The Bittersweet Commission Text: Revelation 10:8-11
Introduction: The Prophetic Calling
We come now to an interlude in the book of Revelation, a pause between the sixth and seventh trumpets. But this is no lull in the action. This is a commissioning. This is the part of the story where the messenger is called, equipped, and sent. The modern church has a tendency to treat prophecy as something spooky and strange, relegated to late-night television specials and convoluted charts. We think of it as something to be decoded, like a puzzle, rather than a word to be eaten, digested, and proclaimed.
But in the Scriptures, prophecy is not a spectator sport. It is a contact sport. A prophet is not someone who merely reads the mail; he is someone who must deliver it. And as we see here with John, and with Ezekiel and Jeremiah before him, delivering God's mail is a bittersweet business. The prophet is called to internalize the message of God so completely that it becomes a part of him. He must feel its sweetness and its bitterness in his own gut before he can declare it to the nations.
This passage is intensely personal for John, but it is also paradigmatic for the Church. We are a prophetic people. We have been given the word of God, the scroll of His testimony. And we are called to do the same thing John does here. We are to take it, eat it, and then speak it. We are to find it sweet to our souls, because it is the word of our gracious King. And we are to find it bitter in our bellies, because that same word pronounces judgment on a rebellious world that we are called to love and evangelize. If the Word of God is all sweetness and light to you, with no bitterness, you have not digested it properly. And if it is all bitterness and wrath, with no sweetness, you have not tasted it rightly. The Christian life, and the prophetic task of the Church, is to live in the tension of this bittersweet reality.
So let us attend to this commissioning. Let us see what it means to be a people who have eaten the book. For we too must prophesy again, and the world is waiting, whether it knows it or not, for the bittersweet word of the King.
The Text
Then the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me, and saying, “Go, take the scroll which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.” So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little scroll. 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.” And I took the little scroll 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 about many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.”
(Revelation 10:8-11 LSB)
Taking the Word (v. 8-9a)
The scene begins with a divine command, a voice from heaven that John has heard before.
"Then the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me, and saying, “Go, take the scroll which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.” So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little scroll." (Revelation 10:8-9a)
Notice the posture of the prophet. He is a hearer and a doer. The voice from heaven speaks, and John moves. There is no hesitation. This is the pattern of faith. But notice also what he is commanded to do. He is to go and take the scroll. This is not a passive reception. God does not simply drop the scroll into his lap. John must act. He must approach this mighty angel, this terrifying figure with a face like the sun and feet like pillars of fire, and ask for the scroll. Faith is not passivity; it is active obedience in response to God's command.
The scroll is described as "open." This is significant. The great scroll of destiny in chapter 5 was sealed with seven seals, and only the Lamb was worthy to open it. But this little scroll is already open. The plan is revealed. God is not hiding His purposes. The mystery of God is being finished. And this open scroll is held by an angel who has one foot on the sea and one on the land, signifying total authority over the whole earth under Christ. The message John is about to receive is not a provincial word for a few scattered churches. It is a global word, a word that lays claim to every square inch of the planet.
John's simple request, "give me the little scroll," is a model for us. We are to desire the word of God. We are to approach Him boldly and ask for it. "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law" (Psalm 119:18). God is not reluctant to give us His word. The angel does not refuse. But we must go and ask. We must show up. We must open the book. We must approach the throne of grace to receive our commission.
Eating the Word (v. 9b-10)
The angel's response is peculiar, but it is deeply rooted in the Old Testament prophetic tradition.
"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.” And I took the little scroll 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." (Revelation 10:9b-10)
This is a direct echo of the prophet Ezekiel's commissioning. In Ezekiel 2 and 3, God commands him to eat a scroll filled with "lamentations and mourning and woe." And when Ezekiel eats it, he says, "it was in my mouth as sweet as honey." To eat the scroll is to internalize the message. It is to assimilate it, to make it part of your very being. A true prophet, a true preacher, does not just proclaim a message that he has studied. He proclaims a message that he has eaten. It has become part of his spiritual DNA. He speaks from the overflow of a heart saturated with the Word.
Now, why is it both sweet and bitter? It is sweet in the mouth because it is the Word of God. And there is nothing sweeter. To know God, to understand His plan, to be entrusted with His truth, to see His sovereign goodness and His ultimate victory, this is the delight of the believer's soul. As the psalmist says, "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Psalm 119:103). The scroll contains the final victory of Christ and His Church. It details the establishment of His kingdom. It promises that the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. That is a sweet, sweet message.
But when it is digested, when it settles in the stomach, it becomes bitter. Why? Because this same scroll that promises the victory of God also details the judgment that must come upon the ungodly. It is a message of woe and wrath for those who persist in rebellion. The prophet who has truly eaten the book cannot be glib about judgment. He feels the bitterness of it. He weeps, as Jeremiah did, over the destruction of his people. He has the heart of Paul, who had "great sorrow and unceasing anguish" in his heart for his lost kinsmen. To delight in the damnation of others is a sign that you have not truly digested the scroll. The sweetness is the triumph of God's righteousness; the bitterness is the tragedy of man's rebellion and its awful consequences.
We must have both. The preacher who only preaches the sweetness, the positive promises, the "your best life now" pablum, has a bad case of spiritual indigestion. He has refused the bitterness. But the preacher who only preaches the bitterness, the fire and brimstone, with no joyful savor of the sweetness of grace and victory, has a diseased palate. The true messenger of God holds both in tension, because he has eaten the whole scroll.
Speaking the Word (v. 11)
The experience of eating the scroll is not an end in itself. It is the necessary preparation for the task that follows.
"And they said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.”" (Revelation 10:11)
The purpose of eating is speaking. The purpose of internalizing the Word is to externalize it in proclamation. John is recommissioned. He has already been prophesying, writing the letters to the seven churches and recording the visions of the seals and the first six trumpets. But now, having ingested this particular scroll, he is sent out again with a renewed and specific mandate.
And look at the scope of his ministry: "many peoples and nations and tongues and kings." This is the language of the Great Commission. This is the language of global dominion. The message of Revelation is not a secret code for a handful of believers hiding in a cave. It is a public proclamation to be declared before the rulers of this age. It is a covenant lawsuit served on the nations. It is the announcement that the true King has taken His throne and is putting all His enemies under His feet. And He is doing it through the prophetic testimony of His Church.
The word "about" here can also be translated "against." "You must prophesy again against many peoples..." This is not a message designed to flatter the powerful. It is a message that confronts them. It calls kings and nations to account. It warns them of judgment and calls them to bow the knee to Jesus Christ, the King of kings. This is the task of the Church in every age. We are not called to be the court chaplains, whispering sweet nothings in the ears of power. We are called to be the prophets, eating the bittersweet scroll and declaring to the peoples, the nations, the tongues, and the kings that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Conclusion: Our Bittersweet Task
So what does this mean for us, here and now? It means that if we are to be faithful, we must be a scroll-eating people. We cannot give what we have not received. We cannot declare what we have not digested. We must be men and women who are so steeped in the Scriptures that they become part of us.
And when we do this, we will find that it is sweet. It is a joy to know the story we are in. It is a profound comfort to know that our God reigns, that history is His story, and that the victory of Jesus Christ is absolutely certain. This is the sweet honey of postmillennial optimism. Not an optimism based on man's abilities, but on the unstoppable power of the gospel and the reign of the risen Christ.
But it will also be bitter. As we look at our world, at our neighbors, at our own rebellious hearts, the judgments written in the book will cause us anguish. We will grieve over sin and its devastating effects. We will not be triumphalistic in a obnoxious way, but our triumph will be seasoned with the tears of compassion. We will love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, even as we warn them of the wrath to come.
This is our commission. Take the book. Eat the book. Proclaim the book. Let its sweetness fuel your worship and your hope. Let its bitterness fuel your evangelism and your prayers. For we must prophesy again, until all the peoples and nations and tongues and kings have heard the bittersweet news that Jesus is Lord.