A Future and a Hope That Tastes Sweet Text: Proverbs 24:13-14
Introduction: The War for Your Appetite
We live in an age that has declared war on the very concept of taste. Not just taste in the sense of good music or fine art, though the barbarians are certainly at those gates as well. No, the assault is on a more fundamental level. Our secularist high priests demand that we develop an appetite for ashes and dust, and that we call it nourishing. They want us to believe that meaning is something we invent, that morality is a private hobby, and that hope is a flimsy bit of wishful thinking we whistle in the dark to keep the cosmic terrors at bay. They serve up a thin, gray gruel of materialism and tell us it is a feast. And when our souls wither, they are surprised.
The book of Proverbs, and these two verses in particular, come to us as a sharp, clean, and sweet rebuke to all that nonsense. God is not a stoic philosopher, and the life He calls us to is not one of grim, gray duty. The Christian life is a life of cultivated tastes, of sanctified appetites. God does not just give us truth in the abstract; He gives it to us as something to be savored, something to be enjoyed. He commands us to feast.
Here, Solomon uses a simple, earthy, and delightful analogy. He tells his son to eat honey. Why? Because it is good, and because it is sweet to the taste. This is not complicated. This is basic, creaturely joy. And then, in the very next breath, he says, "This is what wisdom is like for your soul." Wisdom is not a bitter pill you must swallow for your own good. It is honey from the comb. It is a delight. And this delight is not a fleeting pleasure; it is tied directly to the most robust reality there is: a future and a hope that cannot be taken from you. In a world that offers us the fleeting buzz of sugar water, God offers us the rich, golden, life-giving sweetness of honey that comes with an eternal guarantee.
The Text
Eat honey, my son, for it is good,
Indeed, the honey from the comb is sweet to your taste;
Know that wisdom is thus for your soul;
If you find it, then there will be a future,
And your hope will not be cut off.
(Proverbs 24:13-14 LSB)
The Goodness of Good Things (v. 13)
We begin with the simple command in verse 13:
"Eat honey, my son, for it is good, Indeed, the honey from the comb is sweet to your taste;" (Proverbs 24:13)
This is a profoundly anti-Gnostic statement. Gnosticism, in all its ancient and modern forms, despises the material world. It sees the body as a prison, pleasure as a trap, and the whole created order as a mistake. But biblical Christianity begins with a God who creates matter and calls it "good." And here, Solomon, speaking with the authority of God, tells his son to enjoy a good gift of that creation. Eat honey. Enjoy it. Recognize its goodness. Taste its sweetness.
This is a permission slip for creaturely joy. God made a world full of textures, flavors, and delights. He made nerve endings and taste buds. He did not have to. He could have made a utilitarian world where we absorbed nutrients through our skin from a gray paste. But He is a God of gratuitous beauty and abundant goodness. The sweetness of honey is a sermon from Him about His own character. He is not a stingy God. He is a God of feasting and abundance.
The psalmist says, "Taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8). The invitation is experiential. It is not "theorize and conclude that the Lord is good." It is not "read a treatise and agree that the Lord is good." It is "taste and see." The knowledge of God is meant to be as direct, as personal, and as delightful as the taste of honey on the tongue. This verse grounds the spiritual reality that will follow in a tangible, physical experience. Before we can understand what wisdom does for the soul, we must first understand what honey does for the body. It nourishes, it delights, it strengthens. It is an uncomplicated good.
Wisdom for the Soul (v. 14a)
Having established the analogy, Solomon now makes the application directly to the soul.
"Know that wisdom is thus for your soul;" (Proverbs 24:14a)
The connection is explicit. What honey is to your palate, wisdom is to your soul. This is a crucial diagnostic tool for your spiritual life. If you find the wisdom of God, the Word of God, to be a dry, academic, or burdensome thing, then something is wrong with your taster. The problem is not with the honey. The problem is that your palate has been corrupted by the artificial sweeteners of the world.
The psalmist declares, "How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Psalm 119:103). Jeremiah says, "Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart" (Jeremiah 15:16). This is the normative Christian experience. The Word of God, which is the wisdom of God, is meant to be our soul's food, our soul's delight. It is what we were made to run on.
And what is this wisdom? Proverbs makes it clear that wisdom is not simply a collection of clever life-hacks. Wisdom is not just being shrewd. True wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 9:10). It is a relational term. It is the skill of living life in a way that pleases God, navigating His world according to His created order. And in the New Testament, this wisdom is given a name. Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). He is the one "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3). So, to know wisdom is to know Christ. To delight in wisdom is to delight in Christ. He is the honey for the soul.
The Unshakeable Hope (v. 14b)
The result of finding and tasting this wisdom is not just a momentary sweetness. It secures our entire future.
"If you find it, then there will be a future, And your hope will not be cut off." (Proverbs 24:14b)
This is where the analogy of honey finds its ultimate fulfillment. A taste of honey is wonderful, but it is temporary. The sweetness of wisdom, however, has eternal consequences. Notice the logic: "If you find it, then there will be a future." This is a covenantal promise. The world operates on chance, on luck, on the whims of powerful men. Your future, the world says, is uncertain. But God says that for the one who finds wisdom, the future is a certainty. There will be a future.
This is a direct echo of the previous chapter, where Solomon says, "Surely there is a future, And your hope will not be cut off" (Proverbs 23:18). This is not wishful thinking. This is not a flimsy "I hope so." In the Bible, hope is not an uncertain wish; it is a confident expectation of a guaranteed outcome. It is the anchor of the soul, firm and secure (Hebrews 6:19). Why? Because our hope is not in our own ability to be wise. Our hope is in the object of our wisdom, Jesus Christ.
Because He was "cut off" for us (Isaiah 53:8), our hope will not be cut off. Because He has a future, a resurrected and ascended future at the right hand of the Father, we who are in Him have a future. The world can take your job, your health, your reputation, and your life. But it cannot touch your future, and it cannot cut off your hope. That is secured in the risen Christ.
Conclusion: Cultivating the Right Appetite
So, what is the application? It is twofold. First, you must cultivate a taste for the right things. You cannot spend all day eating the spiritual equivalent of Cheetos and soda and then wonder why the Word of God tastes bland to you. You must discipline your appetites. You must immerse yourself in the Word, in prayer, in fellowship with the saints. You must eat the honey. As you do, God will sanctify your taste buds, and you will begin to crave the very thing that gives life.
Second, you must rest in the promise. The sweetness of wisdom is not just for your present enjoyment; it is the guarantee of your future security. When the world threatens to overwhelm you, when the future looks dark and uncertain, remember this promise. Your hope is not a flimsy thread that can be snipped by circumstances. It is a thick, unbreakable cable anchored to the throne of God Himself.
The world offers a future that is formless and void, a tohu wa-bohu of meaninglessness. But for those who find wisdom, for those who find Christ, there is a future. And it is a future that is as certain and as sweet as honey from the comb. Taste and see. Your hope will not be cut off.