Saturday, October 25, 2014

Saturday, October 25, 2014 

Revelation 10: 1 - 11

Revelation is  a strange book for us. The visions and their meaning are anything but “revealed!”  It has provoked speculation and debate, finger-pointing and back-patting for years.  I do not pretend to understand it, but I do think we can glean insights from some of the pictures painted.

This passage comes towards the end of the vision of the 7 Angels who bring terrors and destruction to earth as the “end of the world” approaches.  Water has been poisoned, the sun and moon darkened, plagues, war, disease have all ravaged the earth.  The preceding verses tell that the people who remain alive “went on their merry way - didn’t change their way of life - There wasn’t a sign of a change of heart. They plunged right on in their murderous, occult, promiscuous, and thieving ways.” (The Message 9:20-21)

What strikes me here is that although horrors surround them, the people spoken of here seem to see no link between their own behaviour and those horrors. The suggestion seems to be that they have missed the point, missed the warning and therefore are missing the chance to change themselves and events.

Now our reading today.  It begins with an Angel that seems to bring not horror but promise - a rainbow on his head. That reminds me (and certainly the 1st century readers) of God’s covenant with Noah and the world.  It speaks of safety, protection, love. Wrapped in a cloud, face sun-radiant, legs pillars of fire, all these again might remind us of pictures of God or his angel leading the Israelites through the desert after their exodus from Egypt.  He carries a small scroll, and announces that the time is almost up, the plans of God which had been spoken through the prophets for ages were about to be completed.  Hooray! I think.  This destruction and pain will end, and God will restore His kingdom and comfort His people. 

The writer/viewer of the vision is told to take the little scroll and eat it: “It will taste like honey” (9)  Another reminder: Ezekiel was also instructed to eat a scroll - and God’s words were sweet like honey. (Ezekiel 3: 2-3)  In Psalms too, God’s words are spoken of as sweeter than honey (Psalm 119:103)  

BUT, “when I swallowed, my stomach curdled.” (9)  The result was bitterness, sourness, definitely not what was expected.  Some commentators have said this refers to the sweetness of God’s word for believers, the bitterness for unbelievers: us and them.  I wonder.  I wonder if it is also a message to me to not be too sure of myself, to beware of complacency, of thinking I have everything right with God.  I am reminded by C.S.Lewis in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe  that Aslan is not a tame lion! So, perhaps it means that part of me rejoices when I hear God’s words to me and I say I will obey and live by them, but part of me does not end up carrying through.  It reminds me of the parable of the sower and the seed: the part where the seed is received gladly and springs up, but life (thorns and weeds) choke it out and it fails to thrive.  I may well receive the word from God gladly and taste its sweetness, but when I really digest it, it will cause me pain as I realize how I have failed the mark and continue to fail.  That is a bitterness.  But a helpful one, as it can call me back to that first love, spur me on to try again, confident in God and His promises to never let me go, to never give up on me.  Pain and bitterness when we see ourselves clearly can lead to forgiveness and renewed energy: Peter experienced it, Paul experienced it, I can experience it, we can all experience it.

Blessings

Ann