In my previous post, I treated many passages concerning the biblical revelation about honey and the teaching of Romans 14. At least 19 additional verses in Scripture beyond the ones that I treated previously highlight the importance of honey in Scripture distinctively by speaking of God’s promise to bring His people into a land that flowed with milk and honey:

Exod. 3:8  And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Exod. 3:17  And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.

Exod. 13:5  And it shall be when the LORD shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month.

Exod. 33:3  Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way.

Lev. 20:24  But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people.

Num. 13:27  And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.

Num. 14:8  If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.

Num. 16:14  Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: wilt thou put out the eyes of these men? we will not come up.

Deut. 6:3  Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.

Deut. 11:9  And that ye may prolong your days in the land, which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

Deut. 26:9  And he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey.

Deut. 26:15  Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou swarest unto our fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

Deut. 27:3  And thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, a land that floweth with milk and honey; as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee.

Deut. 31:20  For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant.

Jos. 5:6  For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

Jer. 11:5  That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O LORD.

Jer. 32:22  And hast given them this land, which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey;

Ezek. 20:6  In the day that I lifted up mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands:

Ezek. 20:15  Yet also I lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands;

What’s more, Ezekiel 20:6 and 20:15 underscore that importance profoundly through revealing the divine declaration that the land that flowed with milk and honey that God spied out and promised that He would give them was the glory of all lands“!

Through direct divine declaration, we thus learn that God Himself made known that the Promised Land was glorious in His estimation above all other lands and that divinely extolled land was a land that flowed with honey.

We must carefully consider the relevance of this additional evidence in determining a right “understanding of what Romans 14 teaches about strong believers being the ones who ‘eats all things.'”

Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

My latest post in my thread on Sharper Iron concerning foods, days, worship music, and the teaching of Romans 14:

“To further probe the teaching of Romans 14 concerning those who eat “all things” as being strong believers, examining what Scripture reveals about honey provides a biblical basis for establishing some relevant considerations.

A. Divinely provided use of honey as a foodstuff

Deut. 32:13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;

Ps. 81:16 He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.

B. Divinely approved use of honey as a foodstuff

Prov. 24:13 My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste:

Prov. 25:16 Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.

Isa. 7:15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

C. Prohibited consumption of honey [from an unacceptable source] as a foodstuff

Jdg. 14:8 And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion.

Jdg. 14:9 And he took thereof in his hands, and went on eating, and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat: but he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcase of the lion.

D. Divine revelation warning against intemperate consumption of honey as a foodstuff

Prov. 25:16 Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.

Prov. 25:27 It is not good to eat much honey: so for men to search their own glory is not glory.

E. Divinely prohibited use of honey in worship

Lev. 2:11 No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto the LORD, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire.

F. Sinful use of honey in idolatrous worship

Ezek. 16:19 My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD.

How do these biblical points about honey inform our understanding of what Romans 14 teaches about strong believers being the ones who eat ‘all things’?”

Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.

People sometimes object to comparisons made between two things by claiming that the person making the comparison is making a faulty claim by “comparing apples to oranges.” In effect, they are claiming that it is not legitimate to compare those things because they are too dissimilar to be legitimately compared.

By examining the many comparisons that are recorded in Scripture, we find at least three key instances of divine comparison of seemingly dissimilar things.

Three Divine Comparisons of Dissimilar Things

Interestingly, Jesus made three comparisons of things that were quite dissimilar in some respects:

Humans and Birds

Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

Humans are very different from birds in many respects, but Jesus validly compared them because God values and cares for both groups of living beings.

Humans and Sheep

Matthew 12:11 And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? 12 How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.

Humans are quite different than sheep, but Jesus legitimately compared the two because there was a point of similarity that was valid concerning the care that they deserve to receive.

How Lilies Are Arrayed versus How Solomon Was Arrayed in All His Glory

Matthew 6:28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

Whereas the lilies of the field do not do anything to array themselves, Solomon arrayed himself with great glory by clothing himself with glorious garments made for him. Certainly, flowers and humans are quite dissimilar, but Jesus legitimately compared how they were arrayed (ultimately by God in both cases—directly in the case of the lilies through God’s creation of them and not as directly in the case of Solomon through God’s blessing him with exceeding wisdom and riches that enabled him to clothe himself in such a glorious manner.)

Discussion

In the first two examples, Jesus compared humans to two other categories of living beings that God also created (birds and sheep) and said that humans were more valuable and better, respectively, than those other categories of living things. These comparisons show the key truths that God does not value all things that He has made equally and that He regards one category (humans) to be much better than another (sheep).

In the third example, Jesus compared how lilies are arrayed (by God) to how Solomon arrayed himself in all his glory. This comparison teaches us that what God Himself has made or done in some respect far surpasses anything that even the most divinely gifted humans (other than Jesus of Nazareth) has made or done in a similar respect.

Conclusion

An examination of how Jesus compared things that were dissimilar in some respects teaches us that the objection of “comparing apples to oranges” is not an inherently valid objection to make when someone compares things that another person regards as being too dissimilar as to make a legitimate comparison between them. Very legitimate comparisons that teach us vital truths can (at least sometimes) be made between things that are quite dissimilar in some respects provided there are other ways in which there is at least one important point of similarity between them.

Copyright © 2011-2025 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.