Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #16 of Revelation, chapter 10, and we are going to read Revelation 10:7-10:

But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. 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.

I will stop reading there.  We will continue discussing the “little book” that the Apostle John was commanded to eat and it was in his mouth sweet as honey, but made his belly bitter.  But, first, I would like to backtrack a little bit to verse 7 and mention something I did not mention earlier and which I think is pretty important.  It said in Revelation 10:7:

But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound…

I did not comment previously on the reference to “days.”  Now many theologians (and the people that follow them) believe that Judgment Day comes in a literal one-day period and they understand that it comes “at the last trump.”  For instance, the Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 4:16:

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

So, here, Christ is coming and the “trump of God” is mentioned.  Then it says in 1 Corinthians 15:52:

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

So there is a clear identification of the trumpet sound and the time of the resurrection.  The way that many churches and many theologians of the past (and even some believers) have understood it is this way: time will continue and we will just be living our lives, as normal, and then one day Christ will come and that is the “day.”  That is the end of the world, Judgment Day, the day of the resurrection of the dead and the day of the rapture and, therefore, the time when the last trumpet is blown. 

Several people that previously understood Judgment Day on May 21, 2011, have reverted to this position that you really cannot know anything in advance; then, suddenly, Christ comes and everything is done in a single day.  “After all,” they say, “the language of the Bible is ‘the day of the Lord’ or ‘Judgment Day.’”  Of course, they do not understand how God is using the word “day” there, just as He speaks of the “day of salvation” and that “day” covered hundreds and hundreds of years.  God uses “day” in other places to signify longer periods of time, such as the “day of temptation in the wilderness,” which actually lasted 40 years.  This is their understanding and they fail to “answer” a great many Scriptures with their understanding, but it seems they are no longer interested in harmonizing all the Scriptures with their understanding – it is their understanding and they hold to it and that settles it for them.

Of course, true believers are not comfortable with settling for a conclusion that fails to harmonize with other Scriptures.  And now we have another (Scripture) we can add that will not harmonize with the idea that Christ comes on a “single day” and that the last trumpet blows at that time.

The seventh trumpet in the Book of Revelation is the last trumpet.  It identifies with what 1 Corinthians 52 says:  “The trumpet shall sound.”  It is the last trumpet.  There is no other trumpet mentioned in the Book of Revelation; this is the seventh and last trumpet.  So, why the big deal?  Again, let us look at Revelation 10:7: “But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished.”  It does not say, “But in the day (singular) of the voice of the seventh angel.”  It is not singular.  It is “days,” plural.  And, therefore, you cannot understand Christ coming in a single day at the sound of the last trump, according to Revelation 10:7.  There must be a period of “days,” at least. 

Now this agrees with Mark 13:24:

But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,

Theologians and churches, likewise, teach that the Great Tribulation is the last stage of earth’s history and after the Great Tribulation, the end comes and they would point to Matthew 24:29, where it says, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened,” and they say, “See, the Great Tribulation ends, then the sun is darkened.”  And, of course, they understand this to be the literal sun because it is the tendency for professed Christians and theologians and churches to understand the Bible literally.  So, once again, they believe that immediately after the Tribulation, it is Judgment Day, in a single day, and the sun is darkened and the moon does not give its light.  But in Mark 13:24 it speaks of a period of “those days.”  It says, “But in those days, after that tribulation,” and that is “days,” plural.  It is more than one day and this agrees with Revelation 10:7: “But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound…”

If we understand 1 Corinthians 15:52 properly, where it says, “at the last trump,” it is actually a Greek preposition for “in,” and two times in this same verse, it is translated as “in.”  It actually should say, “in the last trump.”  The trumpet begins to sound and Judgment Day starts and it continues as the trumpet continues to sound, as if it is blowing one continuous blast.  Then, finally, at the end of the prolonged period of Judgment Day (in those days, after the tribulation), in the days when the seventh angel is sounding, then comes the end on the very last day, in all likelihood, on October 7, 2015, which is 1,600 days after May 21, 2011.

Well, I had failed to comment on this earlier and I just wanted to comment on this before we continue.  We had been discussing “honey,” as it says in Revelation 10:9:

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.

We already noticed how the word “sweet” relates to the Word of God and so does “honey.”  Honey is referred to many times in the Old Testament in regard to the Promised Land, a land “flowing with milk and honey.”  The honey had to do with the manna, which had the taste of wafers made with honey.  We know that the manna was a historical “type” of the Lord Jesus Christ, the bread of life and Christ is the Word made flesh.  But God gets even more specific in the Psalms, concerning what honey represents.  He says in Psalm 19:9-10:

The fear of JEHOVAH is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of JEHOVAH are true and righteous altogether.

The “judgments of JEHOVAH” is a reference to the Word of God; it is a synonym for the Word of God, the Bible.

More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.

We can see how this clearly identifies with God’s Word and, yet, there is another reference in Psalm 119 that leaves no doubt as to what is in view.  It says in Psalm 119:103:

How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Here is the association and the link between the Word of God and “honey.”  The Words of the Lord are sweet like honey to one’s taste and to one’s mouth, and that is exactly what the Apostle John is experiencing as he is commanded to eat the “little book having been open.”  This just confirms that the “little book” is, indeed the Bible, or the Word of God.

Before we return to Revelation 10, let us clarify something.  There are a couple of Proverbs which sometimes trouble people when they hear that honey represents the Word of God.  It says in Proverbs 25:16:

Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.

Also, it says in Proverbs 25:27:

It is not good to eat much honey: so for men to search their own glory is not glory.

Well, we can see why these verses might be troubling someone who hears that honey represents the Bible.  They might wonder, “If honey typifies the Word of God, why should I be limited in the amount I can eat?  God says in Proverbs 25:16: “eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.”  Why would God say it was not good to each much honey, when verse 16 says to eat only what is sufficient and do not eat too much?  The word “sufficient” is really what helps us to understand what the Lord is telling us in these verses concerning honey because we find in the New Testament that God makes a statement concerning His Word where He uses the word “sufficient.”  It says in 2 Corinthians 12:9:

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness…

That statement “My grace is sufficient for thee,” fits perfectly with the point that God makes back in Proverbs 25:16: “Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee;” that is, “Are you a hearer of God’s Word?  Are you a hearer of the Scriptures?  Then go to the Bible and partake and take it into your mouth – the sweetness of the Word of God – and eat until you find the “grace of God,” for “By grace are ye saved and that, not of yourselves.”  It is the grace that God bestows upon sinners; the grace that is the action of God in forgiving the sins of His elect.  Do not eat more than that, “lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.”  In other words, do not go to the Bible thinking that with much study and your own intellect, that you can go beyond the grace of God; or that you can understand something “better” than what the Bible declares.  In other words, do not try to come up with your own gospel – that you can add to the Word of God – and find something in God’s word that is more than “grace.”  If you do, then it would be as if you were eating overly much honey and, at the end, you will “vomit it” and you will be left with no honey; you will lose even what you had.  I think this is how we must understand these verses.  God is just giving us a warning.  Yes, we can search the Scriptures and there is no limit to that; there is no limit to the amount of time we should put in to read the Bible and eat the sweetness that is found therein.  However, only go to the point that is sufficient – to the “grace of God.”  Never go beyond that.  So God is using this as a picture.

Let us go back to Revelation 10:10:

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…

Again, this word “ate” is Strong’s 2719, which is most often translated as “devoured.”  There is no doubt at all that this “little book having been open” is the Bible.  It is God’s Word, His statutes and His judgments.  So John gladly eats it and it is the usual taste – it is “sweet.”  It is like a honeycomb and it is wonderful for the one who is eating it.

…and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.

Here comes the big question: why did the Word of God turn the Apostle John’s belly “bitter”?  Why would that happen?  When we look up this word “bitter” in the New Testament, it is only found four times: twice it is used here in verses 9 and 10; and once in Colossians, where God is speaking to husbands and He tells them not to be “bitter” against their wives; and the fourth place is in Revelations 8:11:

And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

In Revelation, chapter 8, God is detailing the judgment upon the “third part,” the churches and congregations. Eleven times He mentions the “third part” that come under His wrath, which typified the “professed Christians” in the churches that identified with the true believers that had been in the churches for many centuries.  But, of course, at the time of the end, God called His people out of the midst and this left only the “professed believers” in the congregations.

Here, in Revelation 8:11, God is bringing judgment upon the “waters” and He does so through the “star called Wormwood.”  Again, it says: “the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.”  So “wormwood” made the waters “bitter.”  We have several references to “wormwood” in the Old Testament.  It says in Jeremiah 9:15-16:

Therefore thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.

Here, God is speaking of judging His own people that have gone after Balaam.  Therefore, the judgment is to feed them with “wormwood” and notice the connection to “water of gall to drink.”  We will see that “gall” comes into view in a few places as the Lord speaks of “wormwood.”  It says in Jeremiah 23:15-17:

Therefore thus saith JEHOVHA of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. Thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of JEHOVAH. They say still unto them that despise me, JEHOVAH hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.

Again, God is addressing the apostasy.  He is addressing the false gospels, the false doctrines and the false prophets within Israel and within Judah and this would, in turn, spiritually relate to God addressing the churches at the time of the end of the church age when He would begin judgment at the house of God.  We also saw, in verse 15, that it is JEHOVAH Himself that says, “I will feed them with wormwood.”  He is the one that is bringing the judgment.  For instance, it was Christ that loosed Satan in order that Satan would enter into the churches and take his seat as the man of sin and, thereby, pollute all waters in all congregations.  And it was also Christ that departed out of the midst of the churches, which immediately turned the “faithful city” into a “harlot.”  So, too, it is the action of God to bring “wormwood.” 

We find similar language in Lamentations 3 and Lamentations is a “lament” that is a result of God’s wrath upon His own people; in other words, it fits very well with the Book of Jeremiah.  Jeremiah is the prophet the Lord used to write the Book of Lamentations and it is very much in keeping with the theme of Jeremiah.  It says in Lamentations 3:15:

He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.

Then it says in Lamentations 3:19:

Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.

Again, God relates “bitterness” with wormwood and with gall, and we cannot help but think of the Lord Jesus Christ when He was upon the cross, in a Messianic Psalm, in Psalm 69:21:

They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

Then, of course, in the Book of Matthew, this is exactly what came to pass.  It says in Matthew 27:34:

They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.

Why did they give him this gall that identifies with wormwood?   The wormwood relates to “bitter” waters.  Well, from what we can understand, the “wormwood” is that which pollutes the water which God said He would feed His people with, and this has to do with the end of the blessing of salvation.  Upon Israel and Judah of old, God ceased to bless them, for those that remained in the land.  The blessing was upon those that went into captivity into Babylon.  Likewise, the verse in Revelation 8:11 is describing the Gospel waters of all the churches during the period of the Great Tribulation.  They are made “bitter” by the “wormwood.”  What does that mean?  Did they still have Bibles in the churches?  Yes, they did.  Did they still have preachers preaching in the churches?  Yes, they did, but the Gospel water was no longer able to bring eternal life – there was no one being saved in any church during the 23-year Great Tribulation period.