And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. 

Revelation 10:10

I have engaged in a variety of conversations with friends regarding changes we experience when the Holy Spirit comes upon us.  I have heard people describe a softening of their hearts, a sense of compassion for other people they had not previously known, a desire to pray and worship they had never felt, a longing to read His holy word, and as they read His holy word, the words come to life and they understand as never before.  They suddenly or gradually, depending on the person, gain eyes to see.

This morning I was reminded of the conversations as I read Revelation.  In chapter 10, I saw this amazing scene.  While visiting heaven, John sees a being that he describes as a mighty angel holding a tiny scroll.  A voice from heaven tells John to take the scroll.  As the angel hands him the scroll, the angel tells John to eat it.  The angel says it will taste sweet like honey, but it will make his stomach bitter.  John eats it, and sure enough, it tastes sweet, but it makes his stomach bitter. The heavenly words taste sweet, but after he ingests them and they take root in his being and they permeate his body, soul and spirit, he feels sick to his stomach. 

God’s holy word is sweet, and once we taste it we want more, but through it we are transformed, and this transformation is somewhat of a double-edged sword.  God’s holy word is beautiful and when He opens our eyes to see His will, it is amazing and satisfying and wholesome; but, when our eyes are opened to see the truth of His holy word in contrast to the world in which we live, we feel sick.  It turns our stomachs.  The contrast is sickening, not because we look with scorn at souls who do not hear, see or repent, but because we love them, and we want them to taste and enjoy and experience fully the honey sweet delight that is God’s holy word.

John is not the only inspired writer of Scripture to describe God’s holy word as tasting sweet like honey.  Ezekiel records a heavenly experience very similar to John’s, and psalmists compare God’s holy word to honey.

In Psalms we see,

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul … More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.  Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.  Psalm 19:7 & 10-11

God’s holy word tastes sweet and it revives our souls, however, through it we are warned.  Once we read, see and hear God’s will through His holy word, He holds us to a higher standard.  His rewards are great, but with great reward comes great responsibility.

In Psalm 119 we see the psalmist express his love for God’s holy word.  He longs to meditate on God’s word, to understand it, and to do what God tells him to do.  However, through God’s truth, he sees the error of other ways.  God’s truth is the standard by which everything else is judged, and he grows to hate false ways.  The psalmist writes,

Oh how I love your law!  It is my meditation all the day.  Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me.  I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.  I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts.  I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word.  I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me.  How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.  Psalm 119:97-104

The psalmists reach their understanding through diligent study of God’s word and prayer and a genuine search for Him, and through His holy word they are transformed, and their eyes are opened.  They describe God’s word as tasting like honey in a figurative sense.  They do not literally place the scroll in their mouths, chew and swallow.  They consume God’s word by reading, meditating on it and praying.  This is like my experience, and likely yours.

But Ezekiel and John visited heaven where they literally ate scrolls.  They took scrolls containing God’s word, placed them in their mouths, chewed and swallowed, and they described the taste as honey.

Ezekiel has this amazing experience.  While standing near the canal, heaven opens and he sees God in all His heavenly glory, and God gives him a scroll covered front and back with words of mourning, lamentation and woe, and God tells him to eat it.  Ezekiel eats and says it tastes as sweet as honey.  Beginning with God speaking to him, Ezekiel writes,

“But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”  And when I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and behold, a scroll of a book was in it.  And he spread it before me. And it had writing on the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe. 

And he said to me, “Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and he gave me this scroll to eat.  And he said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey. Ezekiel 2:8-10 & 3:1-3

God’s words of mourning taste sweet.  Why would words of mourning, lamentation and woe taste sweet?  God’s holy word divides.  The writer of Hebrews explains,

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.  Hebrews 4:12-13

Then we have John’s Revelation.  Before jumping into chapter 10, let’s consider the context.  Chapter 9 describes horrors unleashed on humanity by angels.  The fifth angel releases smoke and locusts from a bottomless pit.  The locusts sting like scorpions, tormenting people but not killing them.  Their agony is so great, they want to die, but death flees from them (see Revelation 9:6).  The sixth angel releases plagues that kill a third of mankind.  John concludes the chapter writing,

The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.  Revelation 9:20-21

In this scene depicting the end times, people continue doing the same things that angered God throughout the Old Testament, and like in the Old Testament, they refuse to repent.  The prophets proclaimed a message of repentance.  John the Baptist paved the way for Christ Jesus preaching a message of repentance.  Jesus preached a message of repentance.  God’s holy word contains a message of repentance, yet even in the end times people continue refusing to repent.

After experiencing scenes of torment, death, and living souls refusing to repent, John saw another angel who held “a little scroll open in his hand” (Revelation 10:2).  A voice from heaven told John to take the scroll from the angel.  John records the events as follows:

Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.”  So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take 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 from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.  And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”  Revelation 10:8-11

God tells John to take the scroll.  The angel tells him to eat it.  The heavenly words taste sweet, but after he ingests them and they take root in his being and they permeate his body, soul and spirit, he feels sick to his stomach.  God’s holy word is a double-edged sword.  It is sweet like honey and it transforms us and we want more; however, when our eyes are opened to see the truth of His holy word in contrast to the world in which we live, we feel sick.

Ideally, this bitterness drives us out into the world as agents of change.  God calls us to go and make disciples (see Matthew 28:19).  He calls us to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God (see Micah 6:8).  He calls us to be salt and light out in the dark world around us (see Matthew 5:13-16).

As we are transformed, we gain eyes to see and His love grows within us, and we want everyone to experience God through Christ Jesus and His holy word, and to be transformed by God’s holy grace, because “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).  “As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” (Romans 10:15).

How do you respond to God’s holy word?  Is it as sweet as honey?  Or perhaps it is nonsense or a burden to endure or merely another task to accomplish in an overly full day.  May it taste like honey to you, may you desire it and through it, may you desire God through Christ Jesus, today and always, Amen.