Katrina is starting to look and act more like her old self (not that she’s old!) We’re not sure when she’ll be home from the hospital, but she’s in good spirits. Most heart patients are on their feet by now. For several years Katrina has been unable to walk due to MS and has relyed on her arms to hoist her and propel her. Now she can’t put any weight on her arms, so she’s fairly immobilized. This is the biggest problem. We’re just hoping she’ll not lose too much mobility before she’s healed. The good news is that she’ll likely have more strength in the future. What I had thought was advancing MS now appears to have been a matter of a bad heart. Her weakness was caused by insufficient blood flow. With her heart working so well now, we’re convinced her strength will return better than ever. Thanks for continuing to pray for her. She’s greatly encouraged by all the support.
Now to last night’s KALEO study of Revelation 10:
Introduction: As the book of Revelation outlines it, the Great Tribulation is based around three series of events, which are described as seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls of wreath. We’ve looked at the seven seals and we’re currently working our way through the seven trumpets. Six of them have already sounded. As we come to chapter 10, we’re waiting for the seventh trumpet, but we have another parenthetical passage. This is one of the shortest and most interesting chapters in Revelation – the big angel with the little scroll. It’s a prelude to the sounding of the seventh trumpet, designed to impress on John the gravity of the message he is being given.
V. 1: Some people identify this “mighty angel” as Christ, but there are better reasons to identify him as one of the mighty angels that do God’s bidding in Revelation. The word “another” implies that this is an angel like the ones blowing the trumpets, and the fact that he swears by one greater than himself in verse 6 also identifies him as an angel, not as the Lord Jesus. His description, however, is glorious with great authority and rank.
V. 2: This mighty angel holds a small scroll. We aren’t told the contents of the scroll, but whatever its specific contents, it represents the Word of God.
V. 3-7: Apparently this angel was about to unleash another (a fourth) series of judgments – thunder judgments – but God tells him this information is still “classified” and is to remain top secret.
V. 8-11: John is told to take the scroll from the angel’s hand, to eat and digest it. He does so and finds the scroll as sweet as honey through it leaves him feeling bitter. This passage is based on Ezekiel 2:9 – 3:15, where the same thing happened to Ezekiel. Our Bibles are sweeter than honey to us, but they do contain a bitter message of judgment for us to proclaim as a warning to the world
Conclusion: The analogy of the Bible as food is seen throughout Scripture. In a supplemental blog tomorrow, I’ll survey these passages and tell us “how to eat a book.”