Eating the message

I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, ‘Take it and eat it; it will turn sour in your stomach, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.’

I took the little scroll from his hand and ate it, and it tasted sweet as honey m my mouth. But after I swallowed it it turned sour in my stomach. Then I was told, ‘Once again you must proclaim God’s message about many nations, races, languages, and kings.’   (verses 9 – 11)

Read Revelation 10:1-11

You are what you eat. Your food is processed in your body and converted into you.

The angel tells John to eat the little scroll. He is told not to ‘write it down’ (Revelation 10:4) but to eat it. The message he is given from God is to be internalised, taken into himself and made a part of him. Although it tastes ‘sweet as honey’, it turns ‘sour in [his] stomach’. God’s message brings sweetness and life, but it can also bring sourness and death to those who are judged.

Immediately after John has eaten the scroll he is told that he has to proclaim God’s message. Once the message is digested, it has to be spoken.

You have eaten God’s message of love and forgiveness every time you have heard the message about Jesus, and especially when you have eaten and drunk at the Lord’s table. Now the message is part of you and you need to proclaim it to others.

Thank you, Lord, for feeding me with your message of forgiveness and life. Help me to proclaim it to others. Amen.

by David Schubert, in ‘God’s Peace for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2005)

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