11 Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” 9 So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” 10 And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. 11 And I was told,
Comment: There were no chapters and verses in the original copies of the Scriptures – neither in Hebrew in which the Old Testament was mainly written or in the Old Testament Scriptures when they were translated into Greek. The first ‘break up’ was into chapters, which happened in the 13th century AD. Verses were inserted about 200 years later. I should spend more time in investigation, but by assumption I guess that the ‘inserters’ were looking for major topical divisions to divide into chapters, and into verses so that referring to a point made in the scriptures could be easily found. It is interesting that Chapter 10 ends with the sentence “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.” This is why I inserted the Title to today’s portion. Does what follows lead chronologically to what comes next or does it go back and explain some point from a different angle for possibly a different audience?
1 Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, 2 but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. 3 And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”
Comment: The end times cause many Christians, seeking to claim that they understand more fully than others, to break into groups – ‘a-, pre-, postmillennialists’, ‘pre-, mid-, post- rapturists’. The mention of 1260 days (three and a half years, half of seven) to some ties in with Daniel’s prophecy and causes them to think that there will be three and a half years granted for the church or the two witnesses to preach powerfully before believers are taken out of the world by being taken into heaven. The three and a half is half of the terrible years of maximal tribulation before Jesus returns as later described in this book! Although I know what I believe, the fact, which here I am stressing in this devotional, is that Jesus will come again! As Jesus said the Father in His Sovereign role alone knows when. We are commanded to be faithful until Jesus comes! But we are given tantalizing hints! Does this take us back again until the time that John in Ch 4 was taken up into heaven – to give us added information?
Zechariah 4: 12-14 -And a second time I answered and said to him, “What are these two branches of the olive trees, which are beside the two golden pipes from which the golden oil is poured out?” 13 He said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” 14 Then he said, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”
Prayer: Please enlighten my eyes to Your Truth, and please keep me from wandering into heresy.