found elsewhere until this time. This small book is open for all to read its contents. "The little scroll" when eaten is both sweet and sour. God's Word is sweet to believers because it brings encouragement, but it sours our stomach because of the coming judgment it contains. If we knew the future today it might seem initially sweet but it would also contain bitterness for us. God knows our needs better than we know them ourselves.

We note how twice the prophet is told to "take the roll". It is not handed to him; even when he asks the angel to give it to him, the answer is that he must take it. The meaning is that God's revelation is never forced on anyone, they must take it.

This picture comes from the experience of Ezekiel who was told to eat the roll and to fill his belly with it (1). In both pictures the idea is the same. The messenger of God has to take God's message into his very life and being.

The sweetness of the roll is a recurring thought in Scripture. To the psalmist the judgments of God are sweeter than honey and the honey-comb (2). "How sweet are thy words to my taste! sweeter than honey to my mouth" (3). Behind these words lies a pleasant Jewish educational custom. When a Jewish boy was learning the alphabet, it was written on a slate in a mixture of flour and honey. He was told what the letters were and how they sounded. After the original instruction, the teacher would point at a letter and would ask: "What is that and how does it sound?" If the boy could answer correctly, he was allowed to lick the letter off the slate as a reward! When the prophet and the psalmist speak about God's words and judgments being sweeter than honey, it may well be that they were thinking of this custom.

To John, the roll was sweet and bitter at the same time. What he means is this. A message of God may be to a servant of God at once a sweet and bitter thing. It is sweet because it is a great thing to be chosen as the messenger of God; but the message itself may be a foretelling of doom and, therefore, a bitter thing. So for John it was an infinite privilege to be admitted to the secrets of heaven but at the same time it was bitter to have to forecast the time of terror, even if triumph lay at its end.

Meditation

How do you feel when something you thought was good turns out to be bad?

Prayer

"How sweet the name of Jesus sounds, In a believer's ear,

It sooths his sorrows, Heals his wounds, And drives away his fears" (4)

Notes

(1) Ezekiel 3:1, 3 (2) Psalm 19:10 (3) Psalm 119:103 (4) John Newton

"The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place."

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