Take and eat the little book
Revelation 10:8-10 Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.” So I went to the angel and said to him, “Give me the little book.” And he said to me, “Take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.” Then I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter.
The picture is clear and explicit. How sweet and precious it is to be allowed to share God's secrets. How blessed a privilege that we should be taken into His confidence and be permitted to know what He purposes and plans for the world. Who are we; who was Abraham, or Moses, or Paul, or John, that God should make known His mind and reveal His heart, and indicate beforehand what He proposed to do? How privileged are those to whom His thoughts have been made known. But - when we digest those things that we have heard from Him, how solemn. When we really understand what God intends to do, how bitter it is. What feelings rend our hearts and spirits, what sorrow, and even tears, as we anticipate the judgments that will fall, and the terrors that will come. As the earth rolls on its way, merrily, carelessly, heedlessly, what manner of persons ought we to be, who know what is in prospect, and who understand the wrath that is to come. May we live accordingly, as those who know God's secrets. May we find the balance between the sweet joy of being in His confidence, and the deep sorrow of understanding what is to befall earth and men, remembering that amongst those men are many of our friends and neighbors, and many children of God's beloved people. j.flanigan
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