Revelation 10:8-11

Revelation 10:8: “And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.
9 And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
10 And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
11 And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.”

There are a number of key points in this passage. First of all, the little book seems to contain prophetic information, since after John eats it (yes, he really does eat it!) he is told that he must prophesy. John, therefore, is eating a book of prophecy. Since this passage is talking about the seventh angel, it seems logical that the book that John ate talks about things that will occur when the seventh angel sounds.

This chapter seems to be a transition chapter. Up to this point we’ve been told about events that occur in the first half of the Tribulation. Now we are going to see mid-Tribulation events, which will be followed by the events of the second half of the Tribulation.

As far as the book itself goes – in John’s mouth it was sweet, but after he ate it the book became very bitter. Numerous people have pointed out that prophecy is a very “sweet” thing – people love hearing about it, and it’s a source of fascination. However, when the prophecies come to pass they are not “sweet” at all. Look at all the horrible things that have been discussed so far: war, famine, demonic invasions, and mass death. These are horrifying things. When they come to pass they will bring great bitterness to people’s lives.

What we see in this chapter is a brief pause in the action, as we transition from the first half of the Tribulation to the mid-Tribulation events. When those have occurred we will finally see the seventh angel sound.