Crystallization-Study of Ezekiel (1)
Message Ten
Eating the Scroll— Eating and Digesting the Word of God
Scripture Reading: Ezek. 2:8—3:3; Jer. 15:16a; Rev. 10:8-10; Matt. 4:4; John 6:63; 1 Pet. 2:2-3; Heb. 5:13-14
I. In Ezekiel 2:8—3:4 the prophet Ezekiel ate the scroll and spoke with God's words, and in Revelation 10:8-11 the apostle John ate the scroll and prophesied:
A. A scroll was spread before Ezekiel, and he was told to eat it and then speak to the house of Israel—Ezek. 2:9—3:1:
1. Ezekiel opened his mouth, and Jehovah gave him that scroll to eat—v. 2.
2. Ezekiel was commanded to feed his stomach and to fill his inward parts with this scroll—v. 3a.
3. After Ezekiel ate the scroll, Jehovah charged him to go to the house of Israel and speak with His words to them—vv. 3b-4.
B. In Revelation 10:8-11 John was told to take the opened scroll that was in the hand of Christ as another Angel (v. 1), devour it, and prophesy over many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings:
1. John not only received the scroll—he devoured it—v. 10.
2. To devour anything is to receive it into one's being.
3. We must receive the divine revelation in this way; both Jeremiah and Ezekiel did this— Jer. 15:16a; Ezek. 2:8; 3:1-3.
II. "Your words were found and I ate them, / And Your word became to me / The gladness and joy of my heart"— Jer. 15:16a:
A. According to the entire revelation in the Holy Bible, God's words are good for us to eat, and we need to eat them—Psa. 119:103; Matt. 4:4; Heb. 5:12-14; 1 Pet. 2:2-3.
B. God's word is the divine supply as food to nourish us—Matt. 4:4:
1. Through the word as our food, God dispenses His riches into our inner being to nourish us that we may be constituted with His element— John 6:63.
2. This is a crucial aspect of God's economy—1 Tim. 1:4; Eph. 1:10; 3:9.
C. When we eat God's words, His word becomes our heart's gladness and joy— Jer. 15:16a.
III. We need to eat the words of the Bible— John 6:63; 1 Pet. 2:2-3; Heb. 5:12-14:
A. The word of God is not mainly for knowledge but for nourishment—v. 12:
1. Although the Bible is a book of teaching, its teaching is not merely to impart mental knowledge but to minister food to us— Jer. 15:16a.
2. The words milk and solid food in Hebrews 5:12 indicate that the word of God is for nourishment.
B. The Lord Jesus took the word of God in the Scriptures as His bread and lived on it—Matt. 4:4.
C. "The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life"— John 6:63b:
1. The words of the Lord Jesus are the embodiment of the Spirit of life—Rom. 8:2.
2. Christ is now the life-giving Spirit in resurrection, and the Spirit is embodied in His words—1 Cor. 15:45b; John 6:63b.
3. When we receive His words by exercising our spirit, we receive the Spirit, who is life.
D. We need to be nourished with the guileless milk of God's word— 1 Pet. 2:2:
1. The guileless milk is conveyed in the word of God to nourish our inner man through the understanding of our rational mind and is assimilated by our mental faculties—Rom. 8:6; cf. Deut. 11:18.
2. Although the nourishing milk of the word is for the soul through the mind, it eventually nourishes the spirit, making us not soulish but spiritual, suitable for being built up as a spiritual house of God—cf. 1 Cor. 2:15.
3. In order to enjoy the milk of the word, to taste God with His goodness in the word, we must receive His word by means of all prayer—1 Pet. 2:3; Eph. 6:17-18.
E. We need to advance from the milk of the word in 1 Peter 2:2 to the word of righteousness as the solid food in Hebrews 5:13-14:
1. Whereas milk is mainly for infants, solid food is for the mature—1 Cor. 3:2; Heb. 5:13-14.
2. To eat the word of righteousness as the solid food is a strong way to receive, experience, and enjoy Christ.
3. The word of righteousness embodies the thought of God's justice and righteousness in His dispensational and governmental dealings with His people—v. 13:
a. Righteousness is being right with persons, things, and matters before God according to His righteous and strict requirements—Matt. 5:20.
b. Righteousness is a matter of God's throne and of being right with God in our being—Psa. 89:14a; 1 Cor. 15:34; 2 Cor. 5:21.
c. If we would eat the solid food, the word of righteousness, we need experience and exercise—Heb. 5:13-14.
IV. The way for the believers to experience the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity in their daily living is to eat, digest, and assimilate the Lord Jesus as food by feeding on the word of God— John 6:35, 51-57, 63:
A. God's economy is that we eat, digest, and assimilate Christ to be constituted with Him in order to express Him and represent Him—1 Tim. 1:4; John 6:35, 51, 57; Gen. 1:26:
1. God's economy is not a matter of outward things but of Christ coming into us inwardly; for this we need to take Christ by eating, digesting, and assimilating Him—Eph. 3:17a; John 6:57b.
2. God's eternal plan is to dispense Himself into us so that He becomes every fiber of our inward being; He wants to be eaten, digested, and assimilated by us so that He can become our constituent—2 Cor. 13:14.
B. The Triune God becomes our life and life supply by entering into us organically to be assimilated into the fibers of our spiritual being—Eph. 3:16-17a; 4:23.
C. To eat the Lord Jesus is to receive Him into us so that He may be digested and assimilated by the regenerated new man in the way of life; we need to eat, digest, and assimilate Jesus as our spiritual food day by day— John 6:51-57.
D. We should not only believe into the Lord Jesus and receive Him but also eat Him, digest Him, and assimilate Him, allowing Him to become the content of our being—3:15-16; 6:51-57.
E. As we eat the Lord Jesus, we need to have proper spiritual digestion—Ezek. 2:8—3:3; Jer. 15:16a; Rev. 10:9-10:
1. If we have good digestion, there will be a thoroughfare for the food to get into every part of our inward being—Eph. 3:16-17a.
2. Indigestion means that there is no way for Christ as the spiritual food to get into our inward parts—Heb. 3:12-13, 15; 4:2:
a. Indigestion means that there is no way for the Lord as the spiritual food to get through in us.
b. When there is no free course for the food to get into our inward parts, we will have indigestion.
3. We need to keep our whole being, with all our inward parts, open to the Lord so that the spiritual food will have a thoroughfare within us; if we do this, we will have proper digestion and assimilation, we will absorb Christ as spiritual nourishment, and Christ will become our constituent for the expression of God—Eph. 3:16-17a; Col. 3:4, 10-11.
4. By eating we have digesting; by digesting we have assimilation; and by assimilation we get the practical nourishment of the riches of Christ into our being, and these riches grow into our organic tissues—Eph. 3:8.
5. Any believer who receives the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity by eating, digesting, and assimilating the Lord Jesus will live because of Him— John 6:57b.
F. Because we all partake of Christ as the one bread, we are one Body—the corporate Christ, the Body-Christ—to carry out God's administration for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose—1 Cor. 10:17; 12:12; Eph. 3:11; 5:30.