RE: What is the bitter book?

[Khazeh Fananapazir]

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. 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. (Revelation of John 10:9 - 10:10)   I have seen existence referred to as a book; and a Prophet as a book; and the human soul as a book; as well as a divine Revelation as a book.    Anyone have any thoughts on this book? Thanks Brent     REPLY   Some reasonable Christian interpretations   1] eat it up — appropriate its contents so entirely as to be assimilated with (as food), and become part of thyself, so as to impart them the more vividly to others. His finding the roll sweet to the taste at first, is because it was the Lord’s will he was doing, and because, divesting himself of carnal feeling, he regarded God’s will as always agreeable, however bitter might be the message of judgment to be announced. Compare Psa_40:8, Margin, as to Christ’s inner complete appropriation of God’s word. thy belly bitter — parallel to Eze_2:10, “There was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.” as honey — (Psa_19:10; Psa_119:103). Honey, sweet to the mouth, sometimes turns into bile in the stomach. The thought that God would be glorified (Rev_11:3-6, Rev_11:11-18) gave him the sweetest pleasure. Yet, afterwards the belly, or carnal natural feeling, was embittered with grief at the prophecy of the coming bitter persecutions of the Church (Rev_11:7-10); compare Joh_16:1, Joh_16:2. The revelation of the secrets of futurity is sweet to one at first, but bitter and distasteful to our natural man, when we learn the cross which is to be borne before the crown shall be won.   2] Rev 10:9 - Eat it up - The like was commanded to Ezekiel. This was an emblem of thoroughly considering and digesting it. And it will make thy belly bitter, but it will be sweet as honey in thy mouth - The sweetness betokens the many good things which follow, Rev_11:1, Rev_11:15, &c.; the bitterness, the evils which succeed under the third woe.         The information contained in this e-mail and any attachments thereto ("e-mail") is sent by the Johnson County Community College ("JCCC") and is intended to be confidential and for the use of only the individual or entity named above. The information may be protected by federal and state privacy and disclosures acts or other legal rules. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are notified that retention, dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify JCCC by email reply and immediately and permanently delete this e-mail message and any attachments thereto. Thank you.     __________________________________________________   You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:archive@mail-archive.com Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:bahai-st@list.jccc.edu Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Public - http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.net New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu