The Present Truth, Vol. 13

1897

January 7, 1897

“Eating of the Word” The Present Truth 13, 1, p. 6.

ATJ

THIS same thought is expressed in another place: “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.” It is worth noting that this does not say, I did eat the chapters, or, I did eat the verses, or even, I did eat the subjects. No. It says, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them”—the words. Here is where thousands miss the real benefit of the word of God. They try to grasp too much at once, and so really get nothing. Words are nothing to us if we do not get the real thoughts that they are intended to express. And the greater the mind of him who speaks, the deeper are the thoughts that are expressed, even in the simplest words. Now the mind of him who speaks in the Bible is infinite; and the thoughts there expressed in simple words are of eternal depths because they are the revelation of “the eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” PTUK January 7, 1897, page 6.1

With our less than finite minds we are not capable of grasping at once the thoughts conveyed in many of the words of the Bible—we are not capable of comprehending the words of a whole chapter, or even of a whole verse at a time. One word at a time, of the words of God, is as much as our minds are capable of considering with profit. This every one must certainly admit who believes and receives it as the word of God, expressing the thoughts of his infinite mind in his eternal purpose. Certainly any one who professes to receive the words of the Bible as the word of the eternal God, expressing His thought in His eternal purpose, would have to have a good deal of conceit of his own powers of mind to think himself capable of grasping at once the thought of a number of those words. PTUK January 7, 1897, page 6.2

“Be not wise in your own conceits.” “Be not high-minded.” Do not think it too small a thing for you to take one word of God at a time, and consider it carefully, and meditate upon it prayerfully, and receive it into your heart as the word of life to you. Do this, receive it this way, and you will find that word to be to you indeed the word of life, and the constant joy and rejoicing of your heart. Do not think this too slow a process of getting through the Bible, or through some book or chapter of the Bible. In this way you will get through it to infinitely better advantage than to run through it without comprehending it. In this way you get every word, and every word that you get is eternal life to you. For Jesus said that man shall live “by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” This shows that there is life in every word, and as certainly as you receive a word of it into your mind and heart, in that word and by that word you have eternal life. PTUK January 7, 1897, page 6.3

Look again at the words of Jesus: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” How do you live, physically, by bread? Is it by gulping great chunks or whole slices at a time?—You know it is not. And you know that if you should attempt to live by bread in that way, you would not live at all very long. You know that in living by bread, you do so by taking a bite at a time, and a proper bite, too. And knowing this, then did not Jesus, in using this fact as an illustration, and in the dependent expression, “every word of God,” intend to teach us that one word of God at a time is the way to live by it, just as one morsel of bread at a time is the way we live by bread? Is not this same lesson also conveyed in that other scripture, “Thy words were found, and I did eat them”? PTUK January 7, 1897, page 6.4

“Son of man, ... eat that I give thee.” Eat this word of God. Eat “every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Then you will live healthfully and strongly in spiritual and eternal things, just as by eating the best of food, you live healthfully and strongly physically. Eat this bread of heaven as you eat the bread of earth, and you will find it to be to you in the things of heaven just as the other is in the things of earth. PTUK January 7, 1897, page 6.5

A. T. JONES.