And he said unto me, Son of man, eat what thou findest; eat this roll, and go, speak unto the house of Israel.
Ezekiel is an exile in Babylon. A hand holds out a written scroll, and God tells him to eat it before he says a word to Israel. A meal and a message look unrelated, yet his whole service depends on which comes first.
God does not call the prophet by name. The title He uses marks where He is now speaking from:
The throne of the supreme and sovereign Lord God is seen in Chaldea — in the place where the prophet then was — among the Gentiles. It is no longer seen at Jerusalem in connection with the land... So the voice of God speaks to Ezekiel as to a "son of man." The title suited the testimony of a God who spoke from outside His people. He was no longer among them; He was judging them from the throne of His sovereignty. It is Christ's own title, looked at as rejected and outside of Israel, although He never ceases to think of the blessing of the people in grace.
Eating is a strange picture for taking a message. What does the act stand for?
Eating, in its meaning throughout Scripture, tells us that the Word was to be taken in and owned. These prophets had to make the messages they were sent to deliver their own. The Bible — to widen the application — is not a book of information to gather and then repeat. It is the voice of God to the soul that reads it. Each of us must hear it for ourselves before we can rightly pass on what we have heard.
The scroll was covered with writing on both sides. That detail carries more than sheer quantity:
And now the prophet must make fully his own what he is sent to proclaim among them... The scroll of the book is written within and without. This does not simply speak of the fulness of its contents. It speaks of things outward and obvious, and also of things of a deeper and more hidden nature. A soul that can see nothing except what is external needs what is obvious. But there are things within, and for those who have hearts to take them in, these go beyond all this.
Ezekiel tells us how the scroll tasted, and no more. Set his account beside John's, and a fuller pattern appears:
In Ezekiel's case we are told that when he ate the book, it was in his mouth as sweet as honey. The same is said of John, with this added: as soon as he had eaten, his stomach turned bitter. This difference probably disappears once we look at the exact wording about Ezekiel. God told him to make his stomach eat, and to fill his body with the scroll given to him. But he only tells us how it tasted in his mouth. Putting the two cases together, three things are clearly indicated — eating, digesting, and the effect of digesting.
Why does the second stage turn bitter?
Gaining fresh truth is sweet and thrilling as honey. But once it is digested and taken in, it always displaces flesh and self and the world. That is a bitter process. This is so even if, as here, the little book is concerned with judgment that is to fall on others and not on oneself.
The meal has a destination. God also warns him in advance that Israel will not listen:
The Word must be received and eaten — that is the spiritual lesson. Ezekiel obeyed. It was self-surrender, and though the message was a hard message, yet it was sweet to him... "But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to Me." It was to make no difference to the prophet. His commission was to speak Jehovah's words.
How can you tell that the scroll has gone down?
There are two unmistakable marks of the witness who has eaten, digested, and found the bitterness of the truth in its self-application. The first is humility. Death works in him, while life flows out through his testimony towards others. In practice, self is set aside and held under the cross... The second is love. In proportion as death ("bitterness") works in us, the divine nature is active; and God is love.
- Eat — the scroll is not studied and repeated. It is taken in, so the messenger owns the message before he delivers it.
- Digest — eating is only the first stage; the word has to work inward, and that stage cannot be rushed or skipped.
- Taste — in the mouth even a scroll of woe is sweet as honey; new truth always delights first.
- Bitterness — as it goes deeper it displaces self and the world, and that is the proof it has really gone in.
- Speak — only then comes "go, speak." The commission stands whether Israel listens or not, and humility and love mark the messenger who has been through it all.
So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll.
Ezekiel is among the exiles by the Chebar canal. God hands him a scroll full of laments and tells him to eat it before he says a word to Israel. Verse 2 is his answer: the mouth opens, and God Himself puts the scroll in. Commentators read this as the pattern for every message from God. It must pass through the messenger first.
Eating stands for something definite in Scripture. One writer sets this scene beside Jeremiah eating God's words:
Prophecy is both bitter and sweet. We are dealing here with symbols. There should be no more difficulty in understanding the prophet eating the book than in Jeremiah eating the words of Jehovah (Jer. 15:16). To eat is to make the thing one's own, to take it into your own being (John 6:49-58).
What went into his mouth was not blank. It had been spread open before him first, and its two written sides are read as two layers of the message:
And now the prophet is told to make fully his own what he is sent to proclaim among them… The roll is written inside and outside. That does not just speak of the fullness of its contents. It speaks of things outward and plain to see, and of things deeper and more hidden. What is plain is needed by a soul that can see only what is external. But for those who have hearts to grasp them, there are things within that go far beyond this… What was plain to see was only cause for "lamentation and mourning and woe," yet in the prophet's mouth it tasted sweet as honey. The judgment does not stand alone: the glory of the Lord is shown in it, and in the end His purposes are carried out — purposes that are in His heart and that display His heart.
The opened mouth is the prophet's yes to a hard message:
The Word must be received and eaten — that is the spiritual lesson. Ezekiel obeyed. It was self-surrender, and though the message was a hard message, yet it was sweet to him.
Because the word had to be swallowed before it could be spoken, one writer draws a line between studying the Bible for material and hearing it for yourself:
By eating — taking the act in its scriptural meaning — we understand that the Word was to be made one's own. These prophets were to make the messages they were sent to deliver their own. The Bible, to widen the application, is not a book of information to gather and then repeat. It is the voice of God to the soul that reads it. So you must hear it for yourself before you can pass on rightly what you hear… we are not qualified to be the living channels of divine truth until we have made it our own.
The same writer sets Ezekiel beside John, who also ate a book, and finds three stages in the two accounts:
In Ezekiel's case we are told that when he ate the book, it was in his mouth as sweet as honey. So it was with John too. But we are told that as soon as he had eaten, his stomach turned bitter. This difference probably disappears when you look at the exact language used with Ezekiel. He was told to make his stomach eat, and to fill his inner parts with the roll given to him. But he only tells us how it tasted in his mouth. Put the two cases together, and three things stand out — eating, digesting, and the effect of digesting.
Another writer names what digesting costs:
Nothing ruins us spiritually like proclaiming and parading a knowledge of truth we have not yet really made our own in meditation, in prayer, in experience. Gaining fresh truth is sweet and thrilling as honey. But once you digest and absorb it, it always displaces flesh and self and the world, and that is a bitter process.
God then sent the fed prophet to people who would not listen:
The eaten roll proves sweet as honey. The prophet was sent to Israel, and it was certain they would not listen. They were shameless and hard-hearted. But the prophet faced them with a forehead as hard as stone. He received God's word in his heart, and he was to go and say, "Thus says Jehovah."
- Open — the mouth opened first; receiving God's word is an act of surrender before it is an act of service.
- Eat — eating means making the word your own, taking it into your own being, not gathering information to repeat.
- Digest — God's words go past the mouth to the inner parts. Taste is quick, absorption is slow.
- Bitter — truth you absorb displaces flesh, self and the world. Sweet first, bitter after, is the normal order.
- Speak — only then is he sent. Ezekiel carried God's own words to people who would not listen, and God made his face hard for it.
And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll which I give thee. And I ate, and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.
God hands the prophet a scroll of lamentation, mourning and woe. Before he may preach a word of it, God tells him to swallow it. What he tastes is not grief but honey.
One writer sets Ezekiel's scroll beside the same act in Jeremiah:
There should be no more difficulty in understanding the prophet eating the book than in Jeremiah eating the words of the Lord. To eat is to make the thing one's own, to incorporate it into one's being.
Before Ezekiel speaks to anyone, the message must become his own:
And now the prophet is instructed to make thoroughly his own that which he is commissioned to proclaim among them.
The verse names two places: the mouth that tastes, and the stomach that fills. One writer sets Ezekiel beside John, who ate a similar book:
In Ezekiel's case we are told that when he ate the book, it was in his mouth as sweet as honey. The same was true for John, but with him it is added that as soon as he had eaten, his stomach was bitter. This difference probably disappears once you look at the exact wording used of Ezekiel. God told him to feed his belly and to fill his stomach with the scroll given to him, but he only tells us the effect of its taste in his mouth. Put the two cases together and three things stand out — eating, digesting, and the effect of digesting.
Taste is quick. Digestion is not, and the same writer says where that slow work happens:
Most of us know from experience that digesting the truth we have really received is often slow work. The truth is never effective in us, or through us, until we have digested it... For that we need to be alone in the presence of God.
A scroll of judgment ought to taste terrible. One writer points to what stands beside the judgment in this vision:
What was open to view was simply matter for lamentation, mourning and woe. Yet in the prophet's mouth there was the taste of honey for sweetness. This fits what we have seen throughout the vision: the judgment does not stand alone. The glory of the Lord is revealed in it, and the outcome is the carrying out of the purposes in His heart — purposes that display His heart.
Another writer traces the two tastes to two viewpoints: God's side, and man's. In the Psalm he quotes, older translations read "judgments" where the ESV has "rules":
Such is the double action of God's word in judgment. Looking at God and His glory, the Psalmist says, "The rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb." But when you look at man, the effect is sadly the opposite. His guilt and rebellion turn the sweet into bitter, the food into poison, life into death.
Eat first, speak second. One writer presses that on anyone who teaches Scripture:
The Bible — and this applies more widely — is not a book of information to collect and then repeat. It is the voice of God to the soul that reads it. You have to hear it for yourself before you can rightly pass on what you have heard. So a well-known servant of the Lord once said that he never read a chapter in the Bible in order to speak from it. When someone asked him why he read it, he said it was for his own profit and building up... If Ezekiel and John are examples — and others could be added — we are not qualified to be the living channels of divine truth until we have made it our own.
Ezekiel's scroll was his own. The practice it pictures belongs to every believer:
He was commanded to eat the little book that was in the angel's hand — that is, to meditate on it, to make it thoroughly his own. Someone has said that meditation, in these busy days of ours, is a lost art... For it is not only that God would have John and Ezekiel eat the book; He wants you to eat it likewise.
- Eat. He swallows the scroll; he does not just read it. Eating means taking the words in until they belong to you.
- Digest. Sweetness in the mouth is only the first stage. Filling the inner parts is slow work, done alone with God.
- Taste. Even a message of woe is honey, because God's glory shines in the judgment. Man's guilt is what turns the sweet bitter.
- Then speak. Ezekiel eats first and speaks second. Until you have made truth your own, you are not fit to pass it on.
- Everyone. God gave the command to a prophet, but He sets the same book before every believer as food for the soul.