Proverbs 27:7 – The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.

Hello readers, just a short blog from the book of Proverbs. Noticed this verse today, and after many years of reading straight past it, it just made perfect sense to me. This single verse is so jam packed with truth it is unbelievable.

God’s word is the believer’s honeycomb. That’s not me making it up, the Bible defines itself that way. The Bible says when speaking of God’s word in Psalm 19:10 “More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” Also, the Bible says in Proverbs 16:24 “Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.” The Bible says in Song of Solomon 4:11 “Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.”

Well that’s all nice. Most people like honey. It’s sweet, it’s great. Honey is so great that people often call their spouse or their lover “honey”. God’s word is likened to honey and the honeycomb, because it is sweet to the taste. The Bible says in Psalm 34:8 “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” Hey, being forgiven, saved, having eternal life, going to heaven… it’s all sweet isn’t it

But when it should be sweet, in this verse we see a problem, for the Bible says  that the full soul loatheth an honeycomb. And never was a truer word spoken. This world is full of “full souls”. Even believers can have “full souls”. And they loathe the honeycomb. They’re so full of themselves, they’re so full of sin, they’re so satisfied ravening on flesh in this world… God’s word is simply detestable to them.

The mark of any saved child of God is that he or she will love God’s word. It will be his or her delight. It is sweet honey to them. Like a honeycomb, every book, every verse, every commandment, every statute, every judgment, every law, the testimony of Christ is a treasure and delight to a believer.

But when you’re full, when you’re already satisfied, as this unbelieving and Christ rejecting world is, you’ll loathe the honey of God’s word. And that’s true. I speak to many people who loathe the word of God. Simple as that. They have no need for it. They have no time for it. The blood of Christ is dirt to them.

Even worse, I speak to many professing Christians who loathe the word of God. Kinda makes you wonder doesn’t it. How can you loathe the honeycomb of God’s word? In every page, just like in every cell of that honey comb, there are sweet nuggets of truth for the believer. Truths which that believer can pin his hope and life upon.

To me, this verse is just incredible because it teaches such a basic truth. People loathe God’s word and it tells you why. They’re already full. Something else filled them up. And because they’re already full, that honeycomb is loathsome to them. What are you full of? Really and honestly, the reason why you have no time or need for God’s word is because you’re already full on something else. You’ve been gorging on pride, on lust, on greed, on envy, on covetousness, on cares and riches, on your career, on your ambitions, on all the entertainment and programs and attractions and delights and delicacies of this world. And it’s left no space, and no desire for the word of God. Your appetite is gone, even the thought of honey is contemptible to you.

But the verse doesn’t finish there. Because it starts with the full soul, but the second part is about the hungry soul. Many people are not hungry spiritually. They’re not hungry for God. They’re not hungry for truth. They’re not hungry for something more than this world has to offer. They’re not hungry for something more than a life of sin. Until you get hungry, there will be no delight for you in God’s word, in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This verse could’ve just finished with something along the lines of “the hungry soul desires the honeycomb”… or whatever. But it doesn’t does it. Because this is going to teach us so much more. Because this is God’s book. We’ve reduced God’s word so far down to our carnal and fleshly thinking it’s just pathetic. We suppose to know what God thinks and means to say. It’s almost admirable how little fear of God we have.

The second part of the verse talks about how to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. And in this is just a phenomenal truth. Say you are hungry for truth, say you are hungry for the word of God, say you are hungry for far more than flesh, world, sin, hell… you won’t get all offended and upset and puffed up when God’s word rebukes your sin and exposes who you truly are.

See God isn’t like us. He’s not just fake nice to us. He’s not going to sweety sweety you when things aren’t sweet. If you’re not right with God, he’s not going to pour honey on that fact. He tells us who and what we are. He tells us the truth, because he knows the truth about us. What will truly satisfy your hunger often starts with something bitter yet that is very sweet. Because you’re hungry. You know, the bitter things like conviction of sin, acknowledgment of truth, repentance and God destroying our self righteousness, smashing our pride, laying our life bare and naked … they’re the sweetest things to the hungry soul.

For someone who is saved, God’s word can’t be preached hard enough. Truth can’t be declared enough. When you’re hungry, everything will be sweet. To this world, the message of the cross is very bitter to them. But to the hungry soul, that bitter pill to swallow of who you are, of what you are, of where you are heading, that stinging rebuke of sin, it’s your delight. Truth is pretty good isn’t it, because when you know the truth, the truth will make you free, just as Jesus said. When you get to the truth of it, you can be saved. When the problem is identified, then it can be fixed. Sin is our problem, but sin must be called sin and recognized as such before you see the need for the Saviour. That’s why the law came before Jesus Christ, because the law led us to Christ.

There were hungry souls who loved Jesus’ preaching. But there were a lot of full souls who loathed him and his preaching. The hungry souls heard “except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish” and to them that bitter message was sweet. Jesus preached and taught a lot of “bitter” truths, but for the hungry souls every word he uttered was sweet… because is the way, the truth and the life. It was sweet because it turned to their salvation.  The problem is we want a salvation and a Christianity without bitterness, we want it to be all sweet. We don’t want persecution or rejection or any cost of following Christ.

So we’ve got a lot of sweet churches and sweet Christians out there. They’re both full souls and sweet. They’re satisfied with everyone dying and going to hell and wandering in darkness. But hey, so long as it’s “all sweet”, so long as everyone’s sweet. Sweety sweety Christians. Pastors with a sweet message. Churches with a sweet outreach. Sweet, sugar coated preaching, careful not to offend, careful not to be close to anything negative or bitter. Oh no, we are positive, encouraging, uplifting… we pour the honey on. However, it is the honey of the strange woman’s lips, deceptive and deceitful honey, honey that will lead you and leave you in hellfire.

The Bible says in Isaiah 48:22 “There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.” Newsflash, if you’re not alright with God, you’re not alright with God. There’s no way of making this message sweet. To make Christianity sweet, we simply threw God’s word out, we changed it, we dumbed it down, we degraded the image of God to conform to our degraded lives, we pick and choose the parts of God we like, and we have nothing to offer the hungry soul.

If someone is hungry, they’ll want the truth. If that truth is bitter, it will be sweet to them. The best thing that ever happened to me in life is people loving me enough to rebuke my sin. The best preaching I’ve heard is preaching on hell. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 7 that it is better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting. Why is that?  Because a message on hell will likely do you a lot more good than a message on heaven. We don’t need sweet preaching, we need God’s word, we need the truth.

Jesus spoke a lot more about hell than heaven, and if that’s the ratio, how many churches or Christians really are willing to tell anyone the truth to anyone anymore? Modern Bibles have even made Jesus more “sweet” they removed “hell” didn’t they. They’ve been busily taking all the bitter parts out because they’re full on sin and lies and they loathe the truth. The reason why Christians are not salt and light is because they’ve got no salt and light. Salt stings, light exposes. When you’re in darkness and you love the darkness, the last thing you want is the light. But if you want out of the darkness, you’ll love the light. So just be light Christian. You’re never going to please everyone. Get that down. You being darkness won’t help anyone get out the darkness.

When you’re hungry, it doesn’t matter how bitter, it will be sweet to you. The reason why you’re like you are in life is because there is no hunger. Look what Jesus said in Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Where’s the hunger? It’s because you’re already full and fat on sin and flesh and world. And that’s why you can’t stand truth. What a Proverb this is. Will we learn?

The truth is, if you’re unsaved, if you’re unrepentant, if you’re lost and on your way to hell, if you are disobedient to God, you don’t have anything truly sweet. The full soul loatheth the honeycomb. You have no room for something truly sweet and good for you. The true and faithful sweetness is in the Lord Jesus Christ and being right with him. But maybe you’re already full. You’ve already eaten. Because you’re already full on this world and flesh and sin, you really don’t have room for anything truly sweet in your life, and what’s truly sweet such as the good news of salvation is detestable to you. You’re settling for so much less than what God has for you. Imagine being so full that you have no desire for the honey comb of God’s word, of truth and of eternal life. That is a truly sad state. May God give us a hunger for truth, for his word, a hunger to be right with him and obey him in our lives.

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