Reflections on Revelation 10

Revelation 10 (Contemporary English Version)
1. I saw another powerful angel come down from heaven. This one was covered with a cloud, and a rainbow was over his head. His face was like the sun, his legs were like columns of fire,
   
2. and with his hand he held a little scroll that had been unrolled. He stood there with his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land.
   
3. Then he shouted with a voice that sounded like a growling lion. Thunder roared seven times.
   
4. After the thunder stopped, I was about to write what it had said. But a voice from heaven shouted, "Keep it secret! Don't write these things."
   
5. The angel I had seen standing on the sea and the land then held his right hand up toward heaven.
   
6. He made a promise in the name of God who lives forever and who created heaven, earth, the sea, and every living creature. The angel said, "You won't have to wait any longer.
   
7. God told his secret plans to his servants the prophets, and it will all happen by the time the seventh angel sounds his trumpet."
   
8. Once again the voice from heaven spoke to me. It said, "Go and take the open scroll from the hand of the angel standing on the sea and the land."
   
9. When I went over to ask the angel for the little scroll, the angel said, "Take the scroll and eat it! Your stomach will turn sour, but the taste in your mouth will be as sweet as honey."
   
10. I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. The taste was as sweet as honey, but my stomach turned sour.
    
11. Then some voices said, "Keep on telling what will happen to the people of many nations, races, and languages, and also to kings."

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Chapter 10 is a parenthesis, giving background to the blowing of the seventh trumpet which is about to happen. John saw another angel that had a scroll in his hand. The angel "swore an oath by the One who lives forever and ever" (10:6) saying there would be no more delay. The time was ripe for God's judgment. The seventh angel will blow his trumpet and "God's hidden plan will be completed, as He announced to His servants the prophets." (10:7)

Next, John was told to take the scroll from the angel that held it and when he did, the angel told him to eat it. When he ate it, the taste of it was sweet in his mouth, but it became bitter in his stomach. Then he was told to prophesy again about "many peoples, nations, languages, and kings." The scroll held God's word, which was sweet in John's mouth when he ate it, but the message of judgment it contained was bitter in his stomach. This message he was to deliver to many people and nations.