My son, eat honey, for it is good, and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste.
Know that wisdom is such to your soul; if you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off. (Proverbs 24:13)
Food. Food is any substance which we consume to nourish and give energy to our bodies. We need food to survive. In America, food is often abused, but that’s not what I want to speak on today. Today, I want to focus on what food can do for us. I don’t mean that it simply gives us energy. The more powerful thing that food can do for us is what it might do for us spiritually.
In the Bible, food is not a matter of physical nourishment. It’s not less than that, but it’s more than that. Food is a matter of wisdom. Food, good food, tasty food has the ability to point you to something greater. Proverbs 24:13 says this, “My son, eat honey, for it is good, and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste.” Eat honey. Eat the sweet things in life. Now, this isn’t a license to munch down on ice cream all day (I’m speaking to myself). Solomon is saying to eat the food you enjoy. Don’t be mindless about it. Engage all your faculties. Taste the sweet things. Perceive the satisfaction that you feel. Understand the jolt of joy you get when you eat something that tickles your tastebuds.
Now the problem is when we find joy in the food itself and nothing more. We see food as bringing joy and happiness, so we allow ourselves to see food as the thing that satisfies in and of itself. If food is what satisfies, we’ll need more of it. We need better-tasting food. We need to top what we just tasted because that’s how we get more joy. But we don’t stop there. Proverbs challenges us to go beyond in finding joy and wisdom.
Proverbs 24:14 says this, “Know that wisdom is such to your soul; if you find it, there will be a future, and your hope will not be cut off.” In other words, when you taste that fantastic meal, when you feast on a medium-rare ribeye or a chocolate soufflé with rich vanilla ice cream, don’t just enjoy that food. That joy will fade after the meal is over. Instead, use that meal as a launching pad into a joy that lasts. Use it to launch you into a never-ending buffet of pleasure that is wisdom. And how does wisdom give us joy? Proverbs says that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. In other words, true wisdom will take us to God, the source of all that is good in the world. That source is the Lord who gives joy that will never run out and provides satisfaction that will never grow stale. What can food do for you? Food, good food, can point you to God.