This is John the revelator speaking, “…the voice from heaven spoke to me again: “Go and take the open scroll from the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land. So I went to the angel and told him to give me the small scroll. “Yes, take it and eat it,” he said. “It will be SWEET as honey in your mouth, but it will turn SOUR in your stomach!” So I took the small scroll from the hand of the angel, and I ate it! It was sweet in my mouth, but when I swallowed it, it turned sour in my stomach.” (Rev. 10:8-10)
We see that as John took the scroll from the angel and ate it. The scroll tasted sweet but turned bitter in John’s stomach. This description is meant to have a symbolic application to us as believers, though that meaning is often missed or misunderstood. Believers are commissioned TO PROCLAIM GOD’S WORD—ALL OF IT—but we cannot proclaim what we do not know. We must partake of the Word and make it a PART OF OUR BEING. Further, we must not withhold any message from the Word because IT MIGHT BE BITTER. Even if it offends our audience, we must “…speak the truth in love.” (Eph. 4:15). In other words, we are OBLIGATED and PRIVILEGED to SHARE THE WHOLE WORD WITH THE WHOLE WORLD.
-Bill Stockham