NOTES for Rev 10:8-11

Every prophet receives his revelation and passes through his calling. John is no exception. His prophetic calling takes place against the background of the end of times that is revealed to him in a vision. What is this: symbol or reality? The question, which looks quite natural, in fact turns out not to be entirely correct. A symbol is also real, and behind it stands reality. It is simply that this reality cannot be perceived by a person as it actually is. Still, the expression "as it actually is" is itself, in a certain sense, conditional.

"As it actually is" - how is that? As it is in itself? Or as God sees it? Any other view is by definition relative, and therefore it is not entirely the same as "as it actually is." God, of course, sees how it is "as it actually is," but His vision is fully and truly known only to Him alone: even when He reveals what is known to Him to someone else, this revelation, being received by an angel or by a person, still becomes something different compared with what and how God knows.

This is where symbols are born. They are needed in order to relate the meanings known to God to human perception. But the reality behind the symbol is the most genuine reality there is; it is not the fruit of human imagination, but only takes a form accessible to human perception. And if within this reality a person experiences a prophetic calling, then it is just as real as everything else that is revealed to him.

So it is with John: the picture unfolding before his gaze is symbolic, while his calling is entirely real. More than that, it closely resembles the calling, for example, of Ezekiel, one of the great prophets of the Babylonian exile. Ezekiel too had to swallow the scroll offered to him, and this too happened in a vision, only the end of times was still far away then. Thus John becomes a prophet who, judging by the angel's words, will still have to prophesy "about peoples and nations."

A new book is given to the apostle. It is the Word that must be chewed, digested and made part of oneself for ever. The Word nourishes the human person as a being created in the image and likeness of God. It tastes sweet, for nothing is sweeter than knowing that nothing can separate us from God’s love, that nothing in the world can divide us from Him unless we ourselves choose separation and an existence without God. But as we receive this Word and fill our whole being with it, we must be ready for the bitterness that follows the sweetness. It is the bitterness of being able to see the world without rose-coloured glasses, the bitterness of knowledge and wisdom, the bitterness of a heart opened and compelled to understand the answer to the eternal question, “Why is everything like this?”

As can be seen, the events connected with the temporary absolute rule of the dark powers precede the moment of the complete and final transformation of the world, with which God's judgment ends. Immediately after the terrifying picture of the army of darkness breaking into the world, John sees the angel of Judgment proclaiming that the former order of things has come to an end, that the time which until now had determined the course of history will be no more, and that the world as we have known it until now will be replaced by the Kingdom of which the prophets spoke (vv. 1-7). It is the angel of Judgment who, on God's behalf, pronounces the decrees concerning the fate of specific people, about which the apostle was forbidden to speak (vv. 2-4). Nevertheless, John's prophetic calling is connected with bearing witness to the last times and to the nearness of the day of Judgment, for which one must be ready (v. 11).

Outwardly it recalls Ezekiel's calling: like the prophet, the apostle was ordered to eat the scroll offered to him, which symbolizes the revelation received from God (vv. 8-10; compare Ezek 3:1-3). But unlike Ezekiel, John feels the bitterness of the revelation to which he will have to testify. Although the prophet also had to speak harsh and bitter words to his fellow countrymen (Ezek 2:9-10), he did not have, as the apostle did, to see the full depth of the evil in which the fallen world abides. Its bitterness, as can be seen, proved so deep that even the sweetness of the encounter that makes a person a prophet could not drown it out (v. 10).