A Taste of Honey

And the men of Israel had been hard pressed that day, so Saul had laid an oath on the people, saying, “Cursed be the man who eats food until it is evening and I am avenged on my enemies.” So none of the people had tasted food.  Now when all the people came to the forest, behold, there was honey on the ground.  And when the people entered the forest, behold, the honey was dropping, but no one put his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath.  But Jonathan had not heard his father charge the people with the oath, so he put out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb and put his hand to his mouth, and his eyes became bright.  Then one of the people said, “Your father strictly charged the people with an oath, saying, ‘Cursed be the man who eats food this day.’” And the people were faint.  Then Jonathan said, “My father has troubled the land. See how my eyes have become bright because I tasted a little of this honey.  How much better if the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies that they found. For now the defeat among the Philistines has not been great.” – 1 Samuel 14:24-30

This passage has always fascinated me, in part because I have always connected it to the phrase in Ephesians 1:18, “… having the eyes of your hearts enlightened.” 

Saul himself is worthy of study in depth, and his laying this rash and counterproductive vow upon his army is quite typical and telling with regard to his personality and motivations.  Saul behaved in a manner consistent with his view of God.  To him, the Lord was harsh, demanding and pitiless.  He thought God could be appeased like a vain earthly ruler by spoils and sacrifice and flattery.  He seemed a reluctant king, one who came to rule with a low opinion of himself, yet he often acted unwisely and even arrogantly as if he were striving to live up to his position in a pathological way.  He did not understand grace but at the same time thought he could substitute zeal, performance, spectacle, and sacrifice for obedience.  Saul missed his calling.  He would have been the perfect mega-church pastor.

He would have also made a pretty good Pharisee:  But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in (Matthew 23:13).  That entire chapter bears reading frequently. 

The honey that dropped to the ground, like the grace, mercy and forgiveness of God, was freely and readily available.  No one had to pause in the pursuit of the enemy to prepare clean food.  This was literally a God-send that the warriors would be given renewed strength and refreshed to continue the battle.  Saul’s prohibition cut off God’s provision. 

I cannot even begin today to express all that is in my heart regarding this.  The honey drops to the ground all around us all the time, and we cut ourselves off from it through legalistic thinking, through worldly thinking, through a conventional religious mindset that relegates God to specific situations, that restricts the work of the Holy Spirit to certain times and states of mind and emotion, that compartmentalizes our lives and tries to spare God from the rigors of daily interaction with all the grit and grime we face.  I am guilty.

God does test us and try us at times.  He challenges us to help us grow and become more fitted for the abundant life of the kingdom.  But He wants us to live victoriously right here, right now – to overcome our fleshly inner Philistines.  He makes the resources we need readily available.  He expects us to take advantage of what He offers us because it will be needed to accomplish the objectives He has set for us.  When we turn to God and ask for help in times of crisis, when we ask for mercy, when we ask Him to sustain us, we are not succumbing to temptation.  Some people seem to think that we just have to tighten up the belt and keep going to overcome weakness, otherwise we are somehow not really serving God.  It is not so. 

The thing is that we do have to begin the process.  The provision will be there when we need it.  The Israelites hit those woods at exactly the right point in their pursuit when they really needed renewal.  Over and over, Christians will tell how they received refreshing, provision, and deliverance exactly when it was most effective.  But we have to be out there on the trail, doing God’s will, making an effort to obey, to carry the fight to the enemy before we can reach that place of provision.  If I stay holed up in the cave, I’m never going to have honey dropping from the trees. 

Finally, not accepting what God offers us leads to sin and defeat.  As the Israelites pushed on, they came upon livestock abandoned by the Philistines (vv 31-35).  If they had not been ravenous with hunger, the pursuit and destruction of the Philistines would have continued.  As it was, they fell upon the spoil and began to kill and eat the meat “with the blood”.  Saul’s injunction had negative consequences in the lives of his people. 

We can expect God to provide for us, not just physically, but spiritually.  We can trust Him to give us what we need when we need it to strengthen and sustain us.  Self-denial and self-control are essential when it comes to physical desires.  Fasting is a good and beneficial practice.  The giving up of our little luxuries and comforts, now and then, helps us to keep God first in our lives, as He should be.  Yet the Lord will offer us comfort by His Spirit.  We will be able to recognize God’s hand in it because it will not conflict with the goal for which He has us striving.  Like eating that honey that fell from the trees, we won’t even have to break stride in order to partake of it, and we will emerge with enlightened eyes and a new power and determination to finish the course.