“Just give me one more chance!” Isn’t that what we often say when we know we have really messed up, when a friend is ready to give up on us? Well, the good news is that God is a God of second chances. That’s why in Old Testament times, He kept sending prophet after prophet to call His people to come back to Him. And that’s at least in part why He gave John this Revelation: to prophesy one more time to all the “peoples and nations and languages and kings” (v. 11).

But unfortunately, this message, which we’ll see unfolded in chapters 11 through 14, is largely one of judgment upon those who are unfaithful – this is, after all a continuation of the three woes announced in 8:13, only one of which has been revealed up to this point (9:12). Moreover, the connection between John’s prophecy and that of Ezekiel is quite clear: both were told to eat a scroll containing God’s words, and both of them found that Word to be as sweet as honey (10:9; Ezekiel 3:3).

But when John ate his scroll, his stomach was made bitter (v. 10). Just so, Ezekiel’s scroll contained “words of lamentation and mourning and woe” (Ezekiel 2:10). And Ezekiel would go on to spell out God’s woeful words, not in clear, calm persuasive speech, but in violent images. He would act out the siege and conquest of Jerusalem by eating siege rations (Ezekiel 4:9-17). He would shave off his beard and use the hairs to illustrate the terrible things that would happen to the people after the siege was over (Ezekiel 5:1-4). He would dig a hole in the wall of his house to show how the people would be carried off into captivity (Ezekiel 12:3-6). He would describe the faithlessness of God’s people in the most graphic of sexual terms (Ezekiel 16).

In fact, we might say that if Isaiah reasoned with God’s people and Jeremiah wept for and shouted at God’s people, Ezekiel was the prophet that said, “Since you won’t listen to reason, let me draw you a picture.” And that’s the same way that God’s final prophecy, the prophecy we find in Revelation chapters 11-14, comes to those who continue to refuse to listen – in confusing and often frightening imagery.

But there can be no doubt that this is a message straight from God, for Who else could send such a mighty messenger (vv. 1-3)? And there can be no doubt that God wants us to hear this final admonition – for otherwise He could have ordered the contents of the book to be sealed just as He has withheld the message of the seven thunders from us (v. 4).

God is calling out to everyone in every nation one more time, giving all of us one more chance. Will we listen and turn back to Him?

Ezekiel 2:3-3:3 (ESV)

3 And he said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day.
4 The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD.’
5 And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them.
6 And you, son of man, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions. Be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.
7 And you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house.
8 “But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”
9 And when I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and behold, a scroll of a book was in it.
10 And he spread it before me. And it had writing on the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe.
And he said to me, “Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.”
2 So I opened my mouth, and he gave me this scroll to eat.
3 And he said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.

Revelation 10:1-11 (ESV)

Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire.
2 He had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land,
3 and called out with a loud voice, like a lion roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded.
4 And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.”
5 And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven
6 and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay,
7 but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.
8 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, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”