Read with Me
Revelation 10:8-11 (NET)
Then the voice I had heard from heaven began to speak to me again, “Go and take the open scroll 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 the scroll and eat it. It will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.” So, I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it, and it did taste as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter. Then they told me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.”
Listen with Me
The angel’s primary mission was to deliver to John the small scroll that he held in his hand (verse 2). Jesus commanded John to take the scroll from the angel’s hand. John was justifiably intimidated by this huge and fearsome looking being. So, rather than taking the scroll, he asked the angel to hand it to him.
But the angel refused. The reason was two-fold. First, the Lord’s instruction to John was not to ask for the scroll, but to take it from the angel’s hand. The angel was not going to allow him to sidestep that clear command. But the second reason was that the scroll was more than just a message; it was a mission. And missions from the Lord cannot be forced on someone. They are offered and must be willingly and willfully taken up by those accepting them.
In John’s case, the mission was to act as a prophet, to not only see this vision and write it down, but to communicate it clearly and boldly to all who were intended to receive it. In this, as in much of this revelation, there are clear echoes of Ezekiel, his visions, and his mission. Ezekiel had also been given a scroll to eat by the Lord (Ezekiel 3:1-3), although in that instance he was fed the scroll instead of having to take it. And like John, the scroll was sweet in his mouth as he ate it.
This is symbolic of the Lord “feeding” his word to the prophet, so that when the prophet speaks, he is not saying his own words, but the words that God put into his mouth (2 Peter 1:20-21). Like Ezekiel, John took the scroll and ate it. And even though the words of the Lord were sweet in his mouth, the import of those words, the wrath and judgment and death they foretold and that were an absolute certainty, made his stomach sour.
Pray with Me
Father, this commissioning of John, not as merely an apostle but as a prophet, is fascinating, as are the clear parallels with Ezekiel’s mission and vision. It is a fearsome thing to be called and used by the Lord. That is true whether one is called to be a prophet, a pastor, a missionary, or even a Sunday School teacher, an usher, or a participant on a worship team. If the calling is from you, it must be accepted willingly and willfully, and then worked wholeheartedly. Lord, help me to do all that You have called me to do with all my heart, every day. Amen.