King Solomon and honey

Proverbs 25:16

“If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you have your fill of it and vomit it.”

King Solomon must have been into keeping bees or at least having someone who talked to him about Gods amazing creatures.  In Proverbs 16:24, “Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.”  In Proverbs 24:13-14, Solomon is comparing honey to wisdom; “My son, eat honey, for it is good, and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste.  Know that wisdom is such to your soul; if you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off.” And later in Proverbs 25:27-28, he gives this analogy of eating too much honey is like a man without self-control.  “It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to seek one's own glory.   A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.”

I’ve been keeping honeybees for over 30 years and yet for many years in the Houston area I quit doing so.  Once more I have a couple of hives, and much has changed, and we have many problems that in the past were not there.  But this I’ve learned when taking the honey, if you begin to sample and then start eating the cuttings you will get to the point of almost being sick of honey.

Both Mark 1:6 and Matthew 3:4, in describing John the Baptist, talk about honey.  Mark has this to say; “John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey.”  We find the Psalmist in 119:103, tells us the Word of God is like honey; “How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”

I've been so busy with many new projects that my bees have been ignored, and after reading and studying this, I’m ready to work my bees and see what the Lord has to provide for Jan and I, and the family.

Bob Rice