Sweet Honey
Dr. Richard M. Robinson

“The full soul loatheth a honeycomb; but to the hungry
soul every bitter thing is sweet” (Proverbs 27:7).

In both the Bible and history, honey has been the standard of wholesome goodness and sweet enjoyment. Twenty times in the Bible you find the expression, “milk and honey,” an expression that God gave to Israel of the delights of the Promised Land. God’s people had been reduced to poor, mistreated, despised slaves in Egypt, but God told Moses, “I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, UNTO A LAND FLOWING WITH MILK AND HONEY...” (Ex. 3:8). In other words, Israel would go from bitter poverty to sweet abundance, and a land literally streaming with milk and oozing with honey would be the seal of God’s deliverance and generosity.

Honey would develop in Scripture into a symbol, not only of the delights of “the good life,” but also of the dangers of the bad life. Take the following two examples:

Marriage is a sweet thing—a source of emotional and physical honey. Solomon uses poetic language to describe the intimate relationship between a man and wife in Song of Solomon 5:1: “I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have EATEN MY HONEYCOMB WITH MY HONEY...” Marital delights can be very sweet, so much so that we even call our spouses by the name, “honey.” A marriage partner can be the very embodiment of legal garden-grown honey.

However, outside of marriage, the opposite sex is a kind of stolen “wild honey.”Remember how Solomon described the seductress in Proverbs 5:3? “For the lips of a strange woman DROP AS AN HONEYCOMB, and her mouth is smoother than oil.” An adulteress or prostitute will use her lips to drip flattery and charm like honey from a honeycomb. But since this is sin, what is sweet to the taste becomes in experience as bitter as wormwood, as the very next verse states: “But her end is bitter as wormwood...”

In Proverbs 25:27 we have another example of sin’s sweet attraction: “It is not good to eat much honey: so for men to search their own glory is not glory.” Not only is sweet pleasure a dangerous sin, so is sweet praise. Anytime you are lavished with praise, remember this verse. Just as you should reject the advances of an immoral person, you should also reject the heeping sugary admiration of others. Meryl Streep, Hollywood movie actress once admitted to the London Daily Telegraph,

“It’s sort of exhausting, this self-congratulatory atmosphere in which the movie community lives. It’s unbearable. We’re not that important in the world, but we certainly all think we are...I shouldn’t talk about it, I mean I’m really grateful that my work is recognized...but boy, we’ve gotten a little bloated. It’s so grand and the outfits are so incredible and the critique of how everybody looks and the desperation of people to make an impact--it really gets to me.”

Ms. Streep is right. Hollywood generally likes to promote a honeyed atmosphere of exaggerated significance and importance. Streep was simply stating that she has gotten caught up in that atmosphere, literally addicted to the sweet praise that drips out of the entertainment honeycomb. Such praise isn’t limited to Hollywood--it appears to be oozing out everywhere! Watch out or you’ll soon find yourself licking it up until it makes you sick!

Of course, this doesn’t mean that all sweet speech is suspect. Proverbs 16:24 clearly states that some words have all the wholesome goodness of honey. “Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.” The right words are just like this--good-tasting and good for you. A sincere compliment, spoken in appreciation, is sweet like flattery, but unlike flattery it is free of any ulterior motive and is therefore as beneficial as it is pleasant.

Any verbalized kindness is a source for emotional and spiritual honey. In fact, when the mouth becomes a legitimate honey dispenser, lives are not just sweetened, they are saved! Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the POWER OF THE TONGUE: and they that love it shall EAT THE FRUIT THEREOF.” Whether you like it or not, you will eat your own words, cause others to eat your words, and will sometimes be eating the words of others. Depending on the kind of words consumed will determine if it is honey or poison. Make sure you truly love a wholesome tongue over a corrupt one!

The bitter poisonous tongues of the world are described in Romans 3:13-14, “Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the POISON OF ASPS is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” Apart from the grace of God that is exactly what your words will be: snake venom! Colossians 4:6 warns us all to never speak without grace: “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that y may know how ye ought to answer every man.” Notice that grace makes our words both sweet and salty. Salt is the opposite of honey in taste, but both have qualities that enhance flavor and promote health. A salty rebuke and a honeyed compliment work the same end--a well-preserved and healthy relationship. Grace does that. But if grace is absent, compliments become self-serving and rebukes become more hurtful than helpful. Never go a day with a graceless tongue! According to what we just read, it is as corrupt as opening a grave with a rotting corpse and as dangerous as a poisonous viper ready to strike!

Go now to Proverbs 27:7 and notice a very important trait of human nature in regard to food. Here’s what it says: “The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.” Any food eaten to the full loses its attraction. Remember the last time you went to an “all-you-can-eat” buffet--and you did just that! When you walked out of that place, you passed all that delicious food, but you were so full that it just didn’t have the same desirability. You were too full. The serving sizes were larger than your appetite. However, in a typical sit-down restaurant, where you order from a menu, there are times when you wanted more because the serving size was smaller than your appetite. You were not totally filled.

According to this verse, “loathing” comes from stuffing—literally indulging your appetite to excess. That’s when even the most desirable and valuable food becomes one big turn-off. But being hungry, either totally or partially, turns the most bland or even bitter food into something sweet. Why? Because genuine hunger is a need not a luxury. Actually, eating without an appetite is boring at best and disgusting at worse. The ideal in life is to work up your appetite and then satisfy it with good food. We never enjoy our food more than when we are hungry for it. But being full of food can lead to being full of loathing. That isn’t advisable spiritually anymore than it is physically.

Spiritually, the ideal of the Christian life is to stay perpetually hungry. Did not Jesus say in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” The Christian life is never happier or healthier or holier than when there is a perpetual hunger for righteousness. The paradox of the Christian life is that feeding on God’s Word satisfies our appetite without smothering it. We always leave God’s table content with what He gave us and yet wanting more. The secret is in having an active spiritual lifestyle.

Remember Psalm 23:5? There is a difference between being hungry and being starved. Christians should never be in a condition of spiritual malnutrition when Psalm 23, verse 5 declares, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies...” God’s people eat well for the simple fact that we must fight the Lord’s battles. It is a table with everything we need--good tasting and good for us! In fact, that spiritual banquet table is a great break from the noise and commotion of the battlefield. When we are engaged in fighting the Lord’s battles, we always bring a healthy appetite to His table.

This reminds me of Paul’s words to the Thessalonians: “For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat” (2 Thess.3:10). If you are not actively serving the Lord, don’t expect God to spiritually feed you. Christians who study more and serve less are more fat than fit, and if they keeping studying without equally serving, they will in time loath the studying altogether. Why? They are too full and too idle.

Christians should never be in a state of spiritual gluttony anymore than in a condition of spiritual malnutrition. But that is exactly what will happen if we don’t keep a servant’s heart. Feeding on God’s Word is not merely an end in itself, but also a means to an end. Whatever God shows you is not just for you alone. We are saved to serve and we are fed to feed others. Of course, if it isn’t good enough for you, it isn’t good for others. “The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the furits” (2 Tim. 2:6). If God feeds you some of His sweet honey, the least you can do is share it with others.

Loathing honey through indulgence leads to indifference. A man who “loatheth a honeycomb” because he over-did a good thing—doing exactly what Proverbs 25:16 describes when it says, “Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.” — such a person will devalue and despise a very precious commodity. Great effort is expended to produce honey. A hive of honey bees must tap 200,000 flowers and travel 55,000 miles to gather enough nectar to produce just one pound of honey. One worker honey bee will make only 1/12 teaspoon of honey in her lifetime, making honey a truly precious natural food.

God’s Word is the honey for the soul of man. And as Psalm 119:103 says, “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” But its value goes beyond just taste--it keeps us alive and well! That’s why the very next verse in Psalm 119 says, “Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.” The same thing is stated in Proverbs 24:13-14. “My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste: So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul: when thou hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and thy expectation shall not be cut off.” God’s Word is pleasant to our taste, but it is also practical in its benefits. The “reward” for eating it is not the sweet taste, but the “expectation of not being cut off.” When you put your hope in God’s Word, that hope will be realized--it will be sweet in prospect and even sweeter in fulfillment!

In closing, don’t ever loathe God’s honey. Don’t worship without working. Don’t study without serving. Don’t learn without living. Don’t meditate without ministry. If you do, you will loathe every drop of sweet truth that drips from the Bible. The sweetest sweets will be despised. The Hebrew word for “loatheth” means “to trample.” In other words, you will walk right past every opportunity to enjoy it, and at times walk right over it when it gets in your way. Why? Proverbs 14:14 gives the answer: “The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways...” You have been eating honey selfishly to excess. Your “own ways” are ways of self-centeredness. You live only for yourself. You want honey for the wrong ends and the wrong reasons.

Honey is best enjoyed with others, and increases in delight when it is shared with others. There’s so much honey to go around that we must not let it go to waste. People all around us are missing the greatest food in the universe! We must carry the honey by the wagon loads to a world dying for a taste!