A Heavenly Perfume
“And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, take it and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.” Revelation 10:9
As the Apostle John received the revelation from Christ of the future, there was an angel who came down from heaven holding a little book in his hand. We are not told the contents of the book, but more than likely it contained God’s warnings of judgment upon an ungodly world. The angel told John to eat or consume the book. It would be sweet at first and then bitter as it went down into his soul.
As I pondered this verse, I thought about the sweetness of God’s Word. It contains a beautiful picture of God who loves us and has made a way for us to have a relationship with Him. But, as we delve deeper into His Word, we see ourselves so far from the mark of what God intended for us to be, and we also see the intense and gruesome way in which God provided for us, as unworthy as we are, to be reconciled to Him. Therefore, while it is sweet to know how much God loves us, it is also bitter to our soul to know how much grief and pain we caused Him.
It was my sins, my pride, and my rebellion which caused Christ to go to the cross, suffer, and die. It was my fault, and that fact leaves a bitter, sickening feeling within my soul. But thanks be to God for providing a cure for sin sickness. He took the bitter pill that I would have been required to take, and in exchange, gave me the sweet fragrance of His righteousness. There is no one that has ever walked the earth besides Jesus who would do that for me and for you. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 5:6-8 that Christ died for the ungodly. He went on to say that someone might be inclined to die for a righteous or good person, but Jesus died for the worst of the worst, sinners like us.
In II Corinthians 2:15-16, Paul also wrote that the saved, those of us who have repented of sin and have become a faithful follower of Christ, emit a sweet fragrance of Christ to those with whom we come in contact. If we are the people who represent Christ well, then our fragrance of Christ, that is, how we speak and act in accordance with our faith in Christ can hopefully influence others to ask us about our faith. This heavenly perfume is more than just a fragrance: it is a life-giving medicine. Can those around you detect the sweet fragrance of Christ as you live and/or work among them?