Sayre Woods Bible Church

If you find honey, eat just enough–too much of it, and you will vomit. Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house–too much of you, and he will hate you. (25:16-17)

It is not good to eat too much honey, nor is it honorable to seek own’s own honor. (25:27)

After speaking of honey yesterday (cf. 24:13-14), it was hard not to notice the two additional “honey” proverbs in chapter 25. Solomon’s point is clear: too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Of course, he illustrates it in a very graphic way. “Eat too much honey and you will vomit.” That’s about as picturesque as you can get! And it’s true.

I love chocolate brownies and vanilla ice cream. Sometimes after eating one bowl (or “inhaling it” as my wife says I do), I crave another one. But I know that if I eat another one I will regret it (sometimes I regret it after the first one!). Dessert is good but too much of it makes you sick. The sweetness needs to be balanced by other things. As much as my kids want to eat dessert all day long, without a balance of meats, grains, and vegetables they would not only be sick but sickly.

Solomon uses the point of too much honey to illustrate two other principles. A friendly neighbor is great but if he comes over every day you’ll get sick of him. It is a reminder that friendship and relationship are great things but they can’t be rushed or forced or piled on too heavy. Intimacy and friendship need to be balanced with space. By the same token, it is great to have a good reputation but if you are constantly concerned with building your own reputation then you’ll actually destroy it. Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.

The word that immediately comes to mind is “balance.” There was a Christian book written many years ago entitled, “Balancing the Christian Life.” It was a good reminder that much of the Christian life is learning to avoid extremes. We tend to run off on tangents in the Christian life. We overemphasize Bible study and forget to love people in practical ways. Or we become ultra-busy in ministry and forget to spend time in rest and in quietness before God. And the list could go on…

On another level, God knows that as much as we would love to always be on the mountaintop in our Christian lives–always celebrating, always in health, always problem-free and conflict-free–sometimes we need the valleys in life to teach us patience, perseverance, and hope.

I remember some words by Augustine, a theologian from the fourth century, “Eating and drinking have no pleasure, unless there precede the pinching of hunger and thirst. …It is also ordered that the engaged bride should not at once be given, lest as a husband he should hold cheap whom, as betrothed, he signed not after. …Every where the greater joy is ushered in by the greater pain.” 

Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Sometimes it is the valleys, dry times, and pains of life that help us appreciate the mountains, blessings, and joys of life.