HONEY, God will use the sweet things of life to shape us, NOT just the bitter! Some people are completely oriented towards a hard and joyless life, they cannot receive the goodness and loving kindness( Hebrew chesed or hesed)of God!
The Pharisees and teachers of the Law couldn’t stand Jesus flouting of the Law in order to show mercy on the Sabbath. The Israelite slaves when they came out of Egypt were conditioned to hardship and cruelty, so are some of us and don’t know it.
Mark 1:6 John the Baptist(forerunner for Christ) ate locusts and wild honey. John’s appearance and manner might well have gotten him locked up/sectioned today. It is interesting that God sustained the forerunner to Christ with some sweet honey.
1 Samuel 14:27 Jonathan son of king Saul ate some honey, during battle with Philistines AND HIS EYES BRIGHTENED! Jonathan didn’t know about Saul’s binding oath on the whole army to eat no food and thus the men were exhausted and starving in battle. Is that how it feels for us today, battle weary and starved of anything sweet and uplifting? Jonathan’s exhaustion soon disappeared and he was reenergised as soon as he ate some honey from the end of his staff, didn’t take a lot to change his whole outlook!
Exodus 3:8 God Himself speaking to Moses from the burning bush told him He would bring Israel, ‘Into a spacious land flowing with milk and honey’.
My second Spiritual father, Kjell Sjoberg, spoke powerfully in many nations. He used to say that after he’d spoken in a meeting for some time directly from the Word he could see people becoming weary. He knew that it was time to bring some encouraging real life examples into his messages and lift their spirits again.
God does not want us to be continually battle weary, He has to give us times of blessing and rest. He led the people out of Egypt by the desert road, so they wouldn’t face war and maybe return to the land of slavery.
The enemy may be trying to get you to deal with yourself more harshly than God wants for you right now. This is the hallmark of cold religion, NOT THE HESED, WARM LOVING KINDNESS OF GOD! God made honey and the honey bee, so why not step out and enjoy some of His honey in your life today!
God bless you