Revelation 10:7-11
7 but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.
8 Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.”
9 So I went to the angel and said to him, “Give me the little book.”
And he said to me, “Take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.”
10 Then I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter. 11 And he said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”
Here John quite literally eats the Word of God to “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest” it. God’s Word contains both Law and Gospel, so it is both bitter and sweet. The bitterness of the Law is all the threats of judgement, and the sweetness of the Gospel is all the promises of grace through Christ in faith.
God calls and commissions John to “prophesy again”—that is, to proclaim the Law to an impenitent world, and to proclaim the Gospel to those who repent.
Let us pray: Almighty God, grant that the new birth of your only Son in the flesh may set us free from our old slavery under sin; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
