A "Preview" of the Eucharist?

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Reading last night in the book of Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 2:9-3:2

9: And when I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and, lo, a written scroll was in it;
10: and he spread it before me; and it had writing on the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe.

3

1: And he said to me, "Son of man, eat what is offered to you; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel."
2: So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat.
3: And he said to me, "Son of man, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it." Then I ate it; and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.

Which is then echoed in Revelation:

Revelation 10:8-10

8: Then the voice which I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, "Go, take the scroll which is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land."
9: So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll; and he said to me, "Take it and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth."
10: And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.

And you say to me, "So what?"

Well it occurred to me as I read the passage from Ezekiel that this was a foretaste of the Eucharist itself. He takes the scroll of the Word of God and consumes it. It is as honey to the tongue and it gives Ezekiel the strength to prophesy, it bestows upon him an office that must come from God Himself.

Then in Revelation, the same words, or nearly the same words come to John for whom the taste is as honey, but it settles bitterly because of the strife and difficulty of living its reality in troubling times. (Or perhaps for other reasons that I do not truly understand.) Nevertheless, I find it interesting that God's power is bestowed through his Word consumed.

I'm sure there are a great many resonant images in the Old Testament that set before us the truth of Jesus Christ coexistant and coextensive with God because He is God. In the Old Testament, Jesus comes to his people veiled. In the glory of the New Testament, as testified by the tearing of the temple veil upon Jesus's death, He comes as glorious revelation of what people should always have known and seen. But He is the new Holy of Holies and the ancient of days--ever present, ever new.

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1 Comments

A "foretaste" of the Eucharist! Ha!

This also provides a bridge to the Eucharist from the "taste and see the goodness of the Lord" bits in the Old Testament, like Psalm 119's "How sweet to my tongue is your promise, sweeter than honey to my mouth!"

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This page contains a single entry by Steven Riddle published on August 20, 2004 7:12 AM.

James's Advice on Curbing the Tongue was the previous entry in this blog.

And Speaking of Ezekiel is the next entry in this blog.

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