Wednesday

Related Verses
1 Pet. 2:2
2 As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation,

Psa. 119:103
103 How sweet are Your words to my taste! Sweeter than honey to my mouth!

S. S. 4:11a
11Your lips drip fresh honey, my bride; Honey and milk are under your tongue;

Isa. 50:4
4 The Lord Jehovah has given me The tongue of the instructed, That I should know how to sustain the weary with a word. He awakens me morning by morning; He awakens my ear To hear as an instructed one.

Ezek. 3:3
3 And He said to me, Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your inward parts with this scroll that I am giving you. And I ate it, and it was like honey in my mouth in its sweetness.

Matt. 12:35-36
35 The good man, out of his good treasure, brings forth good things, and the evil man, out of his evil treasure, brings forth evil things.
36 And I say to you that every idle word which men shall speak, they will render an account concerning it in the day of judgment.

Luke 4:22
22 And all bore witness to Him and marveled at the words of grace proceeding out of His mouth, and they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?

John 6:57, 63
57 As the living Father has sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

Eph. 4:29
29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but only that which is good for building up, according to the need, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Related Reading
The barley loaves of the plant life signify the generating aspect of Christ’s life, and the fishes signify the redeeming aspect of His life. As the generating life, Christ grew on the land, on the God-created earth. As the redeeming life, He lived in the sea, the Satan-corrupted world. In order to regenerate us He grew on the God-created earth for producing life, but in order to redeem us He lived in the satanic and sinful world. Just as fish can live in salty water without being salty, so Christ could live in the sinful world without being sinful and without being affected by the world…It is significant, therefore, that He fed the people with barley loaves and fishes. This indicates that He fed them with the generating life and the redeeming life, the life that overcomes death. 

The Lord is signified by both the barley loaves and the fishes, for He is the plant life to generate us and the animal life to redeem us. Eventually, the feeding with Christ’s resurrection life results in eternal life. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 696-697) 

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Born through regeneration (1 Pet. 1:3, 23), the believers become babes who can grow in life…for God’s building by being nourished with the spiritual milk…The milk of the word is not milk for the body but milk for the soul, the inner being. It is conveyed in the word of God to nourish our inner man through the understanding of our rational mind, and it is assimilated by our mental faculties. (Life-study of 1 Peter, pp. 125-126) 

Song of Songs 4:11 says, “Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.” (Smell in this verse is different from the word fragrance in the previous verse.) No human or natural smell can be compared to the fragrance that emanates from the maiden. This naturally makes her lips drop as the honeycomb. Honey is sweet, and it restores the stricken ones. But this sweetness is not produced overnight. It comes from a long period of gathering, inward activity, and careful storage. This is the unique possession of one who is taught by God. From the mouth of the maiden issue forth sweet and refreshing words, not gossip, jokes, or rash words. Her words are not outbursts of torrents, but drops of honey from the honeycomb. This is the slowest kind of dripping. Some people have the urge to speak; their words are like the babbling of brooks. Even when they speak about spiritual things, the way they speak shows that they have not passed through the deeper work of grace. In this verse we can notice not only her lips slowly dropping sweet honey, but the things that are stored within her. “Honey and milk are under thy tongue.” The top of the tongue is where man takes in food, whereas under the tongue is where man stores food. This means that she has stored up these things; there are riches within her. She has more than enough food. Honey restores the weak ones, whereas milk feeds the immature ones. She has stored so many riches within her that food seems to be under her tongue, and she can dispense to the needy ones at any time. However, she does not reveal all that she has. She is not like many people who exhibit on the outside all that they have inside. Honey and milk are under her tongue; they are not on her lips. (CWWN, vol. 23, “The Song of Songs,” pp. 71-72) 

He enjoys her word as fresh honey (for restoring the weak), which comes from her lips, and her word as honey and milk (for restoring the weak and feeding the immature ones), which are under her tongue, and the fragrance of her conduct as the fragrance of ascension. (Life-study of Song of Songs, p. 32) 

Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 23, “The Song of Songs,” sec. 3; Life-study of Song of Songs, msg. 4