“What have we substituted for “the real” in our lives?” This morning as I rose out of my bed, I heard the word “sugar” and then had a vision of it covering the top gums on the roof of a mouth-….. probably MY mouth! Oh how I love sugar and “No! I’m not fat!” Sugar does other things to us besides putting on the pounds around our bellies. It’s addictive, causes sugar blues and produces inflammation throughout our bodies that can be very damaging. I’m remembering what lentil soup did to Esau and am crying out: “Help Lord! Pretty please with NO sugar on top!” God forbid that on the day we’re to receive our crowns, the only crowns some of us have, will the ones on our teeth. How sad would that be?

As is my custom, I looked up the etymology of the words “sugar” and “gums” and they tell a story that’s more enlightening than the consequences of eating literal sugar. The etymology of “sugar” led me to “honey without bees” and the verb form of “gum” means “spoil or  ruin” in its figurative sense. 

What our besetting sin is, whatever it is, even something seemingly not so bad like sugar, it will be our ruin if we don’t overcome it. The prize of the high calling is at stake and we need wisdom and understanding… even “honey” (enlightenment) in order to fulfill our destinies. If we choose what pleases us … (a substitute sweetener), we’ll be having more than sugar blues in the end.

In the fourth book of Maccabees: 16, 17, it is written that “Wisdom is manifested under the forms of judgment and injustice, and courage, and temperance. But judgment or self control is the one that dominates them at all.” Then in Chapter 4: 12,13 it states: “But some perhaps may answer that not all men are masters of the passions… because not all men have their reason enlightened. But as many as with their whole heart, make RIGHTEOUSNESS their first thought, these ALONE are able to master the weakness of the flesh, believing that unto God they die not, as our patriarchs, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, died not, but that they LIVE UNTO GOD.”

Brethren, we’re going to need BEES and be like them in order to overcome death and to put on immortality. We can no longer eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and be “sugar babies” doing as we please.. Instead we must become our Lord’s “Honey” doing as HE pleases.

In the Book of Judges, Deborah, a prophetess and judge was called a mother of Israel (a mature one) because she judged righteously and protected God’s people. Her name means “bee” which reveals the character she exemplified. If we want to rule in the kingdom and be an honor to man and to God, we must be like her, even like a bee:

1. Bees represent messengers, prolific producers and the spirit of prophecy.
2. Bees are the top pollinators of the world.
3. These little creatures are very organized… They stick to each of their roles and they work in unison.
4. They are loyal to the one who is the ruler… They reserve the best of their products (royal jelly) for her.
5. They live to serve their queen.
6. They are willing to sacrifice their lives for a cause.
7. And last of all, bees have a fighting spirit to defend and attack its aggressors.. They are “warriors.”

So tell me: Are you a busy bee pollinating God’s people with the living word? Are your gums coated with sugar or with honey? Truly, you don’t want to be up a gum tree, even the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “sugar coating” the truth: Instead, let “honey (enlightenment) be your chewing gum!