The Best Medicine, the Most Wholesome Food

UV 1390/10,000 The Best Medicine, the Strongest Walls, the Greatest Riches, the Most Wholesome Food:
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.

Ezekiel 3 v 3


We are invited not just to read the Word of God but to eat it. To eat it implies, one needs to give priority to the Word over all our daily necessities. It is our daily spiritual bread. We need to consider it more important than even our necessary food. It contains our spiritual DNA and will instruct us on the decisions we need to take, the paths to take and the ones to avoid. We need to fill our belly with the Word and not just take an occasional bite. We need to cultivate a hunger for the Word that makes us return to it from time to time for a refill, a refreshing and renewal. Our work, our worth and our worship are deeply connected with the Word. Through the Word, we come to know our identity, that we are called by the name of the Lord as He is not just our creator but He is the Father of our spirits. He created and formed our bodies and every part of it but He breathed His own spirit in us making us His children and He, our Father. When man sinned, the Father’s spirit was taken away. When we are redeemed by faith in Jesus, the Father’s spirit is restored to us. This knowledge is the source of both our worth and our worship of God. Our identity and our powers are derived from His Word. Today, there is a certain spiritual power and authority even in our words and our breath as the Father’s spirit dwells in us. This is the reason Jesus said, “ Abide in my Word and I will abide in you.”


We need to delight in the Word more than a gourmet would delight in the finest honey or in delicacies, more than a jeweller in finding the finest gold, more than a connoisseur in the finest wine. So much so, we must make it our meditation the whole day. Whatever we are doing, the Word should be in the background of our minds. Meditation on the Word is good medicine. It heals all our inner bitterness. Medicine in normally bitter. The Word is sweet medicine. Unlike medicine it is not bitter in our mouths but right from the first taste it is sweeter than honey. It is not sugar-coated to give an artificial sweetness unlike the teachings of men and of the world we live in. It is genuinely sweet. The source of a river is often found in a spring hidden in a remote cave. Similarly, when the Word is hidden in our hearts, it becomes the rivers of life-giving, life-enhancing and life-sustaining water in our innermost being.

The Word needs to dwell in us richly in wisdom. It implies that the Word needs to be retained. Our minds need to run over it again and again. We need to relate it to our lives, past, present and future. We need to be surrounded by the Word like walls of our homes within which we dwell. The word “richly” implies that we should not just read the Word cursorily or mechanically but be determined to extract the rich nuggets of practicable truth from the Word. Our knowledge of the Word should not be theoretical but always in application mode. Then it will produce much wisdom and understanding of God, men and matters in us. The Word will enable us to gain spiritual discernment to be able to separate the grain from the chaff. There is no better world view than that obtained by looking at the world and ourselves through the templates of the Word. The Word is a polished mirror that reflects truth and reality. It is a self-correction mechanism. It produces gladness, joy and rejoicing in us. The uni-verse says, “ Cause your belly ..” This implies that we need to discipline ourselves to constantly intake the Word. It is an act of will to initiate the act of reading, meditating and applying the Word but with discipline and willing obedience, it will become a life-enriching habit. In short, the Word is versatile. It is the best medicine, the most wholesome food, the strongest walls, the most secure shield, the most powerful weapon, the greatest riches, the best map, the finest mirror…

Prateep V Philip