Focus: Just a Little Honey!

Text: 1Sam.14:29

"Then said Jonathan, My father hath TROUBLED the land: SEE, I pray you, how mine eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a LITTLE of this honey."

The flesh is very religious, but its religion is self-centered, self-focused and self-serving. The flesh practices a religion in which God is relativized, domesticated, relegated or seen as a magic wand. It is religion by lips, but not from the heart.

Saul, in spiritual symbolism, signifies an enthroned flesh or the dominance of carnality in the things of God.

*Our flawed flesh

King Saul, for reasons best known to him, places his whole army under an oath to avoid food while engaging in a raging battle against the enemy. He makes his soldiers fast right in the heat of battle. Which sensible military general would ask his troops to fast while they are arrayed in battle? It just doesn't make sense, but that is exactly the religion of the carnal man. Our old nature is flawed and faulty.

*Our flesh loves parading

All Saul wants is to appear godly in the eyes of the people. But the people see through him. Saul is, at best, faking spiritual piety, and at worst, being highly insensitive and subtly wicked. Abstinence from food is not a strategy for winning battles. Come to think of it, Satan is not afraid of our fasting; he is rather afraid of the God we serve in truth and in spirit. Fasting is good only as it helps us to draw nearer to God. The spiritual armor as listed by Paul in Ephesians 6 does not include fasting. Let's be clear, fasting has its place in our lives as Christians, but we are dealing here with a fast of no physical or spiritual good.

*Our flesh breeds trouble

The Scripture records that the "men of Israel were DISTRESSED… The people were FAINT… The people were VERY FAINT" (1Sam.14:24,28,31). What sense does it make going to war on an empty stomach? Who does that? In fact, the Arabic version of our text says, "My father hath sinned against the people." By that stupid strategy the people are mentally agitated and physically wearied. In the Hebrew, the word 'trouble' means to boil, stir, roil, churn, harass, or disturb. It has to do with water being disturbed or stirred. It relates to the water becoming rile, turbid or turbulent.

Imagine looking at honey in a moment of extreme hunger, but you can't touch it. Honey is dropping on the ground, but someone is stopping you from eating of it! You are made to swear to engage the enemy with no food in your stomach. Saul's men cannot eat of the dropping honey for fear of the oath.

*Our flesh yields to sin

Saul sins against the people, and then we read in verse 33, that "the people sin against the LORD, in that they eat with the blood…" By Saul's senseless oath he causes the people to sin against the Lord. In that moment of extreme hunger they decide and commit to killing animals and eating them raw with the blood. What a sad commentary on the evil of religious pretense!

Let's be wary of ritualistic religion and religious pretenders - those who parade the flesh in the name of piety!

*Food for our spirit

If you want to win your spiritual battles, you have to feed on the spiritual honey of the word of God. Feast lavishly on it. Jonathan ate just a little honey and the effect on him was visible enough for all to see. His eyes brightened up and his vigor was restored. He felt refreshed, revitalized and galvanized for military action. He says, "How much more, if haply the people had EATEN FREELY to day of the spoil of their enemies which they found? for had there not been now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines?"

Divine honey is available. It avails and aids you to prevail. God's honey drips and drops from the pages of Scripture. The psalmist says of God's word, "More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb… He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee… How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Ps.19:10; 81:16; 119:103).

The word of God taste so good. God for all of it, not just a bit of it. By it your vision will regain strength and your whole system refreshed. By it you will have the energy to fight and win. You need more than a little Scripture; you need all the Scripture. You need the word of God in your spirit. You cannot fight the enemy with spiritual emptiness. Paul says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…" Amen.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter