Automatic Transcript Generated
Speaker 1
Alright, so Steph is asking why did the angel in Revelations ask the apostle John to eat the scroll which turned his stomach sour?
Speaker 2
Alright, so let’s look at this revelation ten, eight to eleven, it says then the voice which I heard from him and 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. 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. 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. So we’ll talk about a little bit what the honey and bitterness means. But if we go to the next verse, it explains, it gives us an idea of why to eat. The book says and he the angel said to me, you must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues and kings. So book, often we see book scroll in the Bible. It is referring to scripture or a prophecy, a vision, something from a God, a word of God.
Speaker 2
And just as you see there, it says you must go and prophesy again. So John is taking something in and then turning in bitter sweet as honey, though, and then he needs to go prophesy again. So Psalm 119 so Psalm 119, verse 103 says how sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. So here God’s word is being compared to honey. And if we go to Proverbs 25 verse 16, it says so Proverbs 25 verse 16, it says if you find honey, eat only as much as you need lest you be filled with it and vomit, right? So things that are sweet, you can only take so much in before you head it up.
Speaker 1
It’s so true. And honey is so sweet. Man, I can only eat a little at a time or I just feel sickly from it.
Speaker 2
And I have to say when I study the Bible, there’s times where I’m like, oh wow, God, you just blew my mind. I cannot read anymore. I have to meditate and digest this so it really can be relatable there. And then Proverbs 27 seven, it says one who is full honey from the comb, but to a hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet also. I think, you know, it’s like when we first encounter the Gospel, right? It tastes sweet. And God’s word is just so wonderful you want to take it all in. But then you do reach a point in your experience where suddenly these things might become bitter. And usually that bitterness is not necessarily the message itself. But now you’re seeing the world totally differently. Your worldview changes. Everything that you thought was good, you’re now realizing is evil. And you start also realizing how terrible of a person you are and how far we fall from the glory of God, how loving he is compared to how selfish and self serving we are.
Speaker 1
I call it spiritual indigestion. You get too much sometimes. It’s like you take in too much at once. You can get spiritual indigestion because it’s like, if that’s reality, which is God’s reality, how do we live that way in this world? How do we function in accordance with that when this world is so opposite of that?
Speaker 2
Yeah. And what makes it even more of a challenging is once you have this word, god usually wants you to go and share it, which then brings further difficulty to it. And this is a good segue to Ezekiel three, starting at verse one. And here we see a similar story. And in fact, just about everything in the Book of Revelation has its tie back to something in the Old Testament. Most of the imagery is not original to Revelation. So check this out. Maybe Wendy, would you like to read it?
Speaker 1
Moreover, he said to me, son of man, eat what you find. Eat this scroll and go speak to the House of Israel.
Speaker 2
And next slide, we’re going to go to verse nine.
Speaker 1
So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that scroll. And he said to me, son of man, feed your belly and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you. So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness. Then he said to me, son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them. For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the House of Israel. Not too many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language whose words you cannot understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you. But the House of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to me. For all the house of Israel are impudent and hard hearted. Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces and your forehead strong against their foreheads. Got to bang heads like adamant stone, harder than flint. I have made your forehead. Do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.
Speaker 2
Think about rebellion. Here we see Ezekiel taking in the scroll. And how did it taste to him?
Speaker 1
Sweet at first.
Speaker 2
Sweet, he says. Tasted sweet in his mouth. And then what happens next? It’s hard when you’re reading. It tastes sweet. And then God says, I want you now to go and speak to Israel. You need to go prophesied Israel. You need to now go call them out. You need to share the word, the gospel a form message with Israel. So this is now where Zekel, probably his stomachs drop in and he’s like, oh, man, these people aren’t going to like this. This isn’t going to go well. And God says they’re going to have tough foreheads. I’m going to give you a tough forehead, too, but you’re going to butt heads and it’s not going to be fun, it’s not going to be enjoyable. But sometimes that has to happen, right? Someone has to get God’s word out there. Someone has to say, hey, everybody, we need to end this party here because this party is dangerous. This party is leading us to rebellion against God. We’re like a car that’s like heading straight to a cliff and we’ll go over. We got to turn around quick. That’s what these prophets do.
Speaker 1
What’s so interesting about this? I mean, this is a lay person being called by God to go confront the holy people with the word of God.
Speaker 2
And Ezekiel might be a priest, okay, I can’t say totally layperson, but still.
Speaker 1
Certainly a lesser in the hierarchy. There not a king, right, and going to confront the nation that is supposedly representing God’s holy word, but going and being sent to them like they’re supposed to be the representation of it. So they’re like, you know, we’re the.
Speaker 2
Church, we’re God’s people, we’re awesome, we’re saved.
Speaker 1
And they have a way of operating. They have a culture about them. Ezekiel is going in and saying, that’s not God’s culture, that’s not God’s way. He’s rebuking basically what they’re doing.
Speaker 2
Yeah, exactly. And it’s sort of a similar thing, I think, that John is being called to do in Revelation. You’re going to have to prophesy to the world, even to God’s people. In fact, Revelation is telling you a lot of God’s people are in this system called Babylon, where they’re being called into a system of false worship. Many of these people think they’re doing right or they just don’t know better. And someone has to go and call them out. Someone has to tell them, hey, guys, what you’re doing is wrong. God really loves you and God wants you to be in. Thank you.
For full episode:
https://youtu.be/a8phIvwjYtU
Share this video with a friend:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAS_TS61Rdw
In His Service
BibleAsk Team
