Did you know that bees and honey are mentioned over sixty times in the Bible?

Bees are used to represent God’s blessings, God’s love, His strength, His wisdom, things of great worth and even references to Christ.

Deuteronomy 1:44 compares bees to the army of the Amorites. The Hebrew root word used for bees in this context is the same word used to describe the action of moving in an orderly motion.

‘Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do and beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah.’

Psalm 118:2 is a Psalm of thanksgiving, praising God for His steadfast love and the delivery of the Israelites from their enemies.

‘They surrounded me like bees; they went out like a fire among thorns; in the name of the Lord, I cut them off!’

Isaiah 7:8 is yet another example of bees used to represent an enemy army. Bees and flies are used to show the vast number of soldiers in invading armies.

‘On that day, the Lord will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.’

The only time bees are mentioned outside of representing an army is in Judges 14:8, talking about what Samson did.

‘After some days, he returned to take her. And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey.‘

Dead animals, particularly dead predatory animals such as lions, were considered unclean to the Israelites in the Old Testament. After Samson slayed the lion, he not only ate honey from the corpse, but he gave some to his mother and father as well. By so doing, Samson broke the vow of the Nazarites. This vow prohibits any person living as a Nazarite from touching any dead thing.

Moving on to honey, we’re all familiar with the phrase “a land flowing with milk and honey”. God used this phrase to describe the Promised Land. It meant that it would be a land of abundance, ease, and prosperity.

Exodus 3:8 says – “I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.”

And the manna which fell from heaven to feed the Israelites on their journey was described as tasting like wafers with honey.

Honey also represents healing in the Bible. Proverbs 16:24 says:

“Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.”

I love that verse.

Even the Bible is compared to honey. Psalm 19:9-10 says:

“The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the LORD are firm, and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.”

If you’re looking for a fun Bible dive to do with your kids this summer, bees and honey will offer you plenty of material to study.

To add to the fun, we have included a honeycomb recipe and a bee craft. And why not go on a bee hunt to finish things off!

PC: Ann Kirsten

“They are more to be desired than gold, yes, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the extract of the honeycomb.” Psalm 19:10

Honeycomb Recipe

I’ll start by saying that I never make recipes that have to be exact. Yeast bread and candy thermometer recipes? Nope, I don’t even try. I’m more of a “Let’s add this and see what happens” kind of baker. But when I found a honeycomb recipe that didn’t use a candy thermometer, I figured, “Why not try?”

I’m glad I did! I hope you try it too.

Please read the entire recipe before you begin. It will make this a lot easier.

HONEYCOMB

Ingredients:

2 ¼ teaspoons baking SODA
1 ¼ cups white granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ Tablespoon water
2 ¼ Tablespoon honey

Directions:

Line an 8 x 8” pan with parchment paper. Set Aside. Seriously. Use parchment.

Turn your burner onto medium heat (4 on my stove) and let it preheat without the pan.

Measure your baking SODA into a small cup so it is ready to use later. Set out a whisk and a spatula.

In a saucepan, combine the sugar, salt, vanilla, water, and honey together well. Then, put it on your preheated burner. Set a timer for 6-7 minutes. DO NOT stir or shake the pan from this point on.

Quite quickly, your candy will bubble, like this:

PC: Ann Kirsten

Leave it alone. By the end of the 6 or 7 minutes, it will look like this:

PC: Ann Kirsten

You can use a candy thermometer if you wish.
It should reach 300 degrees F.

Remove the pan from the heat and pour in the baking SODA. Grab a whisk and stir quickly until the soda is mixed in. The candy will bubble up A LOT, so be ready. I stirred mine over my 8×8: baking pan and then quickly grabbed my spatula and poured it in. It looked a bit like an alien.

PC: Ann Kirsten

Leave it be. Do not attempt to even the top or hit the pan on the counter. You want those bubbles to hang around. Also, do not lick the spatula! I was so tempted, but it would have resulted in 3rd degree burns in my mouth. (I still carry a burnt sugar scar on my foot from making caramel rolls when I was a teen).

Once the pan is cool enough, put it in the fridge just until cooled completely. Then lift the parchment from the pan and break it or cut it into pieces.

PC: Ann Kirsten

This was my mom’s favorite candy. It was called honeycomb or seafoam in the old days and it reminded her of her youth.

This was my first attempt at what I thought was a tricky recipe. It was easier than I thought and yummy. I hope you incorporate it into a family Bible study on bees and honey

Note: Hot sugar does burn. For those of you with small children, you may want to make this alone and then share it with them.

“How sweet are your promises to my taste, more than honey to my mouth!” Psalm 119:103

BEE CRAFT

Supplies:

Construction paper (blue)
White paper
Craft paint (yellow, brown, and green)
Black thin Sharpie pens
Scissors
Glue or glue dots
Optional: bubble wrap

Directions:

On a piece of bubble wrap, paint an oval shape for a beehive. I mixed brown and yellow paint for the hive. Turn it over and press it onto a blue piece of paper. Set this aside to dry.

PC: Ann Kirsten

Take a white piece of paper and have your kids make fingerprints with yellow paint. Let these dry. Look up honey and bee scriptures in the Bible while you wait.

PC: Ann Kirsten

Once the fingerprints are dry, the fun can begin. Let your kids decorate the bees in funny designs. Add wings to the top. Stingers are optional, depending on your child’s age.