I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book. He said to me, “Take it and eat it. It will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.”
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 9–10. Take the book, and devour it. See Ezekiel 2 and 3. It was sweet in my mouth; I was delighted to read and hear the victories and glory of God’s faithful servants; but it became bitter in my belly, when I considered the judgments of God upon so many sinners, who by their own wilful blindness were lost for eternity. Witham.—This mysterious book, presented to Saint John precisely between the sound of the sixth and seventh trumpet, or rather between the irruption announced at the sound of the sixth trumpet, and the persecution which is then to follow and to precede the sound of the seventh trumpet, appears to represent the book of the gospel, which shall be given to the Jews at the end of the sixth age of the Church. This book will be then to them full of sweetness, because they will see in it the tender love of Jesus Christ; but at the same time it will cause bitterness, because they will see in it with grief their infidelity and that of their fathers. V.