Proverbs 16:24
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Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.
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Dear reader, do your words promote health? Do you heal others by kind encouragement, wise counsel, and gentle comfort? Or are your words like a piercing sword (12:18)? Do you leave others bleeding with caustic, critical, calloused, and condemning words? And do you then pour in salt, when we are told to only season our speech with it (Col 4:6)?
Good perfume rejoices the heart in just nanoseconds; and kind words do the same, when a friend gives sweet counsel from his heart (27:9). Oh precious gift of speech! The right words at the right time are beautiful indeed (15:23). See the comments on 25:11. There is great power in your tongue, dear reader (18:21). How will you use it today?
In our industrial and synthetic society, many do not know the sweetness or health properties of the honeycomb. When did you last eat some? But to the informed, God's honeybees pollinate plants and also produce a sweet delight with fascinating nutrients.
Honey is a luxurious food God created for our benefit (24:13). He described Canaan, the wonderful land of promise, as a land flowing with milk and honey (Ex 3:8; Deut 8:7-9). The manna He gave Israel for forty years tasted like wafers made with honey (Ex 16:31).
Kings sent it as gifts (II Sam 17:27-29; I Kgs 14:3), and it enlightened the eyes of Prince Jonathan once (I Sam 14:27). John the Baptist lived on it and locusts (Matt 3:4); Jesus ate it with butter - two important foods of Israel - in his formative years (Is 7:15); and He ate it again after his resurrection (Luke 24:42). And inspired lovers used it to describe the sweetness of their lovemaking (Song 4:11; 5:1).
No one will deny that honey is sweet. It is twice as sweet as sugar! In recipes calling for sugar, only one-half the amount of honey is needed. A full person will reject it (27:7)!
But did you know these facts? Honeycomb contains four foods: honey, bee pollen, bee propolis, and royal jelly. Honey itself has a long history of use for many different ailments in many nations. Ever taken it with lemon or whiskey for a sore throat? Ever used local honey to combat allergies? And there are dozens more of therapeutic uses.
Bee pollen, which collects on the bees' legs, is sometimes described as the perfect food. With 96 nutrients, it is rich in zinc, calcium, magnesium, and iron. It can energize you, give you a sense of well being, increase your intellectual capacity, and close any nutritional gaps in your diet.
Propolis, a waxy resin the bees use for several purposes, is rich in B vitamins, minerals, and bioflavonoids. It has no equal as a natural antibiotic. It stimulates the thymus gland to produce white blood cells to fight or eliminate viruses, poisons, and waste products.
Royal jelly, secreted by a few nurse bees in each hive, is the exclusive food of the queen bee. This wonder food causes her to live forty times as long as the worker bees and produce double her bodyweight in eggs each day, though genetically identical to them! It contains a high concentration of pantothenic acid and many other complex nutrients.
Since God said honey was healthful and commended it in the places mentioned above, we believe it (14:23; 16:24). But it is a pleasure to read research confirming Solomon's words from 3000 years ago! Give God the glory! The Creator reveals true science.
Honey is precious. It is sweet to our taste, enlivens our eyes, energizes our bodies, and has many nutritional properties for overall health. Our words should be the same! They should cause others to rejoice and be glad they heard us speak, and they should build others up in profitable ways (Eph 4:29). Choose good words to say to someone today!
Our speech should always be gracious, with only a pinch of salt (Col 4:6; Eccl 10:12). Such speech fulfills our proverb. Wise mothers say to children, If you can't say anything kind, then don't say anything at all. For parents love to hear right words (23:16; 15:26). Our stingers should only be used as a last resort, just like the honeybee.
But is sweet speech manly? Yes, indeed! God created man and inspired our proverb, and Solomon the son of David wrote them. Were they effeminate? David bravely killed Goliath and won Jonathan's heart by gracious words, all in one day (22:11; I Sam 18:1)!
Our Lord could slice and confound the Pharisees when He needed, but His disciples knew Him for gracious and healthful speech (Ps 45:2; Is 50:4). His gracious words at Nazareth caused the whole crowd to wonder (Luke 4:22). And the hearts of two disciples burned joyfully from His precious words on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:32).
Unnecessary harshness in speech is not a sign of manliness or the Spirit of God; it is sold by the devil to those whose hearts are not right. It flows from a heart hardened by hatred and pride, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matt 12:34). David rebuked his nephews for being too hard (II Sam 3:39); and Jesus did the same to James and John (Luke 9:55). Neither party had the spirit or tongue of our Lord.
A bitter and biting tongue is a fire from hell; it is a world of iniquity; it is an unruly evil, fool of deadly poison (Jas 3:2-12). No man can tame it by himself. Yet we must do all we can to cut it out from our own mouths and those of our children, by the grace of God.
Men like John the Baptist and Elijah had special missions, and we do not know they were so harsh in private. They likely were not. They are not examples for common speech. We should rather choose the law of kindness to govern our choice of words (31:26).
Who can deny that God's words are sweet? Are they not sweeter than honey (Ps 19:10; 119:103)? Do they not cause joy and rejoicing in our hearts (Jer 15:16)? They are so sweet that we describe those speaking them as having beautiful feet (Rom 10:15)! Can you remember the sweetness to your soul of hearing the true gospel with understanding?
There is great power in the tongue, dear reader (18:21). How will you use it today? You will eat the fruit of how you use it - life or death. Every man shall bear his own burden.
Kind and gracious words are a dessert for any occasion. They go into our ears and souls with sweet pleasure, and they enliven our hearts and even our steps. Our faces glow by their instant effect, and energy and vitality are quickly restored to the cast down. We can create such words out of thin air by our lips, when wisdom is guiding our speech (16:23).
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