Tag: God’s Word is Sweet and Bitter - Revelation 6-11

Revelation 10:8-11

Then 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.” So 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.” And 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. And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”

Tag:  God’s Word is Sweet and Bitter

John the Apostle is being giving a revelation about the end of the world.   In the above text we see that he is instructed to “eat the scroll.”  The scroll is the Word of God.  We have here a picture of John’s assimilation of God’s Word into his life.   He has two, completely different, emotions.   He first tastes God’s Word and has a sense of sweetness.  It is, after all, God’s Word.  John tastes and like the Psalmist, it is sweet:

Psalms 119:103

How sweet are your words to my taste,

sweeter than honey to my mouth!

That is how God’s Word should be for the believer.   We ought to desire God’s Word, more than our necessary food:

Job 23:12

I have not departed from the commandment of his lips;

I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.

Yet, also, God’s Word is bitter to John.  John is seeing, through God’s vision, the destruction of unbelievers and the judgement of the world’s systems.  He is seeing that those he loves, who have rejected Christ, will be destroyed.  That is bitter to him.   He sees the horrors of sin and the judgment of it.  Although he rejoices in the fact that God’s Word is being fulfilled it is still bitter and burdensome to hear.  We need to realize that God’s Word is sweet and bitter at the same time.   We can rejoice that it is fulfilled in our lives and be, at the same time, in a sense of grief over what will happen to those we love who reject Christ.