Sweetness of the Scroll

Sweetness of the Scroll

In my last blog I shared about the “word” I heard…”let me hear your voice” which references a scripture in Song of Solomon.  I shared a few thoughts I believe Holy Spirit revealed.  Since then, I have continued to contemplate what I heard from the Spirit of God.  I believe that Father God speaks to us…daily…moment by moment if we are attentive.  The phrase became not only an instruction, but also an invitation.  However, even after the blog post I still needed discernment.  What act of obedience was the Lord requiring of me? 

I think that sometimes we act in presumption when it comes to our spiritual walk.  We can get comfortable and down right religious with our spiritual disciplines and that just isn’t good.  Some time ago, the Father, let me know, quite distinctly, that I was not to walk in presumption concerning his Word and His Voice.  We can hear something familiar and automatically believe we know what our response should be. In this season, I don't want to be presumptive concerning what I am hearing from the Lord.  Jesus said “Ask, seek and knock”.  We should probably ask some questions once we hear an instruction from the Lord.   To hear in Hebrew actually means to listen and obey! That means action should follow what is heard. I said all that to say, I couldn’t just assume that I knew what my act of obedience was concerning “ let me hear your voice”.  Well, I think I may have something…sweetness of the scroll.  Let me explain…

I am on this faith adventure into the Hebraic roots of our Christian faith.  Each week I read the weekly portion of scripture assigned and listen to Hebraic roots teachers to learn and grow in my knowledge of scripture, specifically the Torah.  More often than not, Father speaks to me through the Torah reading.  I am learning so much and just plain enjoy it. Call me a geek …I am okay with that!  Sometimes I think…wow LORD that was such a nugget; a sweet nugget of truth from your Word.  Now I plan to share those nuggets with others through the spoken word.  I will begin sharing a sweet drop of honey about the weekly Torah reading over social radio podcast, specifically Spreaker.  I am not a Hebrew Scholar, so please don’t expect in depth teaching on the Torah.  I have only spent a little over a year listening to a weekly Torah teachings, but I believe that Holy Spirit does share things with me that can encourage other believers in their faith.  Therefore, in this blog I am going to give a brief recap of the insights from the first few weeks to catch us up….then I will move forward on Spreaker.

The Sweetness 

Psalm 119:103

How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Ezekiel 3:3

And He said unto me, “Son of man, feed your belly and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you.”  So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness.

Psalm 19: 9,10

The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.  More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

We can see that scripture presents a comparison between the word of God and the sweetness of honey.  Think about it.  The promise of God to Israel was the inheritance of a land flowing with milk and honey.  The metaphor of the sweetness of honey and the importance to godly instruction from scripture is a tradition confirmed by Jewish rabbis and rooted in Hebrew.  Here is an excerpt from a website:

Ezekiel’s Scroll-http://www.jerusalemperspective.com/2634/

Whatever the etymology of khanach, the custom of using honey deserves special mention in any study of Jewish education. Rabbinic tradition informs us that it was the Jewish practice to use honey in a special ceremony on the first day of school. The young child was shown a slate which had written on it the letters of the alphabet, two verses of Scripture (Lev. 1:1, Deut. 33:4), and one other sentence: “The Torah will be my calling.” The teacher next read these words to the child, and the child repeated them back. Then his slate was coated with honey, which he promptly licked off, being reminded of Ezekiel, who said after eating the scroll, “I ate it; and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth” (Ezek. 3:3). After this ceremony, the child was given sweet cakes to eat with Bible verses from the Torah written on them.^[6]

What is the reason the rabbis tie study and honey together? The answer appears to be due, at least in part, to the linguistic connection they made between the use of khech (palate, gums) and khanach (to educate) in certain biblical texts. The rabbis found khech in passages comparing the sweetness of honey to the sweetness of the wisdom and words of God which one spiritually ingests.

So here are a few drops from the scroll…these are simple insights I have pondered each week while reading through the Torah portions.

Bereshit (In the beginning): Genesis 1:1-6:8  

Drop: The Holy Spirit was hovering over darkness over the face of the waters. Gen. 1:1-2

In the first Torah reading (parashat) Holy Spirit reminded me that he is not intimidated by the darkness!  We can get ourselves all worked up over the challenges in our lives.  To what end?  Worry and stress?  If we believe our bibles, there is a shaking…and there is darkness…gross darkness already manifesting. So we had better stay in faith.  The Holy Spirit was hovering in the beginning and He is continuing to move in the midst of God’s people. Holy Spirit is not alarmed about the darkness in the world. Needless to say, I needed to be reminded because of a few situations in my own life.  Holy Spirit is present with us in the chaos in our lives. We must live in that truth.

Noach (Noah): Genesis 6:9-11:32

Drop: The fountains of the deep were broken and heaven’s windows were opened. Gen. 7:11

Most believers are “familiar” with the story of Noah.  The second parashat in Torah covers this biblical account.  What really stood out to me that week was the verse Genesis 7:11...”all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened.”  I don’t think I had ever paid attention to that passage.  There is a scientist who has studied this and can scientifically explain how the flood actually occurred!  So it was powerful floods of water that flowed from fountains stored by God in the earth and above the earth in heaven!  That was a lot of water!  Jesus said out of our belly will flow rivers of living waters!  Think about the powerful flow of water in a river. There is a force of power resident in our spirits. Don’t you think Jesus knows “a little”  something about the source of the living waters and the rivers of God! Let’s get in the flow and stay there! Let’s get under an open window of heaven and pitch a tent!

Lekh Lekha (Go forth yourself ): Genesis 12:1-17:27

Drop: Go go within yourself and deep sleep. Gen. 12:1 and Gen. 15:12

The title of this parashat in Hebrew is translated go forth yourself or more accurately go within yourself.  The phrase is the first few words of the Torah reading.  Traditionally, the parashat names are the first few Hebrew words of the Torah section.  (FYI Ezra the priest and scribe developed the Torah reading schedule).  In this reading, we read about when the Lord came to Abram in a vision and “cut covenant” with him.  It is a powerful portion of scripture.  What popped out at me was Genesis 15:12. Father put Abram in a deep sleep.  This is the second time that God put a man in deep sleep. The first time was with Adam in Genesis 2:21.  In Strong’s concordance it is H8639 meaning deep sleep or trance.  At this point, I am not really making any connection other than deep sleep. So I go and look up the rest of the references for the Hebrew word.  A very interesting reference is Job 33:15, 16…”In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, while slumbering on their beds, then he opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction” SAY WHAT!!!  I am sure there is a lot more to this than what I am getting right now, but for me…I need to make sure I am getting “real” sleep….go in…going within…in my times of rest.  I have suffered from insomnia and happen to be a very light sleeper, but I still tend to have dreams. THE POINT: we should not allow the enemy to rob us of our sleep and rest. We may be missing out on important instructions from the Lord!

This is already longer than I anticipated so I am going to cut the recap here.  Hopefully, something shared encouraged and ignited your faith.  Sweetness of the scroll is going to be a source of encouragement based on the Torah portion for that week.  It will be whatever Holy Spirit wants shared…I will be exercising my faith to hear and hope that you will join in faith and listen too…

More to come… I will finish the remaining Torah portion recaps….next time

I will post the first podcast…Sweetness of the Scroll...after I record it…help me Lord!

Grace and peace…

- recaps still to come-

Vayera (And he appeared):  Genesis 18:1-22:24 Tent of meeting.

Chayei Sarah (The Life of Sarah): Genesis 23:1-25:18 Eliezer: Sent One

Toldot (Generations): Genesis 25:19-28:9 Digging Wells


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