Proverbs 27:2: “The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.”
Word Meanings In This Passage:
1. “Full” = satiated, full, or satisfied (“satiated” = to satisfy fully or to excess).
2. “Soul” = person.
3. “Loatheth” = to trample or tread under foot.
4. “An honeycomb” = the dripping of honey.
5. “Hungry” = hungry or hunger-bitten.
6. “Every” = all.
7. “Bitter thing” = bitter, heavy, angering, chafing, or discontenting.
8. “Sweet” = relishing.
Some Thoughts By Way of Application:
1. The person who is physically overfull is repulsed even by his favorite foods, and by things which would be normally tantalizing and sweet to his taste; his tastes haven’t changed, but he doesn’t have room for anything else now that he’s full to the brim.
2. And just so, the person who is spiritually overfull with God and His goodness, and the good things He provides, will be repulsed even by the things he normally has a taste for; those things are not evil, but they no longer have room in his stomach.
3. By application, the Christian ought to select the best things God has for him, and fill his days pleasing God and meeting His revealed will for his life; in doing so, he will not even so much as have room for the excess things that might draw him, even in the most natural and spiritual ways.
4. Conversely, the “hunger-bitten” soul is hunger-bitten because he’s starving himself spiritually of God’s good things; God wants to feed him, but he refuses to take what the Lord has for him.
5. To him, anything that looks like it might satisfy the soul becomes “sweet” – he actually relishes wicked things.
6. To avoid relishing evil things, fill yourself with good things.
Created: 9/27/2004
