Verse 3<\/span>. It was in my mouth as honey<\/B><\/I>] It was joyous to me to receive the Divine message, to be thus let into the secrets of the Divine counsel, and I promised myself much comfort in that intimate acquaintance with which I was favoured by the Supreme Being. In Re 10:10<\/span> we find St. John receiving a little book, which he ate, and found it sweet as honey<\/I> in his mouth<\/I>, but after he had eaten it, it made his belly bitter<\/I>, signifying that a deep consideration of the awful matter contained in God’s word against sinners, which multitudes of them will turn to their endless confusion, must deeply afflict those who know any thing of the worth of an immortal spirit.<\/P> <\/p>\n In this verse is confirmed and explained what was spoken Eze 3:1<\/span>, which see. <\/P> Cause thy belly to eat; the mouth is the proper instrument of eating, but when meat is eaten and digested, the belly is said to eat; the prophet must not just taste, but he must chew, swallow down, retain, and fill his belly with Gods word. <\/P> And fill thy bowels: this is the same repeated, unless it add to the other the measure, the fulness of the measure wherewith we should read, meditate, and digest the word of God and his works. And since bowels are the seat of compassion, it is likely the Lord would have his prophet be affected with pity toward that captive people, whose miseries he must foretell, and he foresees they must suffer. <\/P> This roll that I give thee: the roll and all that was in it came from God, and Ezekiel must remember this. <\/P> Then did I eat it, Heb. And I did eat it. <\/P> It was in my mouth as honey for sweetness; upon the palate it was sweet (this done in vision still) as honey. If you wonder that such bitter tidings could be sweet to the prophet, if it be doubted how this could be, since, Eze 2:10<\/span>, it was full of lamentation, &c.. <\/P> Answ. It was sweet to receive such things by revelation from God, and so to converse with God; it is sweet to foresee future events, and to foretell Gods just judgments against sinners, and to have prospect of a vindication of the honour of God and credit of the prophet, who seeing all, these things with a well-composed mind, and just zeal for God, could not but approve and be pleased therewith. Or, it was sweet, as usually the first part of the ministerial work is pleasant, but at last wicked mens opposition and persecution make it bitter, as Eze 3:14<\/span>; Jer 15:16-18<\/span>; Rev 10:10<\/span>. <\/P> <\/p>\n 3. honey for sweetness<\/B>ComparePsa 19:10<\/span>; Psa 119:103<\/span>;Rev 10:9<\/span>, where, as here in Eze3:14<\/span>, the “sweetness” is followed by “bitterness.”The former being due to the painful nature of the message; the latterbecause it was the Lord’s service which he was engaged in; and hiseating the roll and finding it sweet, implied that, divesting himselfof carnal feeling, he made God’s will his will, however painful themessage that God might require him to announce. The fact that Godwould be glorified was his greatest pleasure.<\/P><\/p>\n And he said unto me, son of man, cause thy belly to eat<\/strong>,…. Or “devour” f, and consume; that is, concoct and digest; do not cast it out of thy mouth, as soon as thou hast tasted of it; but let it go down into the stomach, and there digest it; and from thence into the belly, that so, upon the whole, virtue may be received, and nourishment come by it:<\/p>\n and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee<\/strong>; eat to satiety; so the Targum,<\/p>\n “son of man, thou shalt satiate thy soul, and fill thy belly, if thou receivest what is written in this roll, which I give thee:”<\/p>\n this was sufficient to qualify the prophet for prophesying, and furnish him with materials enough; and these fit and proper for the discharge of his office; and so such who study the word of God with application become scribes well instructed in the kingdom of heaven; and being filled themselves, are able to bring forth things to the comfort and satisfaction of others:<\/p>\n then did I eat [it], and it was in my mouth, as honey for sweetness<\/strong>; that is, as the roll was spread before him, he looked into it, and read it, and meditated upon it, and laid it up in his memory, in order to deliver it out when commanded; and though it contained things very distressing, and which would occasion lamentation, and mourning, and woe; yet, considering that these were the will of God, and in righteous judgment to men, he could not but acquiesce in and approve of them. All the words that come out of the mouth of God are as sweet as, honey, yea, sweeter than that, Ps 19:10<\/span>; and so the Targum interprets it of the words of the Lord,<\/p>\n “and I took it, and his words were in my mouth as sweet honey;”<\/p>\n and especially the Gospel, and the truths of it, are like honey; they are gathered by laborious ministers, as honey by the industrious bee, out of the various flowers of the Scriptures, with which being laden, they bring into the hive of the church, and dispose of for general usefulness; these are like honey for healthfulness, for nourishment, and for sweetness to the taste; that which makes the Gospel so are the exceeding great and precious promises in it: its doctrines of grace, and those of peace and reconciliation, of pardon, righteousness, eternal life and salvation, by Jesus Christ; and, above all, Christ himself, who is the sum and substance of it; and all its truths being quickening; comforting, and refreshing: but thou the Gospel is, only sweet when it is eaten; not merely heard, assented to, and superficially tasted of, but eaten and fed upon by faith; and so, it is sweet, not to unregenerate persons, whose taste is not changed; nor to nominal and notional professors, who have only a superficial taste of it; but to true believers in Christ, spiritual men, who judge and discern all things; see Re 10:9<\/span>.<\/p>\n f “devoret, consumat”, Vatablus.<\/p>\n Ezekiel, as we have just seen, proceeds to say, that a book was given him to eat, because God’s servants ought to speak from the inmost affection of their heart. We know that many have a tongue sufficiently fluent, but use it only for ostentation: meanwhile, God treats their vanity as a laughing stock, because their labor is fruitless. Hence we must observe the passage of Paul already quoted, “the kingdom of God is with power.” (1Co 4:20<\/span>.) But the efficacy of the Holy Spirit is not exerted unless when he who is called to teach applies his serious endeavors to attain to the discharge of his duty. For this reason, then, Ezekiel is commanded to eat the roll Next he says, it was as sweet as honey; and, but a little before, he said it was filled with curses: therefore, either he had put off all humanity, or ought to be grieved, when he found himself appointed to be the herald of God’s vengeance. But, in other places, we saw that the servants of God were endued with feelings of an opposite kind; for, as they were often rough and stern like their work, so they condoled with the miserable people: but, their grief did not hinder them from proceeding in the discharge of their duty. For this reason Ezekiel now says, the book was sweet, because he acquiesced in God’s commands, and although he pitied his own people, yet he acknowledged that it could not happen otherwise, and subscribed to the just judgment of God. Therefore, by the word sweetness, he signifies his acquiescence in embracing the office enjoined upon him, and he so obeyed God that he forgot all the material for sorrow in the book, because the justice of God prevailed and thus extinguished the feeling of too great humanity which might otherwise have delayed him. Jeremiah uses the same expression. (Jer 15:16<\/span>.) He says, that he found the words of God, and that they became to him gladness and joy of heart. For we saw, that he was only anxious but very sorrowful when he thought that utter destruction was impending over the people. But, as I have just said, these two things are not discordant: that Prophets should desire the safety of the people, and use their utmost endeavors to promote it, and yet manifest a firm constancy, and never hesitate, when necessity demands it, to condemn the people and to utter God’s threats which are enjoined ‘upon them. Thus shortly afterwards Jeremiah says, that he was filled with anger; thy words were found, says he, and I did eat them, and they afforded me joy and gladness of heart, because thy name has been called over me, O Jehovah God of hosts: that is, because I have been taught by the power of thy Spirit, and as I have been called to this office, so thou hast stretched forth thy hand unto me that I may fulfill thy commands with good faith and constancy: therefore thy words were my delight. Afterwards he adds, (Eze 3:17<\/span>,) neither have I sat in the council of scorners, nor have I exalted myself for the sake of throwing off the yoke; for since I perceived that thou must be obeyed, I was, as it were, overpowered, yet I did not sit with the scorners, but I sat alone, says he, because thou hast filled me with indignation. Hence we see, that in one person were two feelings very different and contrary in appearance, because he was filled with indignation, and yet received joy through the words of God. <\/p>\n (3) It was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.<\/strong>That is, the first impression made upon him by his prophetic call was one of delight. Such it must always be to those whose high privilege it is to bear Gods message to their fellows. He does not expressly add, as St. John does (Rev. 10:10<\/span>) after a similar first sensation, as soon as I had eaten it my belly was bitter; but it may easily be inferred from Eze. 3:14<\/span> that such was his experience also, when he went with his heavy message to a people indisposed to give ear. (Comp. Jer. 15:16<\/span>; Jer. 20:7-18<\/span>.)<\/p>\n Eze 3:3<\/span><\/em><\/strong>. <\/strong>Cause thy belly to eat<\/em><\/strong><\/strong> Thy belly shall eat this roll which I give thee; and thy bowels shall be filled with it: And while I did eat it, it was sweet in my mouth like honey. <\/em>Houbigant. See Rev 10:10<\/span> where St. John, eating the roll, found it sweet <\/em>at first, but afterwards bitter; <\/em>that is to say, observes Bishop Newton, “The knowledge of future things at first was pleasant; but the sad contents of the little book <\/em>afterwards filled his soul with sorrow.” <\/p>\n Eze 3:3 And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat [it]; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.<\/p>\n Ver. 3. Cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels,<\/strong> ] i.e., <\/em> Deeply and duly ponder and practise those holy truths thou hast to press upon others; preach thine own experiences, &c. See 1Ti 4:15<\/span> . <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.<\/strong> ] So was God’s law to good David; Psa 119:29<\/span> ; <\/em> Psa 119:103 to Augustine, Scripturae tuae sunt deliciae meae,<\/em> saith he, Thy Scriptures are my delight; to Alphonsus, King of Arragon, who professed he would rather lose his kingdoms than be without the knowledge of God’s blessed book, which he had read over above a dozen times, together with such commentaries thereupon as those times afforded. See Rev 10:10<\/span> .<\/p>\n Then did I eat. Compare Rev 10:10. <\/p>\n as honey, &c. Compare Psa 19:10; Psa 119:103. Jer 15:16. <\/p>\n eat it <\/p>\n Cf. Eze 2:10; Rev 10:9. Whatever its message, the word of God is sweet to faith because it is the word of God. <\/p>\n and fill: Eze 2:10, Job 32:18, Job 32:19, Jer 6:11, Jer 20:9, Joh 7:38, Col 3:16 <\/p>\n Then: Psa 119:11, Jer 15:16, Joh 6:53-63 <\/p>\n it was: Job 23:12, Psa 19:10, Psa 119:97, Psa 119:103, Pro 2:10, Pro 2:11, Rev 10:9, Rev 10:10 <\/p>\n Reciprocal: Gen 41:21 – eaten them up Num 5:22 – go into<\/p>\n Eze 3:3. In the case of John (Rev 10:8-11) the eating of the book had a twofold effect on him, sweet and bitter, but nothing is said about the bitterness in that of Ezekiel, because the personal attitude of the prophet toward the words is the only feature of it that was to be considered in the act, In the ease of John in Revelation that of both the speaker and the people were symbolized, hence the bitterness. It was agreeable with Ezekiel to carry the message to Israel because he was a faithful servant of God the same as John. Belly and bowels are used to denote the body as a whole, and when used figuratively it denotes that Ezekiel was to be completely possessed by the article. Since the act was a symbol of his being inspired of God it made a circumstance like that of the aposiles who were filled with the Holy Ghost (Act 2:4).<\/p>\n And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat [it]; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness. Verse 3. It was in my mouth as honey] It was joyous to me to receive … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 3:3”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"