Which do you want first, the bad news or the good news?
So goes the oft-asked question. Personally, I like to take the bad news first, hoping that the good will make the bad more palatable.
If there’s bad news, we sure hope there’s good news. We expect the silver lining to frame the ominous cloud. We hope the insurance will pay more than the totaled car is worth. That kind of thing.
Today John receives some pretty disturbing news. Fortunately, though, some good news was also mixed in.
John was right in the middle of receiving a vision about the coming judgments. He had watched as six angels sounded their trumpets, each initiating another outpouring of God’s wrath.
As the scene set up for the seventh trumpet, an angel appeared. This was no ordinary angel. He struck an imposing stance, with one foot planted on the earth and the other on the sea. When he spoke, the heavens offered a thunderous reply—which John was instructed not to write down. Don’t let your curiosity dwell on that for too long. It’ll drive you crazy.
It wasn’t just the appearance of the angel, however, that fascinated John. It was what he said. The heavenly figure raised his hand and swore an oath that God’s patience for sin was about to run dry. The delay was over. Frightening indeed.
But that wasn’t all. John allowed his gaze to focus on a little book clasped tightly in the angel’s hand. Suddenly, he heard a voice commanding him to take the book from the angel. He complied, but the angel issued a command of his own: John was to eat the book. Strange.
But after all the weird events so far, who was John to question? He popped the little book in his mouth. Oddly, it was sweet in his mouth, but when he swallowed it, his stomach turned bitter.
The angel didn’t make John wait for an explanation. The meaning was clear: John would go again to prophesy before many people: the message he would share would be both sweet and bitter.
The message would be bitter: God’s patience will run out.
The message would also be sweet: There was still some time left.
We have the same bittersweet message that John had. God’s mercy will end, but for now it’s still available.
We better share it, while there’s still time.
