Have you recently dipped your fingers in a pot of honey and swiped a big swath of sticky sweetness? Unless you’re a bear, my guess is probably ‘not lately.’ Here in the Royalty Realm, however, sticky fingers are a precious commodity…
In Psalm 119, tucked away like bee’s candy in a hive, is a verse in that beautiful, long poem worth savoring with the psalmist:
“How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” Psalm 119:103 NASB
Do you love God’s words like that?
This is not a ‘gauntlet thrown down’ question; true love deepens over time. On the other hand, if your answer was along the lines of “um, ah…could you repeat the question?” you may need to spend more time in the honey pot getting your fingers sticky.
Jesus, the very Word himself, was prophesied of back in Isaiah’s time, long before He was a jot or tittle in Mary’s eye. It was said of him in Isaiah 7:15 –
“He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right…”
This prophetic word tells us that Jesus, who was fully God, was indeed fully human as well. He lived through infancy, childhood, and youth – the same stages of development His Father ordained for us human creatures. I love how Abba Father planned ahead for us by giving us His Son as the firstborn among many brothers and sisters … Romans 8:29
As a young child Jesus grew by eating butter and honey. As a model for us of life’s stages, in His youth He came to a place and time where He knew enough to reject the wrong and choose the right. And He did, so that we may also be able to reject the wrong and embrace the right.
And so, we have now encroached on a bit of a sticky wicket…
On the honey side of the wicket, the Word encourages our hearts that “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet he did not sin.” Hebrews 4:14-15
On the other honey side of the wicket (which is where the dilemma rests) Jesus, the very Word of God also tells us, “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” John 14:21
Without a developing love for the Truth God speaks every time He opens His mouth (remember, the Word is ‘alive and active; sharper than any double-edged sword’ Hebrews 4:12), we attempt to live in the Royalty Realm having the commands while not necessarily feeling called upon to keep them. It doesn’t work. Not if we proclaim that we love Christ, the Son of the Living God. Even with love for the Truth, Jesus didn’t make it easy. What He made it was a choice “to reject the wrong and choose the right…”
It’s rather like approaching a beehive…you can’t have honey without the bees. Neither does the Word of God become sweeter than honey to us without having experienced its sometimes sharp ‘alive activity’ in our lives that brings us to spiritual health and vitality.
One of the best mirrors God has provided for taking a good look at ourselves is smeared with honey. When we take in His written Word as one does when enjoying a nourishing, delicious, good for you meal, we can exclaim with the psalmist that indeed, His words are sweet to our taste, even sweeter than honey to our mouth! That nourishing meal becomes fuel by which to live and move and have our being in the Royalty Realm; the ‘keeping’ part of having His commands.
Neither do we dine alone or for our own consumption only, for as Wikipedia online says of ‘Honey bees’:
Honey is the complex substance made when the nectar and sweet deposits from plants and trees are gathered, modified and stored in the honeycomb by honey bees as a food source for the colony. All living species (of Apis) have had their honey gathered by indigenous peoples for consumption… {emphasis mine}
When we make a godly habit of living with sticky fingers in the honey pot of God’s Word, we are nourished and nourish others.
“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” {ie. stuck with honey – nb} Psalm 133:1
Learning to live sticky and Gracefully Free!
Hi Nanc – Thanks for your latest blog post. Did you know that honey has healing properties (just like the Word)? My sister-in-law, Ruth, told me that people are becoming so antibiotic-resistant due to their overuse, that many hospitals in Australia are now using honey to put on wounds. The honey can’t be the pastuerized, over-processed kind we get in the stores now days, but pure honey—the kind that farms sell. I thought that was so interesting. Honey not only tastes good, but brings healing–just like the Word. Arlene