9. I went--Greek, "I went away." John here leaves
heaven, his standing-point of observation heretofore, to be near the
angel standing on the earth and sea.
Give--A, B, C, and Vulgate read the infinitive, "Telling
him to give."
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
Ps 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--
(Ps 19:10; 119:103).
Honey, sweet to the mouth, sometimes turns into bile in the stomach.
The thought that God would be glorified
(Re 11:3-6, 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
(Re 11:7-10);
compare
Joh 16:1, 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.
John was grieved at the coming apostasy and the sufferings of the
Church at the hands of Antichrist.
JFB.
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