Bitterly Sweet

“So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book.  And he said to me, “Take it and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.”  I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter.  And they said to me, “You must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings”” (Revelation 10:9–11).

Perhaps you can remember eating something that tasted so good at the time but, before long, the goodness gave way to gastrointestinal distress (just a fancy way of saying “bellyache”).  I’ve been there.  Years and years ago, our family was invited to the home of some friends for dinner.  Enchiladas were on the menu and, as I recall, they were very tasty.  Later in the evening, I wasn’t feeling well and by bedtime I was violently ill.  No one else got sick so it's likely that the food wasn’t the source of my sickness but, to this day, I’ve had a difficult relationship with enchiladas.  Something that was good became bitter to me.

John had been chosen by God to be His messenger.  As a disciple of Jesus, he would have valued the word of God and the opportunity he had been given to share it.  So in that sense, the message of the “little book” was sweet to him (cf. Psalm 19:7-10; 119:97-104).  It was something that he would ingest eagerly.  But the practical consequences of what John was to share would not all be positive or “sweet.”  Many, especially the unrepentant among John’s fellow Jews, would not be eager to hear God’s word of judgment against them and they might react negatively toward him.  Even without the negative reaction, I’m guessing that John would not relish bearing bad news for his own people.  For all of these reasons, what was sweet to John would also become bitter for him.

God loves you!

Mike