They say we learn something new every day. Well I certainly have today. There is something called pica eating disorder or Xylophagia, the desire to eat non-food items, like paper. Search online and you can read really sad stories of the struggles people have to deal with this disorder.
But we are reading today the verses where John is commanded to eat the scroll. This is not a disorder but an order.
“Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me once more: “Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” So 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 your stomach sour, but ‘in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.’ I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. Then I was told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings.” (Revelation 10 v 8-11)
• You can only speak what is in you. Prophesying with the book inside you is totally different to passing on information of the book. We are not editors but part of the message. We don’t just speak the message but we are the message of Christ.
• You cannot have the sweet without the sour. Some would want to take all the nice things of the Bible’s message about God and leave it like that. God loves us. God is gracious. God does things for us. But the uncomfortableness is there. God is the judge. God demands obedience.
• What is in you will sustain you in the difficulty of what is around you. Perhaps for the 1st century readers and for those in 2022 under great persecution it is to know that God expects us to continue to walk through our suffering and difficulty and the book will help us do that. Think of the 3 temptations of Christ and how He used the ‘book’ to fight off the devil.
Missions Paul 