Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Reflecting on God's Goodness | New Testament | Revelation 10

Episode Date: November 3, 2023

In the midst of some pretty intense chapters in Revelation, chapter 10 seems like a breath of fresh air. Jensen reflects on the sweetness of God in today's episode and shares how Revelation 10 reveals God's faithfulness. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Revelation 10

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. And the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. Sometimes when I've had a long day, or a long week, or a long month, it's really nice to give myself a little treat. Having a bad day, eat a piece of chocolate. Long week, take a few hours to get away and read a book. Long month? Have your mother-in-law come in town to watch your kids so you can have a date night with your husband. It works. Not because I think those little treats will fix everything, because they don't, but because in the middle of a lot of chaos, those little treats remind me that there is goodness beyond the mess of what is right in front of me. They help me pause and reflect on the

good gifts I've been given by God, the ways he has provided for me, the ways he's present in the difficult days, and the promises he makes to be with me in the valleys and deliver me into his good kingdom one day. See, the little treats refresh me and point me towards the larger story my life is a part of. Who knew a piece of chocolate could be so powerful? But it works. It really does. And this is how I want us to see Revelation chapter 10. In the midst of some intense chapters of judgment, Revelation 10 and the following chapter will look at on Monday. offer us a brief intermission, an interlude. And it is an interlude that God intended to remind the people of God that they are a part of a larger story and that God continues to be faithful to that story.

Let's start reading together. Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head and his face was shining like the sun and his legs like pillars of fire. He had a little scroll open in his hand, and he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and called out with a loud voice like a roaring lion. So, after the sixth trumpet sounds, but before the seventh trumpet is announced, John has a vision of another mighty angel. This angel has a scroll that is open in his hand. He has his foot in the sea and on land to signal that the message he has is for all the earth as he calls out in a loud voice. Jumping down a few verses, we read what he says. And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives

forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay, but there would be no more delay, but the earth. that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled just as he announced to his servants, the prophets. You see, this is the angel that we read about in Revelation 1, the angel that Jesus has given a message to be given to John. And the message that Jesus has given him is written on a scroll in his hand, the one that Jesus has just unsealed. The angel tells John that there would be no more delay. He's giving him the scroll the message that Jesus intends John to hear,

and that through this message, the mystery of God would be fulfilled just as he had promised to the prophets. God will be faithful. Verse 8. Then the voice that I heard from heaven spoke to me once again saying, Go, take the scroll that is open in 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 little scroll. And he said to me, take and eat it. It will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.

And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. And I was told, you must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings. Now, this may feel weird. John eats a scroll, and it tastes sweet in his mouth, but bitter in his stomach. Weirdly, this isn't the first time in scripture that a prophet has been asked to eat a scroll. Ezekiel was told to do the same thing, and just like John, it tasted sweet in his mouth, but bitter for his stomach. See, this imagery is just telling us that the message of the scroll is sweet. It's good like honey. It reveals the mysteries of God.

God. The prophet eating the scroll symbolizes him internalizing the word of the Lord, and the bitterness that comes after he has internalized it relates to the fact that he now has to proclaim this message to the world, a world that is full of evil and must be told of God's coming judgment that will ultimately free the world of the curse it is under. You see, in the midst of the seven seals and the seven trumpets bringing along with them the promise of judgment of evil, Revelation 10 brings with it a promise. The time has come for God's message to be shared. The seventh trumpet is coming and with it, spoiler alert. The picture of Jesus as king and his kingdom coming. John is being called to share with the whole world, the ways in which God is going to bring

heaven to earth. In the midst of passages on God's judgment, this reminder of the message Jesus has for his people. This reminder of God's promise to reveal his plan for restoration, this reminder of the bigger story is a breath of fresh air. It is sweet to taste and read and see God's plan for uniting his heavenly kingdom with our world. As John internalizes this message, takes it in, it will bring joy and clarity and sweetness to his understanding of God's larger story. And he must internalize this message to allow the sweetness to sustain him in the bitterness, in the hardship and difficulty and darkness that may come with revealing this larger plan to the world, a plan that includes the difficulty of judgment and divine justice.

In our own lives, we too must hold onto the promises of God in the midst of darkness. We have to cling to the larger story that God is writing in our world. His plan for redemption, his plan for restoration, his plan to deliver his people from the evil and brokenness that surrounds us. When we look horizontally around us and are surrounded by the darkness of injustice, war, violence, and godlessness, all we have to do is look up, to see the story that God is writing, the promises he has made to be faithful to his people, even when everything around us looks, bleak. See, Revelation makes it clear that ultimate judgment is coming someday in the future,

that God will enact justice and evil will be blotted out. It will be powerful, and it will be all-consuming of evil. As those who understand and believe in this message, it can be hard to want to internalize, to want to share this truth with people. It seems cruel at times. But without judgment and justice, there can be no hope for the kingdom that God promises to bring with the seventh trumpet. There can be no future where heaven and earth unite, and God's kingdom of love, justice, and mercy is established if evil continues to run rampant and unchecked. Chapter 10 reminds us that in the midst of darkness, a light is shining, a hope for freedom, freedom for all of creation and freedom for all of humanity. There will be no more delay.

God is at work in this world building his kingdom. The hour is near, whether that be one day or one year or a thousand years from now. We are living in a world that awaits the just judgment of a good God and the coming of his good eternal kingdom. There is sweetness that comes from believing, understanding and living in light of what the scroll tells us. The hope of Jesus' kingdom is what must sustain us as we walk and live in a broken and fallen world. The mysteries of God will be fulfilled. The promises of God made to the prophets long ago will be fulfilled. He will return to his people and he will make all things new again. As we continue on in Revelation, In all its imagery and symbolism and confusion at times, I hope you will remember that what we read

from here on out is God's promise to fulfill his larger story, to bring His kingdom to earth, and to restore all of creation through resurrection by the power of King Jesus.