Insight from Revelation 10:<\/p>\n
Chapter 9 concludes by stating that the people still refused to repent in spite of God\u2019s judgments being poured out on the earth (see 9:20-21). This leads the reader to expect further and more severe judgments. Earth\u2019s rebellion will not continue forever. God\u2019s plan to end the rebellion and to bring in everlasting worship will come to pass.<\/p>\n
Chapter 10 begins with a mighty angel coming to earth. The angel has a scroll. This scroll is probably the same scroll that was given to the Lamb in chapter 5\u2014the scroll containing God\u2019s plan. The angel declares that there will be no more delay. To this point, final judgment against the earth has been delayed so that people might repent. However, there will be no more waiting. It is time for the plan to be finished.<\/p>\n
The angel gives the scroll to John and tells him to eat it. He says that it will be sweet in his mouth and bitter in his stomach. The fact that John is to eat the scroll seems to mean that John (representing the people of God) will be part of God\u2019s plan coming about. It is not separate from him. He is intimately connected to the plan of God to end rebellion and to bring in worship.<\/p>\n
The plan of God will be sweet in his mouth. This symbolizes the fact that God\u2019s plan \u201ctastes\u201d wonderful. It will result in an end to all rebellion and all worship will be given to God. This is very sweet to John (and should be sweet to all of God\u2019s people). However, the plan will be bitter in John\u2019s stomach. This means that these good things (the end to rebellion and the bringing in of everlasting worship) will only come about with a great deal of pain. This pain will be experienced by the churches on earth. The pain of the churches on earth (the bitter taste in John\u2019s stomach) is the focus of chapters 11-13.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_crdt_document":""},"class_list":["post-4747","reading-plan","type-reading-plan","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading-plan\/4747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading-plan"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/reading-plan"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}