Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #15 of Revelation, chapter 10, and we are going to read Revelation 10:8-11:

And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

I will stop reading there.  We have been looking at Revelation 10 for several studies and now we are coming to a very interesting portion of this chapter, in verses 8 through 11.  The Lord Jesus speaks to the Apostle John and tells him to go and take the little book that is open and in the hand of the angel.  We should keep in mind that the Apostle John is a true believer and when God first came to him, it said in Revelation 1:9:

I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

So John is our brother and our “companion in tribulation,” and, therefore, he is a representative of the true believers that receive revelation at the hand of God.  We have an illustration of this in Revelation 10:8, where John is commanded to “go” and that is a command.  It is in the “aorist imperative active command” tense.  When an imperative command is given in the “aorist tense,” it means things that must begin at that moment.  This is a command for John to go do this now: take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel that standeth upon the sea and upon the earth and this is referring to what we read earlier in this chapter, in Revelation 10:2:

And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,

The “mighty angel” that came down from heaven is the Lord Jesus Christ.   When we look at the original Greek, we realize that the “little book open” is stated in a “tense” that really ought to read: “And he had in his hand a little book having been open.”  It refers to the fact that the Bible, which is typified by the “little book,” has been unsealed.  Earlier in Revelation, we found the Book was sealed with seven seals and then God made a big issue of emphasizing the fact that the Lamb which had been slain had prevailed to open the Book; then the Lord discussed the taking off of each one of the seals, or the opening of each seal, until the seventh seal was opened, in Revelation 8:1.  Then there was “silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.”  We discussed this and we saw how that relates to the beginning of the Great Tribulation period, wherein for the 2,300 evening mornings, the first “half” of this period (the entire Great Tribulation is pictured as “one hour”)  in which virtually no one was being saved in the world.  It is not an exact “half,” as the 2,300 days is about six years, four months and the entire Great Tribulation period continued for a full  23 years.

But God took off the seals; Christ Himself took off the seals, leaving the Bible in His hand, as Jesus had taken it from the One seated upon the throne, so it is still said to be in His hand, “a little book having been open.”  The Word of God, the Bible, is in the hand of Christ; that is, it is His will that is now being expressed and now being revealed through the opening of the Word of God. 

Then we also saw that it said, in verse 2, that He put his right foot upon the sea and his left foot on the earth.  The foot (as well as the hand) represents the “will” of whatever is in view, so this is the will of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is triumphant and has won the victory.  All have been subdued to Him and come under His dominion in the Day of Judgment.  The “sea” relates to the wicked that are like “the troubled sea,” as the Bible tells us.  The earth, likewise, relates to the unsaved individual that comes from the dust of the ground and now, finally, at the end, Christ is ruling with a rod of iron.

This is what is in view here in Revelation 10:8: “Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.”  Nothing has changed.  Jesus is still the sovereign King of kings and Lord of lords.  His rule now rules over all and all His enemies have been brought under His feet.

Then it goes on to say, in Revelation 10:9:

And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book…

Of course, normally, we would not talk that way to the Lord Jesus.  We do not give orders and we do not demand things from Him, unless God tells us to do that.  Here, the Apostle John, who represents the true believers, has been commanded: “Go and take the little book.”  So, this is a matter of obedience to God, as He has already given us our orders and John “went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give the little book,” exactly as he was commanded to do.  He is demonstrating obedience to the will of God and to what the Word of God is telling him to do.  Since the Apostle John typifies the true believers and since we know the context is Judgment Day, God’s people will be obedient to what God tells us to do.  This is the nature of the child of God, due to the fact that God has saved us and given us a new heart and a new spirit, placing within us an ongoing desire to do the will of God.  The will of God was expressed to us, also, to “take this little book,” and, immediately there is obedience on the part of John and on the part of true believers.

Again, it says in Revelation 10:9:

…Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.

Again, here is another command: “Take it, and eat it up.”  The command to “Take it,” is the same “aorist imperative active” tense, so it is something to be done right then; it must be begun at that moment.  In other words, this command of Christ to His people is not a command that has been in place for some time.  This is a command which is given in the Day of Judgment.  It is not a command that has been continuing; if that were the case, another “tense” would have been used.  It is saying, “Now, at this point, is the time to take the little book that had been open and eat it up.”  Then we find the description of what happens after it is eaten: “it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.”

Let us first look at the words “eat it up,” and then we are going to look at some of the other words, like “sweet” and “honey,” before we look at the words “belly” and “bitter.”  I think we will get further confirmation that the “little book” typifies the Bible.

What is unusual here is the word for “eat it up,” and the Greek word is Strong’s #2719 and it is found 15 times in the New Testament and 12 times out of the 15 times, it is translated as “devoured.”  Two other times are here in Revelation 10 and it is translated as “eat it up” and “ate it up.”  The only other time it is translated as “eat it up” is when the Lord Jesus speaks of the “zeal of thine house has eaten me up.”  These are the only times this word is translated as “eat it up,” but 12 other times it is translated as “devoured.”  For instance, it is translated this way in Luke, chapter 8, in the parable of the sower.  (It is also found in the Matthew and Mark accounts, but we are only going to look at this account.)  It says in Luke 8:5:

A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.

Again, this is Strong’s #2719 and it is translated as “devoured” in all three Gospel accounts and in each case, the explanation is given of what it means, in Luke 8:12:

Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

So the fowls of the air “devour” the seed (which represents the Word of God) and this is likened to the devil taking it away and there is no salvation, as a result, because the seed has been taken away.  So in all three instances, this word “devour” would fit with the same explanation.

In Luke 15, this word is used in another parable of the prodigal son.  It says in Luke 15:30:

But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.

The story of this parable is that the younger son took his inheritance and went and wasted it with riotous living.  So, here, it is said by the older son that his younger brother “hath devoured thy living with harlots.”  And it was true that everything the younger son had taken with him was gone; he had nothing left and he desired to eat of the husks he fed the swine.  He had nothing left of the substance he had taken from his father’s house, so we can see that this word “devoured” has to do with completely destroying or “eating up” something until it is all gone. 

I am not going to look at all 12 places where this word is used, but we find this word “devoured” in three different places in the Book of Revelation.  In referring to the two witnesses, it says Revelation 11:5:

And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies…

The fire would “devour” their enemies or utterly consume them.

In reference to Satan who was pursuing the Lord Jesus prior to Jesus’ birth, it says in Revelation 12:4:

And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

He wanted to utterly destroy Christ.

Finally, I will read one more verse in Revelation 20:9:

And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

Again, it is the complete destruction of Gog and Magog and the army of Satan in the Great Tribulation.   When God finally brings judgment, He destroys them.

So, we would have to acknowledge that this word is a very interesting word for God to use concerning “eating up” of the “little book,” which he commands John (who represents the true believers) to do.  Let us look at it this way: we understand the “little book” pictures the Bible and the Bible is the Word of God and the Lord Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh, but remember in the Gospel of John, where Jesus was talking to some Jews and He says, in John 6:48-51:

I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

Then at least a couple more times the word “eat” is used.  It is a very good and appropriate Greek word.  It is Strong’s #5315 and I think we would pronounce it as “pha-go.”  It is used to eat “bread” or to eat “Christ,” as He speaks of His flesh.  This is very disturbing to the Jews as they hear this because they realize this word has to do with actually eating something like bread or food. 

So, there is this word and another word which God could have used in Revelation 10 when the “little book” having been open is commanded to be eaten: “And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up, but God uses this word that means to “devour” it and one thing we can gather from this is that it means to devour it completely; there is nothing to be left and you are not to leave anything out and, perhaps, that relates to the statement in verse 7 that the “mystery of God should be finished, as He has declared to his servants the prophets.”  There will be nothing remaining and everything is to be revealed.  Perhaps, that is implied. 

Or, it could be that, as John “devours” the “little book,” it does somehow relate to the fact that the “seed” that was sown in the Gospel accounts also represent the Word and the sower is Christ, so, here, John (typifying the believers) “devours” the Word of God, just as the fowls came and “devoured” it and that pointed to “no salvation.”  This is something for us to consider and to think about, as we continue looking at the verse.  I am sure we will be able to get a better understanding of this as we continue to look at the rest of the verse, in Revelation 10:9:

Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.

Before we look at why it made his belly bitter and what that points to, let us first look at the phrase “sweet as honey.”  The word “sweet” is a word that is found four times in the New Testament: twice here in verses 9 and 10.  It is also found twice in James 3:10-11:

Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.

The word “fresh” is the identical Greek word which was translated as “sweet” in verse 11 and it should also be translated as “sweet” here: “so can no fountain both yield salt water and sweet.”

Here, God relates the word “sweet” to “water” that proceeds out of a fountain and He ties it in with blessing and cursing.  We can see, due to our familiarity with the rest of the Scriptures, that God likens His Word to a fountain or “well.”  The word translated as “fountain” is also translated as “well” in John 4, where the Lord Jesus sits at the well and meets the woman at Jacob’s well; it is the same word.  God uses the word “well” in the Old Testament to represent the “well” of salvation, the water that springs up and the water that comes forth unto eternal life; the Gospel water that flows forth from the atoning work of Jesus Christ.  God uses this kind of picture. 

God sends forth the Gospel water as a blessing and those that pollute the Gospel and pervert it by changing it into something it is not, turn it into a “curse.”  That is what happened to the churches today.  There had been blessings of God as the water of the Gospel flowed forth in the congregations of the world during the church age.  But they became “other gospels” and they became unfaithful and rebellious toward His Word and they became a curse, as God brought judgment upon them; and now all their water is become “salt water” and there is no “sweet water” in any churches in the world. 

So this is the word God is using in Revelation 10:9, where He says: “Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.”  So, we can see this word “sweet” relates to the Word of God, but what about “honey”?  Well, “honey” also ties into the Word of God.  Numerous times in the Old Testament, God speaks of the Promised Land of Canaan as a land “flowing with milk and honey.”  It is repeated again, and again, because both “milk” and “honey” represent the Word of God.

Let us just look at one verse, as we have time in this study.  This will not be looking at verses that speak of “milk and honey,” but it shows how “honey” is used in another place.  It says in Exodus 16:31:

And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna…

Remember, we just looked at John 6 a little earlier, where Jesus related the “manna” to Himself: “as the fathers ate manna in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be eaten,” and He is the Word made flesh.  It says in Exodus 16:31:

And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

God relates the word “honey” with the “manna,” as the “manna” typifies Christ and the Word of God and, therefore, we find that “honey” comes into view.

We will look at a few more verses that will clarify and prove that “honey” is a figure of the Word of God and a figure of the Bible.  Once we have proven that, we will go back and look at why it is that the “little book” (which is the Bible) was “sweet as honey,” but made his “belly bitter.”