Prayer Thought:
Through the promised Seed, the God of Israel was to bring deliverance to Zion. “There shall come forth a Rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.” “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall He eat, that He may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.” Isaiah 11:1; 7:14, 15. {PK 695.1}
Let’s read: Isaiah 7:14, 15
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
The Child John The Baptist was prescribed a special Diet
Luke 1: 15; For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.
Matt. 3: 4. And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
Was Christ’s Diet Confined to Literal Butter and Honey?
Matt. 11: 18, 19. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil.
The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.
The Butter and Honey:
They symbolize something freely used by Christ that made him wise to discriminate between good and evil.
Matt. 4: 1-4, 6-7, 10
4: 1-4, Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
4:2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered.
4:3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Vs. 6, 7, But when Herod’s birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod.
Vs. 6,7 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in [their] hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
4:7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Vs.10. It is the Word of God
4:10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Read Isa. 7:21, 22
And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep;
7:22 And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk [that] they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land.
A Young Cow and Two Sheep
Butter is churned from milk. Since the milk from which this spiritual “butter” is made comes from the “two Sheep” and the “young cow”, therefore, these three milk producing creatures symbolize three different sources from which the Word of God (butter) is obtained.
The two sheep being two of a kind as the olive trees in Zechariah 4; 3, 11; they symbolize the Old and New Testament Scriptures.
The young cow, being later in origin and larger in proportion than the two sheep; it symbolizes the volumes of the Spirit of Prophecy
Why eat Butter? Why not drink milk?
1Peter 2: 1, 2 – milk is for babes
Hebrews 5: 12-14 – everyone that use milk is unskillful in the Word of God
Isaiah 28: 9 – to receive knowledge and understanding we must be weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts.
What does honey represent?
10:8 And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go [and] take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.
10:9 And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take [it], and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
10:10 And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
10:11 And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.
the sweetness derived from feasting on the Scriptures.