We had seen the sounding of the sixth judgment last time. We have this magnificent, powerful angel show up and he has already done a few things. One thing we saw in Revelation 10:2 was that he had in his hand a book. So, we know that book is there, but we haven’t heard much about what is in the book.
That gets picked up in Revelation 10:8 and he says, “Then the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me and saying, ‘Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land.’” Now he is instructed to go and get that book from this angel. So he does. “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.” Did he actually eat the book? Was it symbolic or physical? I believe it is symbolic, but I don’t think we need to get too concerned about that. It is not totally unusual for this to happen. This harkens back to the book of Ezekiel. Let’s look at Ezekiel 2:8 where he had a similar command given to him, “Now you, son of man, listen to what I am speaking to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you.” So, he wants him to eat something. Then down to Ezekiel 3:1 it says, “Then He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth and He fed me this scroll. He said to me, “Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you.” Then I ate it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth.” As you can see, we have a very similar picture here. Again, whether Ezekiel is having a vision and if it was symbolic of something we are not one hundred percent sure. We do know what it is about: by eating this scroll, he is now going to be able to proclaim the very words of God. That is the symbolism behind this. Ezekiel is going to go forth and proclaim the words of God. These are not Ezekiel’s words. He is a prophet, and he is preaching the words of God and he has eaten this scroll. It says here that it was, “sweet as honey in my mouth,” and we saw the bitterness of the scroll in Revelation. Go to Ezekiel 3:6 right in the middle it says, “But I have sent you to them who should listen to you.” The verse is saying, I am going to send you with My Word. You have eaten that scroll, you have eaten the book, you have My Word so I am going to send you out and they should listen to you. He is talking about Israel. That they should listen. Looking at Ezekiel 3:7 he says, “yet the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, since they are not willing to listen to Me.” He warns his prophet as he goes forth that as he preaches the very words of God that has been given to him, even in this symbolism having been fed to him, he is going to go out and preach and Israel will not be willing to listen to him. Israel should listen. Israel are the chosen people of God. They have had the law, they have had the prophets, they have had all sorts of benefits as the people of God, but they are in exile, most of them at this time, due to their rebelliousness, and they are still rebelling against the word of God. So, when the word of God goes forth from Ezekiel, they’re being told here that they ought to listen to him. The prophecy that had been given before had been fulfilled. The word of God has been true to them, and they should listen, but He says they will not listen to you because they are in rebellion . . .
