Think about your favorite dessert. Is it good for your health? Perhaps you use honey as a sweetener, or you may even use Manuka honey for its purported medicinal benefits. If you’ve ever tried honeycomb, you’ll know how sweet the soft texture is as it melts onto your tongue.
In Psalm 119:103, 104, the psalmist describes the Bible as a honeycomb—a metaphor for delight: “How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through Your precepts I get understanding” (NKJV).
What does it mean that “through your precepts I get understanding”? (Ps. 119:104). Why is this idea important in grasping what Bible study does for us?
Yes, God’s words are indeed sweet to our souls and unlike anything else the world offers us. Unlike many desserts, the sweetness of God’s Word is healing to our souls and life-changing for our characters. If you’ve been distant from God, you can fall on your knees, open His Word, and drink from the living water that alone will satisfy.
In Isaiah 55:1–13, the prophet expands on the message mentioned above. Spend some time reading this chapter now, and then answer these questions:
- What does the Lord give to those who come to Him, to “eat” from His Word?
- What is His invitation to you here?
- What is His challenge?
- What is His promise?
God’s living and powerful Word cuts straight to our hearts, minds, and souls as it challenges us to grow in Christ. But it can do this for us only to the degree that we take the time and effort (and yes, it takes effort) to delve into the Word with an attitude of submission and humility and a willingness to follow what it teaches.
What are concrete ways you can “seek the Lord while He may be found” (Isa. 55:6, NKJV)?
Supplemental EGW Notes
When a real love for the Bible is awakened, and the student begins to realize how vast is the field and how precious its treasure, he will desire to seize upon every opportunity for acquainting himself with God’s word. Its study will be restricted to no special time or place. And this continuous study is one of the best means of cultivating a love for the Scriptures. Let the student keep his Bible always with him. As you have opportunity, read a text and meditate upon it. While walking the streets, waiting at a railway station, waiting to meet an engagement, improve the opportunity to gain some precious thought from the treasure house of truth.
The great motive powers of the soul are faith, hope, and love; and it is to these that Bible study, rightly pursued, appeals. The outward beauty of the Bible, the beauty of imagery and expression, is but the setting, as it were, for its real treasure—the beauty of holiness. In its record of the men who walked with God, we may catch glimpses of His glory. In the One “altogether lovely” we behold Him, of whom all beauty of earth and heaven is but a dim reflection. “I, if I be lifted up,” He said, “will draw all men unto Me.” John 12:32. As the student of the Bible beholds the Redeemer, there is awakened in the soul the mysterious power of faith, adoration, and love. Upon the vision of Christ the gaze is fixed, and the beholder grows into the likeness of that which he adores. The words of the apostle Paul become the language of the soul: “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: . . . that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings.” Philippians 3:8–10.
The springs of heavenly peace and joy unsealed in the soul by the words of Inspiration will become a mighty river of influence to bless all who come within its reach. Let the youth of today, the youth who are growing up with the Bible in their hands, become the recipients and the channels of its life-giving energy, and what streams of blessing would flow forth to the world!—influences of whose power to heal and comfort we can scarcely conceive—rivers of living water, fountains “springing up unto everlasting life.”—Education, pp. 191, 192.
The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.