WHAT CAN BE SWEETER? A STUDY OF ALL THE SCRIPTURE REFERENCES TO HONEY – PART 2
HONEY IS GOD’S PROVISION - THE APPLICATION OF HONEY IN THE SCRIPTURES
This study continues the thoughts we saw in Part 1. I hope you found some value in it. God’s word is meaningful in every way. Honey is another special substance in the bible.
[15]. {{Proverbs 24:13 “My son, eat honey, for it is good. Yes, the HONEY from the comb is sweet to your taste.”}}
Here is instruction to “my son” that may mean a son of Solomon or an injunction to a young believer. What does it mean when advised to eat honey. For that answer we must realise what honey means and we have touched on that. The verse says honey is good and that is why it should be eaten. Solomon is speaking about the literal honey itself and the people then believed honey was of great benefit. Also the latter part of the verse links in sweetness which was a desired thing obviously.
Moving to the application, from that we can say that any sweetness is good, so the sweetness of one’s relationship with God is good, as is the sweetness of the word of God that we have seen. Perhaps I’d make the parallel with “As newborn babes, desire the unadulterated milk of the word.” Desiring the milk of the word is like desiring and eating honey.
[16]. {{Proverbs 25:16 “Have you found HONEY? Eat only what you need, lest you have it in excess and vomit it.”}}
Can we get too much of God? No, we can not. Can we get too much of the bible? No, we can not. Drinking too much orange juice may cause diaorrhrea, and drinking too much cream as I did once as a kid causes one to vomit. Looking at this again, can we get spiritual vomiting? I am not sure here what can be said except over-indulgence in what is good, is not good. Maybe others can draw the application. Perhaps this is a verse that has the literal sense and one we can not make an application from. To find good things of God and try to store them up just for oneself is not good. We are meant to share the good things, and the sweetness of the Lord with others. That is proper stewardship. That is what the lepers found when the Assyrian army fled leaving all its belongings.
[17]. {{Proverbs 25:27 “It is not good to eat much HONEY, nor is it glory to search out one’s own glory.”}}
Solomon sure was careful about his honey intake. I think what he is striving to say is that a controlled moderation is what is required of us. Sober minded and self controlled in all things.
The second part of this verse is such a danger for us. We like to be noticed; we like acclaim, and if we don’t get it we pass out hints as to why we should receive glory. Seeking out our own glory, or importance, or recognition is what the world does, and is NOT the Christian teaching on humility and preferring others to ourselves. If men praise you, trust the Lord that it does not go to your head, and “don’t eat too much honey”. {{Proverbs 27:2 says, “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth, a stranger, and not your own lips.” This is the same idea – do not search out your own glory.”}}
[18]. {{Proverbs 27:7 “A sated man loathes HONEY, but to a famished man any bitter thing is sweet.”}}
Here there is a picture of a man who has bloated himself on food so much so that his greedy eyes sees honey but his belly rejects it because he is like a stuffed turkey. He is so sated (bursting, gorged) that even the most delectable thing – honey – is obnoxious to him. That means his greed has undervalued honey. His over indulgence has won the day against the good provision of the Lord.
The second picture here is the famished man with an empty belly desperately wanting food. Even the basic things and the foods that are coarse and bitter and not desirable are not only acceptable for him but they become sweetness to him. That second picture is such a contrast to the first one but is the way it is for so many people.
It is the greedy person who has filled himself and is full of neglect and is full and careless who has taken his fill of the useless things. The honey is not valued; it is despised. May we never fill ourselves with what is not of value to the neglect of the honey - the absolute sweetness of God’s word. Do not feed yourself on the world’s delights so that you despise the honey of God, that sweetness in His word.
[19]. {{Song 4:11 “Your lips, my bride, drip HONEY; HONEY and milk are under your tongue, and the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.”}}
This book is the song of love and it is full of images and similies. Tenderness is right through the book in descriptive words and phrases like the one in this verse. This verse is the groom’s evaluation of his beloved one. Her mouth (lips and tongue in this case) is so wonderful that the finest description is used. Dripping honey and milk are the excellence of their shared love – no higher description is found. Honey, delightful to the taste and with added sweetness represents the lips of the bride.
We move from the physical sense and see this applied to Christ and the Church. Jesus is the Bridegroom and this is His estimation of His Bride. True desirability. We saw honey represented God’s finest in provision so here Christ considers His Bride the absolute finest. How He loves the Church and provides for her. The honey is the Bride’s sweetness for Christ and the milk is the word of God that has nurtured the Bride.
The end of the verse likens the clothing of the Bride to the fragrance of Lebanon. I think that might mean the fragrance of the flowering forest of Lebanon. The Church is all-desirable for Christ. He loved it and gave Himself for the Church.
[20]. {{Isaiah 7:15 “He will eat curds and HONEY at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good.”}}
I find it important that the wording is “at the time He knows enough” which must mean when the Lord had that discernment to refuse evil and choose good. We don’t know when but it would have been early in the Child’s life, and later on at age 11 He was in the Temple teaching the unteachable.
The verse means the Lord would eat curds and honey and that was His choice. Through His life He fed on curds and honey (now, not literally of course) but according to what the prophet meant. Curds is the separation of milk into curds and whey, and the curds would be the beginning of butter when churned enough. Honey is good and sweet.
Somehow in a way that is not explained the Lord applied the curds and honey in a manner that was spiritually beneficial. The Lord knew the value of the milk and honey - the finest God provided. {{“Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”}} The word of God was His strength.
[21]. {{Ezekiel 3:3 And He said to me, “Son of man, feed your stomach, and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you.” Then I ate it, and it was sweet as HONEY in my mouth.”}}
Well!! If we have not seen it yet . . . Here it is again. The word of God is the revealed sweetness of God. It is sweet itself, and directs to the One who is sweeter than honey. The scroll was the written, inspired word of God and Ezekiel was commanded to fill his stomach with that scroll. In other words he was to digest all that was in the scroll.
Exactly the same thing must apply to us. We are to fill our being with God’s word and the sweetness of the bible becomes the honey of God for all our daily living through all of life. We must devour that scroll in the same way that Jesus said – {{Matthew 4:4 but He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”}}
[22]. {{Ezekiel 16:19 “Also My bread which I gave you, fine flour, oil, and HONEY with which I fed you, you would offer before them for a soothing aroma; so it happened,” declares the Lord GOD.”}}
This passage occurs in a section of the strongest condemnation against Judah. The Lord is laying out the charges against them. God accused them of pouring out their harlotries on every passer-by who might be willing. Everything God had blessed them with they took and used it for their idolatry, the making of images and the service of pagan deities. God said they used “My gold and of My silver which I had given you,” and used the “My gold and of My silver which I had given you,” and they “offered My oil and My incense before them” in serving these pagan idols. It was blasphemy.
The sweetness of honey in the Christian life comes from God and none of our abilities or gifts can be used to serve the enemies of the Lord. It is an abomination to do so. In type, the bread can stand for the Lord Jesus Christ; the fine flour for His sacrifice; the oil is the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and the honey applies to the word of God. All those heavenly blessings are trashed by the world; discounted as nought. However it is possible for a Christian to treat some of those gifts with disdain. God forbid that happens but it is possible.
The wording here is “which I gave you, fine flour, oil, and HONEY with which I fed you,” and we see these blessings came directly from the Lord. They were His special gifts to them, so to neglect them or despise them in any shape or form, is disgusting. To end this one I will repeat – The fine flour represents the Lord in sacrifice; the oil is the Holy Spirit; the honey is the word of God. That is the complete package for us in our lives as Christians - full salvation, full ministry of the Holy Spirit; full feeding from the bible.
[23]. {{Matthew 3:4 “Now John himself had a garment of camel’s hair, and a leather belt about his waist, and his food was locusts and wild HONEY.”}}
John was a tough character, resolute in his ministry and one who knew the hardness of his calling. For that, God provided for his needs. It speaks again of the fullness of God in provision in the hardest of circumstances. Wild honey is the substance of wild bees. I did some research on locusts and wild honey and will share this -
[[Bishop Ellicott – “Locusts were among the articles of food permitted by the Law (Leviticus 11:21), and were and are still used by the poor in Palestine and Syria. They are commonly salted and dried, and may be cooked in various ways, pounded, or fried in butter, and they taste like shrimps.”
Stress is laid on the simplicity of the Baptist’s fare, requiring no skill or appliances, the food of the poorest wanderer in the wilderness, presenting a marked contrast to the luxury of the dwellers in towns. The life of Banus, the hermit-master of Josephus, who lived only on herbs and water is similar.”]]
[[Alfred Barnes - "Some species of the locust are eaten until this day in Eastern countries, and are even esteemed as a delicacy when properly cooked. After tearing off the legs and wings, and taking out the entrails, they stick them in long rows upon wooden spits, roast them at the fire, and then proceed to devour them with great zest. There are also other ways of preparing them. For example: they cook them and dress them in oil; or, having dried them, they pulverize them, and, when other food is scarce, make bread of the meal. The Bedouins pack them with salt in close masses, which they carry in their leather sacks. From these they cut slices as they may need them.”]]
[[Expositor’s Greek Testament – “Opinion is divided between bee honey and tree honey, i.e., honey made by wild bees in trees or holes in the rocks, or a liquid exuding from palms and fig trees. (On this also consult Nicholson, Gospel of Hebrews, p. 35.) Both were used as food, but our decision should incline to vegetable honey, on the simple ground that it was the poorer food. Bee honey was a delicacy, and is associated with milk in Scripture in descriptions of a fertile land. The vegetable product would suit best John’s taste and state.”]]
[24]. {{Revelation 10:9 “And I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book and he said to me, “Take it, and eat it, and it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as HONEY.” Rev 10:10 And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was in my mouth sweet as HONEY, and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter.”}}
The Apostle reversed the statement of the angel in verse 10. The angel looked at the bitterness first then at the sweetness. John considered the sweetness first then the bitterness. Well, what’s the difference?
This is what I think. The angels at this Tribulation time are engaged in the matter of terrible judgment. To them as messengers of God, their purpose is the dispensing of judgment. That is bitter and they know it. They are occupied with the bitterness of judgment. Then they know that after the wrath of their God has been dispensed, sweetness will reign over the earth for the Word of God will reign as King and His provisions will be manifested, and we have seen that honey has been a solid type of the provision of God.
On the other hand John was always occupied with the Word of God (the Lord) and the word of God (Bible). The word was always sweet to John. That was the immediate reaction he had to the divine word. However the bitterness of these words would soon become evident for these were words of judgment and all judgment is bitter. God’s judgment was to continue for some time yet. John, writing divinely under inspiration, could not yet see the outcome of all this for he would have to wait until the end of his writings to see the issuing in of such wonderful sweetness.
It is sweet to be engaged in the study of the bible for we feast on the living word of the Living Lord, but these words will become most bitter for those who will be living in the time of the Great Tribulation. There we have the sweetness and the bitterness.
Anyway, that’s what I have just realised for the first time. Maybe you disagree. I don’t mind.
I love honey but that is physical honey. I love the honey God feeds us but that is a spiritual feeding. From our study we have just done, we see that honey was God’s provision for His people for sustenance, strength, revival and refreshing. Our Lord does that for us but it is the supplied scriptures that meet the needs of pilgrims perfectly.
Please don’t neglect the provision of the scriptural honey.
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
