Rev. 10:8-11 (ESV)
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." [9] 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." [10] 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. [11] And I was told, "You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings."
Read, mark and inwardly digest, It is the task that Christians have when it comes to God’s word. Before you begin to preach God’s word you must study it in depth and apply it to yourself. There aren’t many things I look forward to more in my day than reading God’s word. Studying God’s word, often it is so sweet. But then there is a bitterness to it as the law has its way with my old Adam. So it is when preached. It does not do much for winning friends and influencing people. It can be a lonely road.
John here eats the scroll, it is sweet to his taste, but it churns in his stomach. Digesting it applying it to himself, wrestling with what this means for him and the world he lives in is bittersweet at best.
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