For many years Elsie and I, along with our children and assorted grandchildren, went to the Minnesota State Fair. We always made our way to the Agriculture Building where we learned about everything from gardening to beekeeping. Of great interest to us was the production of honey. How do the bees do it? There in the honey room where honey was judged, was our dear friend, Roger Olson. Roger, the “Honey Man,” was the co-owner of Mel-O-Honey and an expert on beekeeping and honey. Roger would describe for the crowds how bees make honey. Fascinating stuff! Roger, his wife, Jan, and their daughter, Shelley (Olson) Johnson, were members of our church so it was always a joy to spend some time with them. Jan, Roger’s wife, went home to be with the Lord this past March and so in tribute to Roger and Jan I’m dedicating this short discourse on honey in the Bible.Honey is mentioned in the Bible 53 times, 49 times in the Old Testament and 4 times in the New Testament. Here are ten of the major passages and their teaching on honey:
- Exodus 3:8, 17—God promises Moses to bring captive Israel out of Egypt into a “land flowing with milk and honey.” The phrase “a land flowing with milk and honey” is used some 20 times in the Bible. Milk and honey were a metaphor for abundance. We do know milk often has ties to fertility, so the milk could point to the abundance of the land. Honey tended to represent delight, joy, sweetness, and pleasure. This combination could imply that Israel would no longer experience a time of bitterness and barrenness when they entered the Promised Land.
- Exodus 16:31—The manna that God supplied Israel during their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness looked like coriander seed in that it was white in color, but it tasted like wafers infused with honey. Sounds delicious unless that’s all you have to eat every day for 40 years!
- Leviticus 2:11—The Lord directed the people to offer up a sacrifice of the first fruits of their grain as a grain offering to the Lord. The grain offering was to be offered with salt but both leaven and honey were forbidden. Why? Because honey, like leaven, ferments and is a picture of sin.
- Judges 14:8—In this famous passage of scripture, Samson is on his way to marry his bride from among the daughters of the Philistines. He notices a hive of bees had built a nest in the body of a lion Samson had killed. Samson scooped up some of the honey. During the marriage festivities, a contest with the Philistine men of Timnah occurs. Samson would propose a riddle which, if solved, paid a handsome reward. Samson poses his lion incident as the riddle. The men could not solve his riddle until they “plowed with his heifer,” meaning threatened his wife-to-be.
- 1 Samuel 14:27—Jonathan, King Saul’s son, tasted honey as he and his men rode through the forest in search of their enemies, the Philistines. Little did Jonathan know but his father had made an oath that no man was to eat until he was avenged of his enemies. When Saul found out that Jonathan had eaten honey, he would have killed him for violating his foolish oath were it not for the intervention of the army!
- Proverbs 16:24—Pleasant words are like honey, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
- Proverbs 25:16, 27—In these two proverbs, King Solomon warns against eating excessive amounts of honey. He says if you eat too much of it, you’ll vomit! As with any food, overindulgence can cause gastrointestinal issues.
- Isaiah 7:14, 15—This messianic passage tells us that not only would a virgin bear a son and call him Immanuel (“God with us”) but that this child would eat curds and honey. Curds are obtained by coagulating milk in a sequential process called curdling. It is the first stage in cheesemaking. If you’ve attended the Minnesota State Fair you’ve probably eaten cheese curds.
- Ezekiel 3:3—The prophet Ezekiel eats the scroll written with God’s message for Israel. It tasted like honey to Ezekiel but the prophetic message he was to deliver was one of judgment.
- Matthew 3:4—John the Baptist was the “voice of one crying in the wilderness.” His clothing was made of camel skin and his diet consisted of locusts and honey. John, like Jonah of old, would have created a stir among the people of Jerusalem by his message of repentance, his stark clothing, and his peculiar diet. No wonder crowds went out to see him at the Jordan River and be baptized by him.
Thank you, Roger and Jan Olson, for all you’ve done to educate us on honey. We are in your debt.
Irv