As I read today’s chapter I found myself wondering if I would have wanted John’s role in this. Would I want to see the things he saw, to record them for the rest of humanity and preach about them to the audiences of his time? I decided that it’s a responsibility that I’m pleased has not come my way. At least not entirely anyway.

This chapter isn’t about death and destruction so much but it does place a bit of a burden upon John and those who are called to preach and prophesy. There’s a sense that God has been holding back judgement in this passage but that the time was coming for that to end. There will be no more delay and the final tribulation will finally come. No longer will evil be restrained and the blessing of God’s restrained judgement will be lifted.

There is an echo of Ezekiel here too. John is asked to take a small scroll from the angel who has planted his feet on the ocean and the land and eat it. Look at Ezekiel 2-3 and you’ll see a similar thing happening. We’re told it tasted sweet, like honey (v.10). God’s word is always good but, in the stomach, it was sour suggesting that it’s hard to digest.  God’s word can be like that. We don’t want to hear the things He says because sometimes the truth about ourselves, our lifestyles and our habits is hard to hear. We even have a proverb that says, “the truth hurts”. Our instinct is, therefore, to avoid the hurt that the truth will bring, so we turn away and carry on doing our own sub-consciously hoping it will all go away.

Finally, John is told that ‘You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings.’ (v.11). His work was not done. And, neither is ours. The time will come when we will all have to stand before the throne of judgement, we will all have to answer for the decisions we make, the actions we engage in and the things we say. We need to be ready for that day and we need to have prepared those around us for the same.

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Questions:

What is the truth that you would most like to avoid hearing about yourself? What do you need to do about that?

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, we give You thanks and praise for Your goodness and love. Thank You that You went to the cross to remove our burden of sin from us. Thank You that all we need to do is to accept Your gift of love to receive the salvation that You offer us. Bless us to know that gift today and always. And, lead us Lord to those who have not yet encountered You that we might share the gospel with them too. Amen.