Ezekiel 3:1-4
“And he said to me, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the people of Israel.”
So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat.
Then he said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.” So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.
He then said to me: “Son of man, go now to the people of Israel and speak my words to them.”

I’ve always loved honey. I think it’s great on toast or fresh bread. After drizzling honey over bread, I let it sit for a minute, so it can seep into the bread and become part of it. Honey gives bread a sweet and full taste. It doesn’t just sit on top of it. It penetrates, sweetens and flavors it into something new.

Recently I wondered if honey goes bad. We had some that was turning to sugar and it had an expiration date on the bottle. As a country kid, I don’t remember honey going bad. It isn’t refrigerated and many times as a kid we had it straight from the comb. So I looked it up. What I found amazed me.

Archaeologists have discovered 3,000-year-old honey buried in Egyptian tombs that was still edible. I don’t know who they got to taste it, but that had to be a very brave person. I dug a little deeper and found out why. The bees convert nectar from flowers into honey using special enzymes in their own bodies. The final product contains such a small amount of moisture that bacteria can’t survive in it. Further, it’s acidic enough to keep organisms that spoil other foods away. The bee enzymes even produce a trace amount of hydrogen peroxide in honey.

Honey is in fact an antimicrobial and has been used throughout history as an antiseptic. On the ancient battlefield it was packed into wounds to prevent bacterial infections. Almost every illness of the mind and body has been treated with honey.

When the Lord called His people, Israel, out of Egypt His repeated promise to them was that He was going to take them to a land flowing with “milk and honey(Numbers 13:27).” Along the way Israel was given manna by the Lord to eat. It’s not surprising that manna contained a taste of honey when it was made into bread. For forty years God’s people were provided a taste of honey as they moved closer to a land that featured honey on the menu (Exodus 16:31).

In Ezekiel 3 the scroll represents God’s Word. It tastes like honey. With all I’ve learned about honey, I’m not surprised.

So why does store bought honey have an expiration date?

It’s a marker for the store to rotate in fresh stock. It has nothing to do with the honey itself.
It’s about keeping dust off the bottle.

By the way, if your Bible has a little dust on it, what’s on the inside is still fresh and healthy. It’s really good for you.
God’s Word never goes bad. Never is out of date and can be used for many applications. It is sweet to the taste and healing to your spirit.

2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”

Proverbs 16:24 “Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”

Go get some honey!

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