Taste the Honey

When I was three years old, my parents were horrified to learn that I was a biter.  No parent wants to believe that their precious angel would ruthlessly rend the flesh of another, yet I stood before them; guilty.  What was the reason for this heinous act of deviance?  Another toddler had stolen my chair, and I wasn't going to stand for it.  I knew that seat belonged to me, and that day, justice rolled like water.  I took what was rightfully mine.

My friend Jason wrote recently that children are great and terrible when it comes to different aspects of what we consider love.  I would echo his words when it comes to the concept of justice.  If you don't believe me, take a child's toy while they're playing with it and see what happens.  Or go to an elementary school and watch what happens when a kid cheats at kickball.  Things get bloody fast.  Because kids have a really great perception of justice.

What's tough for kids is when it is they who are being justified, or disciplined.  Likely, you'll hear the words "it's not fair!" at some point in the discipline process.  Kids have a hard time realizing their need for correction.  But parents know it must be done to make the child's future brighter. 

After being in the presence of some of the freakiest creatures described anywhere in Scripture, Ezekiel is told by God to eat a scroll.  This scroll contained words of "lamentation, mourning, and woe" meant for Israel, which is described over and over again by God as "rebellious."  Despite the situation being real weird, Ezekiel eats the scroll, and discovers that it tastes like honey.  He's then told to go and minister to the hardhearted nation in exile. 

Israel was about to experience movement from captivity to freedom caused by the union of God's people and God's Spirit.  How was that going to happen?  Through justice.  What Israel had made wrong, God was about to make right.  This meant that God was going to have to take something away from Israel; thus the words of woe.  But it's going to be sweet.  Things were going to be made right again, but not just for Israel.  When everything is right, the world is as it should be.

We're typically interested in justice when it applies to us.  When someone takes something that's mine, watch out (I haven't bitten anyone in a while, by the way).  But what if we're the wrong ones?  Do we want justice then?  In this way, maybe we have yet to truly grow up.  God shows Ezekiel that Israel is about to face correction on a pretty big scale.  But Israel will also taste the sweetness of the results.  Because when God makes things right, we can taste and see that it's good.  

God sent His Spirit to move Israel out of captivity by forming a relationship with them and making them righteous.  That sounds a lot like the God I know now.  Do you want movement from where you are?  Come and taste the honey of justice.