Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #17 of Revelation, chapter 10, and we are going to read Revelation 10:10-11:

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 were looking at the word “honey” in our last study and we saw how God ties that word together with His Word, the Bible.  His Book, the Bible, is “sweet as honey,” as we read in Psalm 19, verses 9 and 10, and also in Psalm 119.  Let us read this verse in Psalm 119, again, because it is probably the best verse in the Bible to show this.  It says in Psalm 119:103:

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

God’s people read the Bible and, of course, we do not literally “eat” the Word.  We read God’s Word or hear it with our ears, but, spiritually, God likens it to the taste of “sweetness” or to a honeycomb.  For instance, Jeremiah the prophet states in Jeremiah 15:16:

Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O JEHOVAH God of hosts.

The words that God gave to Jeremiah were very grievous.  They were full of lamentation and woe and it had to do with the judgment of God upon His own people.  So, too, we are reading words of judgment in Revelation 10.  Keep in mind that this is set in the context of the “second woe,” and in Revelation 10:13, the sixth angel sounded and it was this “second woe,” and this went on into Revelation 11, where we are reading information regarding that “second woe.”  God, of course, has the ability to go back in time or to discuss other things within the context of the “second woe,” but Revelation 10 is a chapter that focuses on Judgment Day.  Revelation 10, verses 10 and 11, which we just read, are the main point of the entire chapter – the “eating” of the “little book having been open,” the Bible, is “sweet” to the mouth of John (who typifies the believers), as all the Word of God is “sweet,” even if they are words of judgment, as they were with the prophet Jeremiah.  They rejoiced his heart and this is the nature of the child of God.  We love receiving the Word of God, even when the subject matter is sometimes unpleasant; and sometimes it is so very sorrowful and grievous.  That was the case with Jeremiah and it is the case with this information concerning the judgment of this world.  This is why it is “sweet,” on the one hand, but then it went on to say: “as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.”

We also spent some time looking at the word “bitter” and we saw how it does relate to “wormwood” in Revelation 8:10-11:

And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; 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.

We followed the word “wormwood” into the Old Testament, in the Book of Jeremiah and also in Lamentations, where God speaks of giving “wormwood” to the false prophets of Judah.  He gave them “wormwood,” or that which is “bitter.”  He also identified it with giving them “gall” to drink and it points to God allowing their gospel to be turned into a gospel which cannot save.  That is exactly what is happening in Revelation 8, verses 10 and 11, with the judgment of God upon the “third part” of the rivers and the fountains of waters – the Gospel waters – which had been abundantly flowing from the churches of the world and which God used to save the firstfruits throughout the period of the church age were now polluted.  They became “bitter” water.

This picture (except in reverse) can be seen in Exodus when the Israelites had come out of Egypt and, of course, they required water.  There was a desperate need for water and we read in Exodus 15:22-23:

So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.

Here, we have the Israelites coming upon a water hole that is already bitter and they are thirsty.  As a matter of fact, they must have been extremely thirsty, wandering under the hot sun for three days, with no water.  Just think of not drinking any water or liquid for three days when you are out in the sun and the sun is beating down upon you.  You would be very desperate for a drink of water.  Yet, despite that desperation, when they come to a place where there was “bitter” water (Marah), they could not drink: “They could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter,” so “bitter” water does not provide a solution to thirst.  Remember the problem of mankind is a lack of thirsting after righteousness.  Only the elect are provided with that kind of thirst and only the true Gospel of the Bible that God has ordained can satisfy the thirst which God instills within His elect people that “hunger and thirst after righteousness.”  If everything is in its proper time and season, God satisfies that thirst with salvation, as the Lord Jesus Christ becomes the righteousness of the saints.  As it says in Romans, “By the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous,” and, spiritually, this satisfies the thirst of a sinner.

But when there is a time of famine (not a famine of bread and water, but of hearing the words of the Lord), then the thirst cannot be quenched.  When water is “bitter,” it does nothing; it cannot take away the thirst.  Now, in the case of Exodus 15, it goes on to say in Exodus 15:24:

And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto JEHOVAH; and JEHOVAH shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,

In this historical incident, the “bitter” waters were turned to sweet through the casting of a tree into the waters.  Spiritually, the tree would relate to the cross, as the Bible tells us that the Lord Jesus was hanged on a tree.  It is Christ that turns the water into “sweet” water that can satisfy thirst through the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ as He hung upon the tree from the foundation of the world.  “Hanging on a tree” is just language to indicate that one becomes  cursed of God and Christ was cursed from the foundation of the world.  Therefore, spiritually, it was at that point that He hung upon a tree.  And the casting of that atoning work of Christ into the waters purifies it and sweetens it, allowing the Israelites to have their thirst quenched.  It is a wonderful picture of the Gospel.

In Revelation 8, it is the end of the church age and the end of the waters that had been flowing forth.  Now it is time to “cut off” those waters, so the waters are made bitter.  But, in our verse in Revelation 10, it is not the church that is in view; God has already addressed that with the judgment on the “third part” and the judgment on their rivers and fountains of water; they were turned and made “bitter.”  You cannot drink bitter water and if you cannot drink it, you will remain thirsty; you will remain in need of “righteousness.”  This is what it is really pointing to.  There is no imputed righteousness to the sinner that is given bitter water to drink.

As soon as John ate the little book it was sweet as honey, but his belly was made “bitter.”  Why is this word used?  This is talking about a book and what does the book have to do with water?  Well, again, we know that “the little book having been open” is the Bible and the Bible is what really brings the spiritual waters of the Gospel into the world.  But, what about John’s belly?  Why is it referring to John’s belly? 

Before we try to answer that, let us go back to the Book of Ezekiel, where we are going to see that Ezekiel did something very similar to what the Apostle John did.  Let us look at Ezekiel 2:8-10:

But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee. And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein; And he spread it before me; and it was written within and without: and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.

Then it goes on to say, in Ezekiel 3:1-3:

Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll. And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.

Here, we have very similar language.  Of course, the roll is pointing to the Scriptures in ancient times when God would move a prophet of old to record and write His Word directly from His mouth and they would write it down upon a “roll” or a “scroll.”  It would literally roll up.  Much of the Bible was written upon a scroll.  Here, the roll represents the Word of God, the Bible, and it is presented to Ezekiel and God commands him to eat the roll and to go speak unto the house of Israel.  Just as the Apostle John was obedient, Ezekiel was obedient: “So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll. And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.” 

If we had read Ezekiel, chapter 2, we would have seen that Ezekiel is commanded to stand upon his feet and the Spirit of the Lord entered into him and then he began to speak and pronounce condemnation against the rebellious nation of Israel.  This identifies with the time when the “two witnesses” stood upon their feet.  The “two witnesses” represent the Word of God and during the first part of the Great Tribulation; they were lying dead in the streets for “three and a half days,” which ties into the 2,300 evening mornings; then they stood upon their feet in September of 1994, as God began to, once again, evangelize the world with the Gospel.  So, too, Ezekiel was commanded to stand upon his feet and to pronounce condemnation on the house of Israel.  Likewise the true believers, as God’s word instructed us, shared the message that the judgment was upon the churches, the rebellious house.

So these passages in Ezekiel 2 and Ezekiel 3 identify with God’s judgment on the churches and God is commanding Ezekiel to eat the roll.  Ezekiel does so and it is sweet in his mouth and then we find in Ezekiel 3:4-5:

And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them. For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel;

The “house of Israel” is mentioned a few more times and it is mentioned, again, in verse 9, just so we know it is the corporate body, the church, that is being referred to as the “house of Israel.”  It says in Ezekiel 3:9:

As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.

God is instructing Ezekiel to “stand upon thy feet,” and to go forth.  “To stand upon thy feet” points to being sent with a message from God, the Word of God.  Part of the message had to do with the declaration that Israel was a “rebellious house.”

Then it says in Ezekiel 3:14:

So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of JEHOVAH was strong upon me.

And, here, we find the “bitterness,” just as John’s belly was made “bitter.”  The little book was sweet to John’s mouth, but it made his belly “bitter.”  Likewise, Ezekiel has a “bitter” message for the house of Israel: God has forsaken you; the Holy Spirit has come out of the midst; the Lord Jesus Christ has abandoned you.  Furthermore, God has loosed Satan to enter into the churches.  The abomination of desolation stands in the holy place.  The man of sin has taken his seat in the temple.  The beast has risen up out of the sea and all whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life (from the foundation of the world) shall worship him in the churches and outside of the churches, all unsaved people that bear the mark “666,” the number of man, will serve the image and worship the beast. 

All of this is such ugly language, so no wonder it was “bitterness” to Ezekiel’s spirit; it was an extremely sorrowful message that God unearthed in His Word when He opened the Scriptures to reveal that He no longer identified with the churches and congregations of the world; they no longer represented Him; they were no longer His ambassadors to the people of the world.  So, we can see, when you “eat the roll” and it leaves “bitterness” or your belly is “bitter” as a result of devouring the Word of God, this brings a message of God’s judgment and that message has to do with the removal of the blessings and the removal of God’s Spirit.

Let us turn to John 7 and John 7 is going to tell us why God is focused on the Apostle John’s belly.  It says in John 7:37-38:

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Here is the connection between the “belly” and the “waters.”  Remember we saw that the word “bitter,” in Revelation 8, had to do with the rivers and fountains of water that were turned “bitter” in the churches. 

But God is not using the language of the “third part” in Revelation 10, but He is using John, who represents all true believers in the Day of Judgment, and John has the Holy Spirit within Him.  Therefore, John as, as it were, has rivers of living water flowing out of his belly, as all of God’s people do, because the Holy Spirit is the essence of the water of life.  The Lord Jesus Christ is the essence of the Gospel water and it comes forth naturally out of the redeemed sinner who has been born again and given the Spirit of God. 

Here, when the child of God eats the Word of God and it is “sweet” to our taste, then it ought to flow forth out of us through the Holy Spirit which God has given us.  In other words, it ought to flow forth from our belly.  There are a few verses in the Old Testament where “belly” is identified with soul and spirit.  So we eat of God’s Word; that is, we learn the truth of the Bible and then we share it.  That is the process God has developed.  However, in the Day of Judgment, God’s people are living on the earth and continue to read the Bible and to devour the Word of God, yet, what happened to the “water of life” that all through history had flowed out of their bellies to be a blessing to others?  Well, their belly is made “bitter,” just as the waters in the churches were made “bitter,” but, here, it is not referring to the corporate body, but to the belly of the true believers where the Holy Spirit resides.  How could that water be made “bitter”? 

The only answer is one that is becoming all too familiar.  We find it at just about every turn, as we search the Bible concerning Judgment Day and the wrath of God.  The answer is that the Gospel water that the true believers would bring with gladness is now made bitter.  We had gladly carried the “water buckets” as servants of God that ministered to the congregations.  As the rich man desired that Lazarus dip the tip of his finger in the water and bring him a drop to drink, we would gladly bring much more than a drop.  But all water (the purest water that comes forth from the Holy Spirit and God Himself) that comes from the Word of God, the Bible, is now made bitter, because it cannot satisfy the thirsty sinner – the sinner that hungers and thirsts after righteousness.  There is no longer imputed righteousness and there is no longer salvation: the righteous will be righteous still and the filthy will be filthy still.  There will be no conversion and no repentance from the heart – no salvation – and, therefore, all water that flows from the bellies of God’s elect to those that are unsaved is but “bitter” water.