The small scroll (Ch. 10)

Chapter 10

After the unsuccessful attempt to draw the people to God by prayer it needs a new mystery to be revealed. This time it is the mystery of God.

The whole scene starts with an angel that appears like Jesus from his description from the prophet Daniel as the son of man. And he has a little scroll in his hand. This links this to the story with the other reference to the scroll which Jesus was worthy to open.

John needs to eat (internalise) this scroll which is sweet (its the gospel), but also bitter - we will see especially in the next chapter. This scroll reveals the mystery of God: It is to be like Jesus. What this means is revealed in the next chapters.

But before we go in there we are reminded that God is in full control over whatever we are facing: As we see the beasts comes form earth and sea and the angel putting a foot down on earth and sea means God is in control over this situation.