by Mako Kato
In this passage, John eats the scroll. I know it sounds kind of weird… eating a scroll, but it isn’t the only scroll that’s been eaten in the Bible. In Ezekiel 2:8-3:3 we read about Ezekiel being given a scroll to eat. It is interesting that both of the scrolls have a sweet taste in the mouth. When John eats it, it tastes like honey to his lips even if it is bitter in his stomach. For Ezekiel, the scroll had words of “lamentation and mourning and woe” (Ezekiel 2:10 ESV) but it was as sweet as honey.
In the scroll for John and for Ezekiel, is a message. I am trying to figure out the symbolism of the sweet taste but the bitterness in the stomach. Perhaps it has to do with the good and the bad of the message of the scroll. Written in the scroll are the words of God. In Psalm 119:103 , the psalmist writes, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (ESV). God’s Word is like sweet honey, but there is also bitterness.
What is this bitterness? I think we can get a hint from verse 11, which states, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.” John has to prophesy about these people just as Ezekiel and other prophets prophesied about Israel, but now it is on a worldwide scale. John has to prophesy not just against the sins of Israel, but also against the sins of people around the world.
It leaves a bitter feeling to think of all the people who reject God. In Revelation 9:20-21 we read that those who were permitted to live after the first two woes still would not repent of their wrongdoings. Instead they will continue to reject God.
But there are good examples too: the examples of Ezekiel and John, servants of God who prophesied and ate the scrolls – no questions asked. God told Ezekiel in Ezekiel 2:8: “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.” That is what both Ezekiel and John did. They ate what God gave them. They listened to God and in obeyed Him.
We can try to be like John and Ezekiel. Doing what God has commanded us to do in the Bible: Loving God and loving others. We can eat what he gives us and not rebel against His commands, for His words are sweet like honey.