Eat The Honey

Eat honey.  Why?  Because it tastes good, it has healing properties, and it re-energizes you; that’s why.  It is a good analogy for Wisdom, God’s Wisdom in His Word, in many ways. 

These characteristics of honey will show themselves when reading Scripture.  Wisdom’s goodness will satisfy and keep one’s vision sharp, and decisions clear.  

Proverbs 24:13–14 ESV “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.”

Its medicinal value is seen in preventing one from following the wrong way, and even providing healing when one has returned from wandering.  On the really positive side, it enlivens your soul and body to do God’s will and mission.

The Analogy

Knowing Wisdom is like eating honey.  You might recall this episode in Prophet Ezekiel’s ministry:

Ezekiel 3:1-3 ESV “And he said to me, “Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and he gave me this scroll to eat. And he said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.”

Wisdom and the Word of God are simply good in themselves.  They bring joy into one’s soul and provides a future and a hope, and such that will never be lost.  The Proverbs make one “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 3:15)  This is ultimately the “hope that will not be cut off” here in Proverbs 24:14.

You know that studying the Bible just settles well in your soul, you know it is good and can sense it.  You know that hearing the Wisdom of God through your church family brings healing into your life.  You know that attending regularly to the worship and preaching of the Word re-invigorates and gives you life.

So, Eat Honey; It is Good

Did you think that gaining Wisdom was an arduous, dry, even painful task?  

Some think this way, sadly.  Hopefully if you did, you might re-consider that it really is not this way.  Some of us might have fallen back into thinking it is too hard, and we are kept from it and its delicious goodness.

Sometimes we over-complicate the Bible.  And then it is time to return to the basics.  Relax, read, pray, listen and learn.  All one has to do is enjoy eating what is pleasant.  Select a new Bible reading plan for this upcoming year that will be refreshing.  (My favorite app for this:  ReadingPlan.)

Wisdom in the Word of God invigorates us for living life to the fullest and living like this forever!

Govern Your Heart

Life comes forth from the heart.  Our whole experience of life derives from what is in our hearts.  Our perspectives, meaning-making, significance-finding, even simple joy, they all come from the heart.

Proverbs 4:23 ESV “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”

The Hebrew word translated as “keep,” more specifically means either protect or govern.  If the meaning is to protect, it is about keeping watch as against an enemy, that nothing bad influences the integrity of one’s heart.  If the meaning is to govern, it is about keeping watch as in restraining a prisoner, that nothing bad comes out of one’s heart.

Obviously, we want to be doing both, protecting and governing, but the second option here seems to be more likely, that of governing.  We are strongly advised to restrain our hearts from wrongdoing.

The concept of the “heart” in the ancient near east involved the whole person:  mind, emotions, will, and affections.  We tend to think of the heart as the place of intentions or emotions only.  The idea here is to use one faculty of the heart, the mind, to keep the rest of the person in check.  We must do so because the tendency of our hearts is to lead us astray.

Disney Has it Backwards

This can be hard to accept because it is contrary to the ever-present and popular Gospel according to Disney, which teaches relentlessly to just follow your heart.  Perhaps, this explains the common saying of Christians these days, “you don’t know my heart.”  They may just be defending their sincerity, but most often something more is going on here.  

Some use this phrase trying to escape an impending spiritual assessment.  For others it is a quick defensive move.  In more severe cases it functions as a way of putting oneself above the Holy Spirit and the Church.  Regardless, those who use the phrase often are in great danger of self-deception on purity of motive and clarity of thinking.  This is because the phrase is used to assert that they themselves know their own heart.

Again, we tend to think of the heart as the place of intentions or emotions only, and that they are good.  This is very dangerous way to think and live, to trust one’s own heart; Proverbs calls it foolish.  Don’t let others, or yourself, get away with this, rather guide them into the truth of Scripture and their souls.

The Truth of the Matter

On the one hand, no one really knows their own heart; yet, on the other hand, we do know how everyone’s heart works.  Here is wisdom worth pondering when handling ourselves and dealing with others, from Proverbs 20:5 ESV “The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.”

Ultimately, only God really knows what is going on in there, not even the person himself or herself really very much.

Jeremiah 17:9–10 ESV “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”” 

Proverbs 21:2 ESV “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart.”

This is why we pray like David in Psalm 139:23–24 ESV “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

Practically speaking, simply look at the four verses following Proverbs 4:23.

Proverbs 4:24–27 ESV “Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.”

Living the Proverbs

The fullness of life promised in v.23, “Govern your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life,” would be fulfilled in all that comes in the Lord Jesus Christ.

John 4:14 ESV “. . . whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”” 

John 7:38 ESV “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’””

Sometimes, we can forget the connections between the Old and New Testaments, but they really speak to the one and same final hope.  Jesus Christ grants us the Holy Spirit and His power and ability to perform the Proverbs at a whole new level as the New Covenant People of God.

Ezekiel 36:26–27 ESV “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” 

Romans 8:2 ESV “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”

In Christ Jesus, we get to re-experience Proverbs from a greater perspective and with a greater purpose! 

Optimistic And Opportunistic

The most compelling and powerful message on the planet is Jesus’ Gospel of the Kingdom!  


The Progress in Numbers

According to recent missions research from the World Christian Encyclopedia, here are a few Christian growth statistics through the year AD 2000.  Consider it an update on Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed.  

The world population was 6.1 billion, with 650 million evangelicals.  The percent of believers in the world from the time of Jesus Christ grew to 2.5% by the year 1900.  Then, it doubled to 5% by the year 1970; and by the year 2000 it reached 11%, although unevenly distributed.

The annual population growth rate was 1.5% and the annual conversation growth rate for evangelicals was 0.4%.  This conversion growth rate was the highest among all religions, five times the conversion rate of Islam, while all other religions posted insignificant or even negative conversion growth rates.

Today, roughly 14,000 of 24,000 people groups have been reached with the Gospel.  It is conceivable to finish the 10,000 more groups in the not too distant future.  It is doable.  It is being done.  Today 99% of the world’s population currently lives in areas specifically targeted for church planting.

Jesus Predicts with a Parable

Luke 13:18–19 ESV ““What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.””

The mustard seed was a proverbial way of referencing something extremely small.  And the unique feature of this seed is that as a garden plant it becomes a “giant” 8-12 foot tall bush.
  One might even call it a “tree,” since birds can nest in it, and it grows far beyond all seeming expectations.  The power of the tiny seed is seen eventually in the growth of the tree.  It becomes large enough for birds to nest in its strong branches.

We learn a few things about the Kingdom of God from this image.  It will grow powerfully after Jesus’ death and resurrection (John 12:23-24).  The Kingdom will include many from among the Gentiles, as the birds possibly suggest.  And it will be a place of protection, rest, and shade for its members, both now and forever.

This is a somewhat surprising image, being that the strong and stately cedar tree is more often used for the Kingdom.  Perhaps this is to further teach that it will not come all at once, but will grow over time.  This parable is given for the purpose of explaining the small beginning of Kingdom yet its great ending.  

The common expectation was for a glorious cataclysmic appearance of the Kingdom, not the more subdued inauguration that Jesus the Messiah actually brought.  The point of the parable then is that the Kingdom of God may look small and insignificant and ineffective at the time of Jesus.  But, it will eventually become universal under the Davidic Messiah, Jesus, just as predicted, and now alluded to, in Ezekiel 17:22-24.

The Tree Keeps on Growing

We should be optimistic about these words of Jesus, because they have come true, and are coming true as we live and serve the Gospel.  Jesus is motivating us with this parable that the Kingdom has come, is growing, and soon will overtake the world at His Return!

When we proclaim the Gospel the mustard tree sprouts new buds, shoots out new branches, and strengthens its trunk.  When God saves sinners it is more birds coming to rest in the branches of Kingdom blessings.  

The Kingdom of God is not small any longer.  Now it is huge, reaching to the farthest people groups of the earth!  The Kingdom of God is not weak either.  It is taking over the world!  Our role as the Church and as each church is to be optimistic and opportunistic with Jesus’ Gospel of the Kingdom.