I do love food, and I do love the beautiful imagery of the Word of God being food for our souls. And not just healthy food that tastes...well healthy. But instead we are being offered tasty healthy food...Like food with the taste factor of potato chips but the nutritional value of spinach...that kind of tasty healthy.
Ezekiel is told to eat this scroll...we can eat the words of God and not really taste anything though, can't we? We can just sit down and read through a passage, close our Bibles and check it off our list and go about our day without having tasted the richness of the food that was set before us. When we eat, God wants us to really eat! And so God tells him for a second time...eat this scroll and fill your stomach with it. Don't just snack...fill up. Be gluttonous. Take all that you can. FILL up until you can eat no more. And so Ezekiel ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in his mouth.
Tasting takes time, doesn't it? When I was a little girl, I hated lima beans...I mean I HATED them! (Actually, now that I think about it, I still hate them!) They were just terrible...and every once in a while lima beans would show up on my dinner plate and I was expected to eat them all before I was allowed to leave the table. At first I would push off eating them, saving them for last hoping, I am sure, that somehow a cataclysmic event would happen before I got to those dreaded beans. When no such event happened, I would try to subtly drop them on the floor under the table, sporadically, of course, so that it would not look intentional. However, my mother always seemed to know what I had done, and I would get another spoonful of beans. Another hour or two would go by, an evening wasted, and still I sat with my beans. My goal in life became trying to figure out how to eat foods that I didn't like without tasting! Here is what I learned. Speed is of the essence! First, hold your breath, stuff your mouth with the unpalatable food, chew as quickly as you can, (remember, continue to hold your breath) and with a big glass of water wash them all down (being very careful not to choke). This did take some practice, but I eventually got to the place where I learned to eat certain foods without tasting.
But give me a piece of cheese cake on the other hand...I will take a bite of that and just let it rest in my mouth. I savor the flavor. I chew slowly and concentrate on all the delightful sensations my taste buds are experiencing and then finally swallow. The last bite is the longest...savor it the most with feelings of thankfulness for the maker of the cheese cake and thoughts about the next time I will get to enjoy another slice.
This is what it means to taste the Word of God. Take a bite...read a bit...turn it over in our minds...chew on it...think about what this means...savor it...taste it...let it melt in our mouths. We meditate on it. This is what we do when we taste the Word of God. We slow down. We take our time. We allow it to permeate our senses. We savor it.
The psalmist said "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" How is this so? Why is this true? Because God's words are a reflection of Himself. When we sit at the banqueting table of the Word of God, we are sitting at the banqueting table of God. He has put before us a feast of good foods and fine wines...and says eat, drink, have your fill! When we eat at the table of His Word we are tasting the goodness of God. Because the Word of God points us to the Living Word. The Bread of the Word points us to the Bread of Life. By feasting on the Word we are able to feast ourselves on the Bread of Life found in there!Hear the call from God through the prophet Isaiah..."Listen, listen to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare." Listen, eat, taste, and have your fill. Feast at the table of your King!
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