The life of an Old Testament prophet was pretty miserable. Prophesying during the time of spiritual famine, Jeremiah and Ezekiel were marked by hardship and sadness. In the face of turmoil, however, the revelation of God became their sole source of comfort, strength, and joy.
The prophet Jeremiah spent his entire life battling with stiff-necked and hardened people. In fact, his ministry became so disheartening that he mourned the fact that he had even been born. However, in the midst of his sadness, Jeremiah took comfort in the Lord’s ministry to him—the ministry of the Word of God:
Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy
and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts. (Jer. 15:16)
Despite his despair and utter depression over the state of his own country, he had learned to love the Word of God and take great comfort in it, confessing that Scripture had become “a joy” and a “delight” to him. Regardless of what was happening around him, his spiritual appetite was satiated by devouring God’s Word.
Ezekiel had a companion ministry to that of Jeremiah: Jeremiah was prophesying in the spiritual wasteland in Jerusalem while Ezekiel ministered to the exiles in Babylon. The primary job of a prophet was to speak God’s word to God’s people. In order to accomplish this calling, the prophet needed to know the word so intimately that it was seeping through his pores. Ezekiel reflects upon the time the Lord called him:
Then He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and He fed me this scroll. He said to me, “Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you.” Then I ate it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth.
. . . Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, take into your heart all My words which I will speak to you and listen closely.” (Ezek. 3:1–3, 10)
While we know that God doesn’t literally shove pieces of parchment into Ezekiel’s mouth, Ezekiel describes vividly the act of receiving the Scriptures from the Lord and ingesting their content so intimately that he can describe the act only as eating. What was his response to such an intense experience with the Word of God? He describes their effect as being “sweet as honey in my mouth” (v. 3). This is not unlike David’s experience with Scripture, declaring, “How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Ps. 119:103).
I find it hard to read verses like these and not stand amazed at the testimonies of people like David, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah—those who devour Scripture and delight so richly in it. It makes me wonder whether our current approaches to the Word of God are geared toward helping us learn to love it so. Are we truly being trained and encouraged to love God’s Word, or are we falling into the trap of becoming, as David Nienhuis warns, “merely informed quoters of the Word”—those who are prone “to memorize a select set of Bible verses” over helping believers become truly transformed by the Word? While memorizing Bible verses should no doubt become part of our study (as we’ll see later), our real focus should be on developing a long-term understanding and love for the Bible.
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