I really enjoy going to my Mother in law’s house for dinner.  Not only is she a great cook, but she is a generous one.  She is generous in the amount of food that she cooks and generous in faithfully sending home leftovers with us.  My family fills our bellies at her table and then there is always more food for later. 

I have been chewing on a passage of scripture for a while now and several more that I have run across that seem to go hand in hand with it.  My Bible commentary says that preachers of God’s word “need to internalize the message, making it part of his own life”, but I think this applies to all Christians.

Ezekiel 3:1-3 (NIV) 

And he said to me, "Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel." So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat.

 Then he said to me, "Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it." So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.

There are similar passages found in Ezekiel 2:8-10, Revelation 10:9-10 and this one in Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 15:16 (NIV)

 When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty.

The commentary used the words, “internalize the message”, but that seemed too textbook, too formal; almost as if someone had written that explanation without feeling.  Without having been filled up themselves.  There was something more, but I could not put my finger on it. I needed to chew on it longer.  I needed to savor those passages.

 I’m not sure why, but eating God’s word was a hard concept for me to grasp.  Then I realized that we use similar expressions in our everyday speech such as: “a slice of humble pie”, or “biting off more than you can chew”.   I was chewing on God’s word.  That is what I do every time I meditate on a passage of Scripture.  But I wanted to let God’s word fill me up.  I wanted my heart to echo the Psalmist:

Psalm 119:103 (NIV)

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Psalm 34:8 (NIV)

 Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

Psalm 81:10 (NIV)

 I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.

The words “Open wide your mouth and I will fill it” made me picture a baby bird with its mouth open as wide as possible waiting for the mother bird to give it a worm. Or even a newborn baby who opens their mouth wide and searching when you touch their cheek. Did I come into God’s presence that way?  Do I read God’s word expecting, wanting, waiting, searching for fullness that only He can give?

Jesus offered water to the Samaritan woman at the well and he offers the same to us. Are you hungry for the righteousness of God’s word?  If you are not filling yourself with the goodness of God’s word then in your empty hunger you will reach for something else.  Compared to God’s word it will be junk food.

Matthew 5:6 (NIV)

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Isaiah 55:1-2 (NIV)

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!  Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

I am certainly not a preacher, as the commentary mentions, but I do need to fill myself up on the word of God.  Ingest it and digest it.  It would be a good idea in this case, to overeat or maybe have a bag of leftovers ready.  Leftovers I can send home with someone else. When I am talking to a friend, I need to make sure that I am so full of God’s word that it is Him I am sharing and not myself.  God’s word, God’s message and not mine…