The Honey of God's Word
A SINGULAR incident in old Hebrew history illustrates the sweetness and light that flow from God’s blessed Word. Jonathan was leading the army of Israel in pursuit of the Philistines, and King Saul had forbidden the troops to taste of food during the march. When the troops reached a forest where the bees had laid up their abundant stores several honeycombs were found lying upon the earth. Jonathan — not having heard of the royal edict — put forth the rod in his hand and dipped it in a honeycomb, and put it to his mouth, “and his eyes were enlightened.” Refreshment came to his hungry frame and enlightenment to his eyes, which were dim with faintness and fatigue.
What a beautiful parable this incident furnishes to set forth one of the manifold blessings of God’s Word! In the superbly sublime nineteenth Psalm David pronounces that word to be sweeter than honey and the droppings of the honeycomb. In the same passage he declares that “it is pure, enlightening the eyes.” Again the psalmist says: “The entrance of thy word giveth light.” It is not the careless reading or the listless hearing of the book, but its entrance into the soul which produces this inward illumination. There is a sadly increasing ignorance of the Scriptures; when read publicly in the sanctuary thousands give but little heed. They do not take the vitalizing, heaven-sent truth into their souls as Jonathan took the honey into his system.
THE HONEY OF GOD’S WORD. ij?
But when the Word is partaken of hungrily, and the Holy Spirit accompanies it, there is a revelation made to the heart like that which the poor blind boy had after the operation of a skilful oculist. His mother led him out-of-doors, and, taking off the bandages, gave him his first view of sunshine and sky and flowers. “Oh, mother,” he exclaimed, “why did you never tell me it was so beautiful V The tears started as she replied. “I tried to tell you, my dear; but you could not understand me.” So the spiritual eyesight must be opened in order that the spiritual beauty and wisdom and glory of the divine Word may be discovered. Many a poor sinner has never found out what a glorious gospel our gospel is until he has swallowed the honey for himself. Dr. Horace Bushnell voiced the experiences of many of us when he said, “My experience is x8 that the Bible is dull when I am dull. When I am really alive, and set in upon the text with a tidal pressure of living affinities, it opens, it multiplies discoveries and reveals depths even faster than I can note them. The worldly spirit shuts the Bible; the Spirit of God makes it a fire, flaming out all meanings and glorious truths.”
The most growing Christian never outgrows his Bible; in that exhaustless jewelmine every stroke of the mattock reveals new nuggets of gold and fresh diamonds.
Even as a mental discipline there is no book like God’s book. Nothing else so sinews up the intellect, so clarifies the perception, so enlarges the views, so purifies the taste, so quickens the imagination, strengthens the understanding, and educates the whole man. The humblest day laborer who saturates his mind with this celestial schoolbook becomes a superior man to his comrades — not merely a purer man, but a clearer-headed man. It was the feeding on this honey dropping from heaven which gave to the Puritans their wonderful sagacity as well as their unconquerable loyalty to the right. The secret of the superiority of the old-fashioned Scottish peasantry was found in that “big ha’ Bible” which Burns described as the daily companion at every ingleside. Simply as an educator the Scriptures ought to be read in every schoolhouse, and there ought to be a chair of Bible instruction in every college. As the honey strewed the forests for Jonathan and his soldiers to feed upon, so the loving Lord has sent down his Word for all hungering humanity, high or humble; as the sunlight was made for all eyes, this book was made for all hearts.
It is more than light; for it is an enlightener. Not only does it reveal the grandest, sublimest and most practical truths, but it improves and enlarges the vision. It makes the blind to see, and the strong sight all the stronger. Who of us that have been sorely perplexed about questions of right and wrong, and puzzled as to our duty, have not caught new views and true views as soon as we dipped our rod into this honeycomb .? Once when I was sadly perplexed about the question of changing my field of labor — which would have changed the whole current of my life — a single text of Scripture instantly decided me: and I never repented the decision. Poor Cowper, harassed and tormented, found in the twenty-fifth verse of the third chapter of Romans the honey which brought light to his overclouded soul. John Wesley made the most signal discovery of his life when he thrust his rod into this verse: “The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” Even Paul had not learned his own sinfulness until “the commandment came” and opened his eyes. It is this heart-revealing power of the Book that makes it so invaluable in pulpit and inquiry-room.
Ah, there is many a one among my readers who can testify how the precious honey from heaven brought light and joy to his eyes when dimmed with sorrow. The exceeding rich and infallible promises were not only sweet, they were illuminating. They lighted up the valley of the shadow of death; they showed how crosses can be turned into crowns, and how losses can brighten into glorious gains. When I am in a sick room I almost always dip my rod into the honeycomb of the fourteenth chapter of John. It brings the Master there with his words of infinite comfort. One of my noblest Sunday-school teachers so fed on this divine honey that on her dying bed she said, “My path through the valley is long, but ‘t is bright all the way.”
Nothing opens the sinner’s eyes to see himself and to see the Saviour of sinners like the simple Word. The Bible is a book to reveal iniquity in the secret parts. If a young man will dip his rod into this warning, “Look not upon the wine when it is red,” he may discover that there is a nest of adders in the glass! If the skeptic and the scoffer can be induced to taste some of that honey which Christ gave to Nicodemus he may find hell a tremendous reality to be shunned, and heaven a glorious reality to be gained.
Brethren in the ministry, I am confident that our chief business is not only to eat hugely of this divine enlightening honey, but to tell people where to dip their rods. A distinguished theological professor said to me, “If I should return to the pastoral charge of a church I should do two things: I would make more direct personal efforts for the conversion of souls, and I would spend no time on the rhetoric of my sermons: I would saturate my mind with Bible truth, and then deliver that truth in the simplest idiomatic English that I could command.”
The honey from heaven lies abundant on the ground. May God help us to show it to the hungry, the needy and the perishing!