Issue 689 – Honey Bees – March 20, 2021
For many years my father was an apiarist; he kept bees and harvested the honey. He quit when he and my mom sold the farm, and they moved to the city.
To me, the bees were both fascinating and terrifying. Dad often suited me up, and I opened a hive with him. We checked their health and added or removed honey supers (the wood and wax frames that the bees use to build honey storage).
The bees never seemed to unnerve him. He carried on even if he got stung. I was far less brave.
Mom and dad had a honey house on the farm. It was a building where they stored the equipment but, more importantly, processed the honey. It was always sticky but spelled marvellously like honey no matter the season.
I wasn’t big on the bees, but I did enjoy the honey. As long as Dad had an apiary, our home had plenty of honey.
The flavour, and sometimes even the colouration of honey, depends on the flowers the bees are foraging on. It can be light and delicate or very dark and strong tasting.
Honey is a marvellous thing. It has been farmed for at least 8,000 years and fermented for at least 1,000 years before that.
The natural sugars in honey give it a high energy density. It is used in most forms of cooking and baking and as a stand-alone sweetener.
The Bible references honey in several ways.
Sometimes, it is simply honey, as in the product of bees that people eat.
The land of milk and honey is used to speak of the riches and ease of the Promised Land.
I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
Exodus 3:8
It is also used to speak of the beauty and sweetness of God’s Word.
I understand more than the aged,
for I keep your precepts.
I hold back my feet from every evil way,
in order to keep your word.
I do not turn aside from your rules,
for you have taught me.
How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Through your precepts I get understanding;
therefore I hate every false way.
Psalm 119:100-105
The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
he testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
Psalm 19:7-11
Do you desire the sweetness and rewards of God’s Words and law? Do you long to know Him and His blessing even deeper? Do you want to be more like Him?
Read the Word. Learn from it. Apply it.
Hallelu Yah (Praise God)
Be blessed.
Kevin.
Gleanings From The Word.
Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life.
Soli Deo Gloria (for the glory of God alone.)
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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the English Standard Version (ESV). Spelling modified to Canadian English as required.
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