Honey and Wisdom . . . Proverbs 24:13-14

My son, eat honey, for it is good, Yes, the honey from the comb is sweet to your taste; Know that wisdom is thus for your soul; If you find it, then there will be a future, And your hope will not be cut off. Proverbs 24:13-14

Here we have it on biblical authority - eat honey!  There is an interesting study that comes with seeing the benefits of honey and then comparing those to the benefits of wisdom to our souls.  Let's take a look at them today and gain wisdom by learning a little more about honey and wisdom.

Solomon tells us here that we should eat honey for it is good.  Anyone who has tasted honey knows that it tastes good - but Solomon is saying more than this.  He says that honey from the comb is sweet to your taste.  There are sugars in honey that make it a wonderful source of sweetness.  Note though that Solomon is telling us to eat honey from the comb - natural, not processed.  Then we are told that just like honey is good for us an sweet to our taste - so also wisdom is for our soul.  We are reminded that when we find wisdom, there will be a future.  The word used here is "acharith" which means, "a latter end."  What the word says to us is that when we get wisdom - there is a good end to things.  If we live our lives with wisdom - our lives will have a desired end - one that is blessed and good.  We are also told that when we partake of wisdom - our hope will not be cut off.  Wisdom yields a lasting hope.  Wise living is living for eternal things.  Living for this world may seem great at first - but in the end it is bitter.  We have things now - we have pleasures now - but they are all cut off by death.  Ecclesiastes also reminds us that we may be able to enjoy the things of the world when we are young - but when we are old those same things will not satisfy.  The older we get - the less we enjoy things due to the aging of our bodies.  So to live for the foolishness of this world - is to live for a hope that is cut off more and more every year.  In the end - when the "acharith" comes - it is cut off altogether.  Wisdom will protect us from living for a hope that will be cut off.

But how does honey factor into all this?  There are several ways that honey is helpful and healthy for our bodies.  The first is the way that honey gives us sugars.  Refined sugar is digested in a way that elevates our sugar levels in our blood stream - making it easier to become diabetic.  Honey has actually been pre-digested by the bees - and is digested in a way that gives us the energy we need - without an elevation in our blood sugar levels.  In other words, honey gives us what we need - but does so without also giving us the negative.  Wisdom is the same way.  There are those who desire to be smart and educated - but their education lacks God's wisdom and understanding.  When this happens a person has a tendency to become very smart, but also very arrogant.  They get the blessing of knowledge and education - but do so without getting humility and submission to God.  This makes their education dangerous in that they trust a man-centered wisdom - that due to the sin nature in man - rejects the moral wisdom of God.  In the end, their learning tends to corrupt them for they reject God's revelation and view education, knowledge, and wisdom to be purely a human endeavor.  God's wisdom is different.  Like the honey - it offers the good in a way that is not harmful.  God's wisdom educates us - but with a view to submission to God.  The more we learn, the more we embrace humility.  We see that wisdom comes from God.  The Lord does not bypass true learning and education - it is just submitted to God's moral law and is used to bring glory to Him.  Because the God-centered worldview is radically different from the humanistic worldview - the learned gained in each system will lead to drastically different conclusions about life.

A second benefit of honey is that it is filled with antioxidants that help us to fight disease.  We have learned over the years that antioxidants help us fight free radicals - a type of chemical compound in our bodies that weakens them and makes them more succeptible to disease and even cancer.  Honey helps fight these free radicals and keep them from harming us.  Wisdom is like honey in this regard.  Left to ourselves we will make choices that are harmful to us.  The fall of man into sin has guaranteed that.  According to Romans 1 and Ehpesians 4 - our understanding is darkened due to sin.  We will inevitably choose to make a god of our choosing rather than honor the God who made heaven and earth.  Wisdom from God counters this tendecy in sinful man - pointing us to God as the source of wisdom and understanding - rather than turning to our own ungodly wisdom instead.  Wisdom that we gain from God's Word is like a divine antioxidant that will counter our tendency to turn to ourselves and the world for wisdom.  Whereas the world tells us that we are free to make our own sexual choices - even if that involves sex outside of marriage - God's wisdom tells us that sexual intercourse outside of marriage is wrong and harmful to us.  God's wisdom has been vindicated as study after study shows us that abstinence before marriage and faithfulness in it keeps us from all kinds of disease that runs rampant in the sexually promiscuous population.  Like a divine antioxidant, the Word protects us from the free radicals of our sinful nature and the world system around us. 

Another benefit of honey is that is it a wonderful antibacterial and antibiotic.  I learned from a local honey grower in our town that honey is wonderful to use in fighting infection - especially among burn victims.  In China honey is used to keep burn victims from getting infections.  Their success rate in keeping burn victims from getting infections puts ours to shame in America.  Wisdom is just like honey in this regard.  It is a divine remedy to keep us from being infected with the world's thought - and thus from the world's maladies.  God's wisdom tells us that in relationships we should be selfless and patient.  The world tends to be all about themselves in relationships.  That is why there are so many broken relationships in the world.  Marriages are protected from selfishness infections when God's wisdom prevails.  Families are protected from self-centered outbreaks when we apply a healthy dose of God's wisdom to the inevitable difficulties and problems that we will face in this world. 

These are just a couple of the ways that honey and wisdom are good for us body and soul.  When we choose to have a daily diet that includes these things, we will be blessed.  As we read earlier - this will provide us with a desired end and a hope that will not be cut off.  We will find ourselves energized with God's power - as well as protected from the infections of the world in our minds, hearts, and spirits.  So eat up dear saints!  Eat honey - do so wisely, but partake of it.  Take a healthy daily dose of wisdom from God's Word as well.  You will find that when you do this - there will be blessings that will last far beyond a moment - or even a day.  You will be given blessings that will last a lifetime.