HONEY FROM THE ROCK
Psalms 81:1-16
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. It happened in Saginaw, Texas on Sunday morning. The high school basketball coach was giving his testimony when water started dripping through the ceiling onto the choir. The air conditioning units were in the attic and the condensation pans were overflowing.
2. They could have just turned off the air conditioning units, but no. They had to go up there and fix that thing, try to be heroes!
3. Soon you could hear them walking across the ceiling joists in the attic. And then it happened. “Whoosh!” One of them came through the ceiling. He grabbed the joists and held on for dear life. The crowd gasped. The man’s mother recognized her son’s chubby legs and hollered out his name.
4. The basket ball coach asked the Pastor, “Are we having a healing service? Someone is coming through the roof to get in!” The crowd roared with laughter.
5. At the end of the service, the Pastor stood greeting people. A rancher who came for the first time, said, “Pastor, I told my wife, ‘There’s no need for me to go to church; if I go, the roof will cave in.’ And sure enough it did!”
B. TEXT
“Sing for joy to God our strength; shout aloud to the God of Jacob! 2 Begin the music, strike the timbrel, play the melodious harp and lyre[like “liar”]. 3 Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon, and when the moon is full, on the day of our festival; 4 this is a decree for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob. 5 When God went out against Egypt, he established it as a statute for Joseph. I heard an unknown voice say: 6 “I removed the burden from their shoulders; their hands were set free from the basket. 7 In your distress you called and I rescued you, I answered you out of a thundercloud; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. 8 Hear me, my people, and I will warn you— if you would only listen to me, Israel! 9 You shall have no foreign god among you; you shall not worship any god other than me. 10 I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. 11 “But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. 12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. 13 “If my people would only listen to me, if Israel would only follow my ways, 14 how quickly I would subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes! 15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever. 16 But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” Psalms 81:1-16.
C. THESIS
1. Toward the end of this chapter, God makes promises to those who obey Him. One of those promises is, “Honey from the rock.”
2. The land of Canaan had few large trees, but many holes and crags among the rocks in which bees made their hives. Sometimes a person might find a cave or rocky fissure from which oozed honey!
3. God had prophesied that the land would flow with milk and honey. With wild honey bees making their hives in the crevices of rocks, Canaan was a land that literally flowed with milk and Honey!
4. Today we’re going to look at 1). Amazing facts about honey, 2). Who this promise was made to, 3). What this honey symbolizes, and 4). The origin of this honey.
5. The title of today’s message is, “Honey from the Rock.”
I. AMAZING FACTS ABOUT HONEY
A. THE WONDER OF HONEY
1. Urban Dictionary says, “Honey” is a term meaning, “A girl who has everything – good looks, personality, & brains” which fits all you ladies here tonight! It’s also a term of endearment.
2. In today's world of soft drinks, sugar, and ice cream, we may not appreciate honey the same way as did the Jews of three thousand years ago, who knew nothing else as sweet.
3. Honey, made by bees, is said in the Guinness Book of World Records to be the sweetest substance known to man.
4. Honey is good for you. It contains powerful antioxidants, with antiseptic and antibacterial properties. During the Balan War of 1913, it was used to heal the wounds of many soldiers.
5. It helps alleviate allergies, because it contains many local pollens that – if consumed – aid the body in adjusting to them.
6. The average American consumes a little over one pound of honey a year.
B. AMAZING FACTS ABOUT BEES
1. Honey is produced by one of the most insignificant of God’s creatures, the Bee. Bees don’t create honey; it is nectar that bees have eaten, regurgitated, and evaporated.
2. To make one pound of honey, workers must fly 55,000 miles and tap two million flowers. In the course of her lifetime, a worker bee will produce 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey.
3. While foraging for nectar, bees inadvertently pollinate 95 crops worth an estimated $10 billion in the U.S. alone. All told, insect pollinators contribute to one-third of the world's diet.
4. So honey is truly a miraculous substance, the product of one of God’s tiniest creatures. A jar of honey represents the life work of 384 bees who tapped 2 million flowers! That’s really sweet!
II. WHO THIS PROMISE WAS MADE TO
A. HAVE FAITH TO BE STRONG & COURAGEOUS
1. When God says “I want to give you the Land that Flows with Milk and Honey,” He means, “I want to give you all the blessings & inheritance of being a child of God.”
2. God Promised Honey in the Rock to Joshua, but it depended on His Faith. The Lord said it this way, "Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them” Josh. 1:6.
B. THOSE WHO PLEASE GOD
“If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us” Num. 14:8.
C. THOSE OBEDIENT TO GOD
“…be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may…in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord… promised you” Deut. 6:3.
D. THOSE SEPARATED FROM SIN
“I will give it to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am the Lord your God, who has set you apart from the nations” Lev. 20:24.
III. WHAT THIS HONEY SYMBOLIZES
A. THE SWEETEST THINGS IN THE WORLD
1. The answer to Samson’s riddle (Judges 14:18) was, “What is sweeter than honey?” In those days, honey was the sweetest substance known.
2. Honey symbolized the sweetest parts of earthly life. That’s why Canaan land was described 20X as the “land flowing with milk and honey.” Solomon said that a young loving wife’s lips are “dripping with honey” S.S. 4:11.
3. Gracious words are said to be “a honeycomb, sweet to the soul” Prob. 16:24.
B. THE SWEETNESS OF GOD’S WORD
1. The Psalmist said God’s Words “are more precious than gold…they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb” (19:10); and “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (119:103).
2. This was confirmed when Ezekiel (3:3) and later John (Rev. 10:9-10) ate the scrolls of God’s judgments, and they were “sweet as honey” in their mouths.
3. Why is God’s Word so sweet? Because it is food for the soul, healing for spiritual injuries; they give light, regeneration, peace, hope, joy, & sight. They give direction for the life, deliverance from bondage, freedom for the captive, etc. (Read Ps. 119).
C. THAT WHICH AIDS IN SPIRITUAL BATTLES
1. When King Saul was battling the Philistines, he had declared a fast. His son Jonathan didn’t know that a fast had been declared, and ate some of the abundant honey in the forest.
2. Jonathan later declared, "How much better it would have been if the men had eaten [the honey]…. Would not the slaughter of the Philistines have been even greater?” 1 Samuel 14:30.
3. The Holy Spirit is the decisive empowerment that gives the believer the strength to conquer the enemy. “’It’s not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of Hosts.”
4. I think in this regard, the honey Jonathon found represents the Holy Spirit. Many still win the victory without His power, but how much greater could the victory be if we’d drawn on the Holy Spirit’s power?
D. THE FRUITS OF VICTORY OVER THE DEVIL
1. When Samson went back to the lion he had defeated, he found honey in its carcass (judges 14:8-9).
2. Samson had faced one of the most terrible conflicts of his life and overcome. What looked so bad when he faced it, afterward, became a source of strength and joy to him.
3. When we overcome life's difficulties, they frequently later become great sources of celebration and inspiration to us. Often they are stepping stones to greater exploits. They are also moments in which God's power was proven to us and we come to know God in a way we didn't before.
4. In short, fruit comes from our hard-bought victories that can sustain us in the years ahead. That's what the honey in the carcass of the lion represented.
IV. ORIGIN OF THIS HONEY: JESUS CHRIST
HUMOR. “Dad, are bugs good to eat?” asked the boy. “Let’s not talk about such things at the dinner table, son,” his father replied. After dinner the father inquired, “Now, son, what did you want to ask me?” “Oh, nothing,” the boy said. “There was a bug in your soup, but now it’s gone.” (Mark Y., Glendora, Calif.)
A. BEES ARE A SYMBOL OF JUDGMENT
1. “In that day the Lord will whistle…for bees from the land of Assyria” Isa. 7:18, calling for foreign kings to
come judge His people.
2. “The Amorites…chased you like a swarm of bees and beat you down from Seir all the way to Hormah” (Deut. 1:44) because of the Israelites’ sin and disobedience to God.
B. FROM JUDGMENT COMES SWEETNESS
1. From these instruments of judgment (bees), who have stingers in their tails, God has destined to be the distillers of sweetness.
2. After the judgment of the flood, came the sweetness of Noah’s offering. After judgment there is no more offense.
3. In like manner, after the unspeakable judgment that fell on Christ at Calvary, there flowed forth a heavenly elixir. It was distilled from the broken body, the poured-out blood, and the never-dying love of the Savior.
4. Just as the bees eat nectar, process it and regurgitate it, so judgment consumed Christ. But out of that judgment flowed – as honey – the distilled consolation of love, joy, peace, and reconciliation.
5. It opened a geyser, a gusher, a tidal wave of grace -- sweeping all sin and damnation away in a flood of God’s good favor, opening the way to intimacy with God Himself.
C. JESUS IS THE SWEETNESS
1. Jesus Himself is the embodiment of all God’s sweetness. As He is the portal through which all grace flows to us, so is He the conduit of all joys and blessings.
2. Jesus is repeatedly called the Rock. He’s the “spiritual Rock that accompanied them, and that Rock was Christ” 1 Cor. 10:4.
3. The Honey from the Rock would therefore be the blessings that flow from the judgment that fell on Christ Jesus. Out of those judgments flow the sweetness of forgiveness, reconciliation, and eternal life to all who eat and abide by its fruits.
D. LISTEN TO TASTER’S PRAISES!
1. “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him” Ps. 34:8.
2. “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter
than honey to my mouth!” Ps. 119:103.
3. The Church(bride) says of Christ, “His mouth is sweetness itself; he is altogether lovely” SS 5:16.
4. “the Lord…more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb” Ps. 19:9-10.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. Recently, officials in Oakland and Pontiac, Michigan, sponsored a free car and prize giveaway at the Pontiac Silverdome.
2. They mailed notices informing recipients that a pair of Detroit Lions football tickets, a television, and possibly a car were being given away at the stadium as part of a random drawing.
3. Unfortunately for the 70 invitees, it was a sting operation! Those who showed up did receive a free trip to jail, but didn’t pass "GO" or collect $200.
4. One individual was heard asking a sting officer, "Do I STILL get my TV?"
5. At the Judgment Day, many will be surprised and dismayed by being condemned to hell, but we don’t have to be.
6. We can turn to Christ now. Jesus already took our sin and our punishment. All we have to do is repent, believe on Jesus as our Savior, and receive eternal life through Him.
B. THE CALL
1. You need a personal experience: YOU Taste!
2. Connect to the Life of God & receive life.
