Suffering in the OT

We had an interesting discussion in Revelation class yesterday. It had to do with the difference between Ezekiel eating a scroll in Ezek 2 and John eating a scroll in Revelation 10. While they were both sweet to taste, for John it turned bitter in his stomach. What's the difference?

I take the bitterness of John's scroll to mean that he will suffer on account of his mission, to be Christ's witness. But didn't the OT prophets suffer as well?

The class discussion veered into the idea that the OT prophets never really called the people of God to emulate them (as examples). Whereas in the NT, we are certainly called to emulate Christ (and the apostles/prophets as they follow Christ -- 1 Cor 11:1).

Perhaps this is what the "new command" is all about. While the idea of loving one another is an OT idea as much as a NT one, the idea of sacrifically giving of one's self, to the point of suffering, is "new" in a sense that humanity never really saw that before Jesus came.

A church with an eye toward eternity, then, must be a church that endures suffering well -- a church that doesn't give in to bitterness in the midst of difficulty. Love demands that we hold on to hope.