[Darris McNeely] It almost makes you wonder if the Apostle John needed some Tums for his tummy. I'm talking about an episode out of the book of Revelation 10, where the apostle was given this vision of a book and he's told to eat the book. Let me read it to you and let's see what we might determine. "A voice from heaven spoke to me again saying, 'Go take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth,'" that had been introduced in the previous verses. "So I went," John says, "To the angel and said, 'Give me the little book.' And he said, 'Take and eat.'" So John was to take and eat this book that appears in the vision that he has there. "It will make your stomach bitter," it says, "'But it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.' I took the little book out of the angel's hand, ate it. And it was as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter. And he said, 'You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.'" (Revelation 10:9-11) Sweet in his mouth and bitter in his tummy. 

You know, as I teach the book of Revelation to students in my class, I show them the hope of the book of Revelation. While there's a great deal of tribulation, plagues, and turmoil that certainly is in the book, as well as the events at the close of this age take place, the wrath of God is poured out, the Day of the Lord and all those scriptures and yet it ends with the coming of Christ and the establishment of His kingdom upon the earth, the New Jerusalem, the Heavenly Jerusalem and all of that wonderful scene, mankind survives. There is hope. When looking at it only humanely as many do today, there doesn't seem to be much hope. And so, when John to had to take that book and eat it, it was sweet in his mouth. The Word of God is sweet. The Word of God gives hope, it gives encouragement because we know that God is in charge of the world and world events, which is what is happening in the book of Revelation. But there's a bitterness as well in that there is suffering and there is a time of trial, a passage through which this world will have to yet go to get to that time of that kingdom, the return of Christ, and the peace that God does promise to bring through His son.

So it's sweet in the mouth and bitter in the stomach. We have to take both to get to that time of God's Kingdom. Whatever that book had, whatever was written in terms of the plagues and the prophecies, they're pretty strong, but it's always tempered with the hope that God is in control, God is in charge, and mankind will survive. When we read the book of Revelation and indeed the entire Bible with that point in mind, then we do have hope and ultimately it does produce a sweet taste in our mouth.

That's BT daily. Join us next time.