Eat and Fill Your Stomach!

Ezekiel 3:1
And he said to me, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the people of Israel.”

Ezekiel 3:2
So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat.

Ezekiel 3:3
Then he said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.” So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.

God tells prophet Ezekiel to take a scroll and eat it. A scroll was the book of those days. A scroll had written information. A scroll contained the written word of God. The scroll he was to eat was provided by God. After eating he was to go and speak to the people of Israel.

He was not supposed to go and speak to the Israelites before eating this scroll. First, he was to eat the scroll. Secondly, he was to speak to the Israelites. What he was to tell the Israelites had a direct relationship to the eating of the scroll. There was something about eating the scroll that connected to what the people were to be told.

He was not just supposed to eat symbolically. He was not eating to dramatize that he has eaten. He was eating properly to fill his stomach. He was eating to satisfaction. God was watching as he ate. He was expected to eat until he could eat no more. Eat and fill your stomach.

The Bible tells us that the eating process proved to be as sweet as honey. The scroll was sweet. That is what Ezekiel reported. It was sweet. After that, the prophet is encouraged to go and preach to Israelites without fear and he actually does a powerful unforgettable ministry. We shouldn’t forget that there was a relationship between the success of Ezekiel’s ministry and his eating of the scroll.

Revelation 10:9-11
(9) So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but ‘in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.’” (10) I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. (11) Then I was told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings.”

John the Revelator was also given a scroll to eat. The taste like Ezekiel’s was as sweet as honey. However, unlike Ezekiel, John reports that the stomach turned sour or painful after eating the sweet scroll. This was not food poisoning. John had been warned that after eating there will be a problem.

As John, the Revelator struggles with the stomach pains caused by eating the sweet scroll he receives a message that he should keep preaching, keep prophesying. As John struggles with stomachaches occasioned by eating of the sweet scroll, he is told to continue with the preaching assignment.

Eating the scroll is symbolic of reading to understand. Ezekiel is told to eat the scroll before going to speak to the people. He was to study the word of God thoroughly before going out to preach. John the Revelator was to study the word of God and it would be sweet, but later on painful, yet he wasn’t supposed to stop or get discouraged.

Eat and fill your stomach means study sufficiently. Study until you have mastery. Avoid superficial studies and quick conclusions leading to fallacy. Less study leads to conjecture. Eat and fill your stomach.

Successful and effective public speaking must be preceded by deep and wide study. A person well versed with various disciplines and ideas is likely to be a very resourceful speaker. If you want to excel in the field of public speaking, please eat and fill your stomach!

Pastoral work and all preaching require studies. Theological studies in a seminary are part of the eating and filling your stomach. Personal studies are part of eating and filling your stomach. A layman who wants to preach needs to eat and fill his stomach. A lady who has a call to preaching and gospel proclamation must eat and fill her stomach.

Before writing anything for anyone to read, eat and fill your stomach. Before posting anything on social media content, eat and fill your stomach. We are only beneficial when we first eat and fill our stomachs!

We will experience a lifestyle change positively if we made it a habit to eat and fill our stomachs. It is not anything and everything that is read and brings a blessing. Remember the eaten scroll was from God. Only eat what does not contradict God’s will. Fill your stomach with God’s word and all that doesn’t contradict it. Be selective on what you eat and fill your stomach with.

Dear God, help us to eat and fill our stomachs before engaging the world and making continuous attempts to excellence. Bless us as we eat and fill our stomachs, in Jesus’ name, Amen!

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