I’ve been studying honey bees a lot lately. Strange intro for a blog post on Bible study, but I’m totally hooked on getting to know honey bees. I dream of being a beekeeper one day. Maybe when I’m old and all my kids are grown, I’ll be a hippie herbalist beekeeper. I think that sounds pretty nice.
Visiting the Honey Bee Hive
At a family party, my sister-in-law mentioned that she had just gotten her first honey bee hive. She said she needed some extra help, and I jumped at the opportunity. While I slipped into the bee suit, my heart was both excited and a little nervous. Surrounding myself with little bees that could potentially sting me made my heart beat a bit faster. But when we opened the hive and looked to see all those honey bees doing what they were meant to do, I was in awe.
How The Bees Labor
Did you know that the honey bees in a hive will visit up to 2 million flowers in order to make one pound of honey. Sometimes they visit even more than 2 million flowers. That represents about 55,000 (possibly more!) miles per one pound of honey! Those little bees know what it means to labor. They know that hard labor is worth it.
How We Labor Like The Bees
We are a lot like those little honey bees. But instead of laboring to make honey, we can labor in God’s Word. We can visit God’s word like those little bees visit the flowers. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines labor as “expenditure of physical or mental effort especially when difficult or compulsory.” Labor has the idea of toil. It is difficult. I want to bring this idea of physical and mental effort to my Bible Study.
First Hand Knowledge
In a world full of fast paced devotionals and podcasts, I want to learn to be a bit slower. Second hand knowledge can be good, but I want to dig into the Bible and search for all the treasure for myself. I want first hand knowledge. Firsthand knowledge is defined as, “information or experience is gained or learned directly, rather than from other people or from books.”
The Bible talks about firsthand knowledge in Acts. The Bereans, “received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true”. Like the Bereans mentioned in Acts, I want to receive the message with great eagerness and examine the Scriptures daily to see if what others are saying is actually true. I want to visit God’s Word-to labor and toil-just like the honey bees labor and visit the flowers. I want firsthand knowledge.
We Labor Without Making Excuses
But we (at least I know I do) make so many excuses as to why we neglect to labor over God’s Word.
“I don’t know how. I’m not smart enough.”
“I barely have time to do what I’m doing now, how will I ever study the Bible?!”
“I get my Bible study from podcasts and books. Studying is just not my thing, I’m not really feeling it.“
When You Don’t Know How Here Is A Simple Place To Begin
To begin studying the Bible, here are a few ideas to help you:
- First: Print out a Double Spaced copy of a book of the Bible you would like to Study. I recommend the books of 1st John or James.
- Second: Read the book verse by verse. Write definitions and questions in the margin.
- Third. Write the book in your own words.
There can be a lot more to it (even more than I mentioned here), but don’t try to eat the whole cake all at once. Those little honey bees visited one flower at a time. You’ll grow as you go. Never stop learning.
There are great resources that you can use in your Bible study on Amazon. This journal of the book of James would be a great resource to begin. You can also purchase it in other books of the Bible as well.
Just a note of encouragement- God never says in His Word you have to be super intelligent and have a theological degree. James 4:8 says to draw near to God and he will draw near to you. You will make mistakes, but humility and teachability go a long way.
When You Don’t Have The Time
What would happen if the bees didn’t make time to visit the flowers? They would die. Their colony wouldn’t survive. If you don’t make time to study and know God’s Word, you will die, if not physically, then spiritually. The truth can be hard to hear. But I think we all know one thing: We make time for what really matters to us. If studying God’s Word is important to you, you will make it a priority.
And in Colossians 3:16, the Bible says to allow God’s Word to dwell in us richly. This doesn’t happen by accident. It happens on purpose.
When You Don’t Feel Like Studying God’s Word
And for those of us who’ve been in a season where studying isn’t “our thing,” or maybe you “get the Bible” from podcasts and preaching on Sunday. That’s not bad; but it’s also not labor. It isn’t firsthand knowledge. We’ve all been there, right? The place where we just don’t feel like using our brain. Studying the Word doesn’t sound fun. And even when we try, we feel like we get nothing out of it.
I’d encourage you to do it anyway. It doesn’t have to be your thing. Feelings should never dictate actions; the truth should. You were made to know God; we get to know Him by learning and obeying His Word.
But Why Do The Labor?
The honey bees labor by visiting those flowers and traveling all those miles. And like the honey bees, we can labor and study God’s Word. We can deep dive into what God’s Word meant to the original hearers, and then eventually come to what it means to us today. But why do the bees labor? And why do we study God’s Word? What is the purpose behind all the hard work and toil?
The Purpose Behind The Labor
Bees Labor To Grow & Mature Their Hive
The bees understand that it takes time for a hive to grow. They labor hard so their hive can become strong and mature. It takes 16-24 days for a baby bee to grow and hatch from it’s tiny cell. The worker bees feed the baby bees exactly what they need. They care for them. They nurture them.
Studying and Living God’s Word Helps Us Grow & Mature
The same can be said about us. The more we labor and study God’s Word-humbling ourselves as we listen to what He wants for us-the more we will mature and become what he wants us to be. Our faith grows stronger because we learn and obey the word.
The Bible tells us in Hebrews 5:12-14, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”
Are you ready for the solid food of the Word? A lot of us our still living off of the milk when we ought to be eating the meat of the word? Getting the meat of the Word takes labor.
In Psalm 119:9, the Bible says, “How can a young man keep his way pure?” The answer is, “by guarding it according to your word.” If we want to live a clean life before God, we must dig into the Word, we must labor and search the scriptures…and LIVE them. How can we possible live them if we don’t spend time studying them?
Bees Labor To Provide For the Hard Season
The Bees Know That Winter Is Coming.
Did you know the honey bees make up to 90 pounds of excess honey in order to prepare for the hard season? They understand the need to prepare for what is coming. They labor and work hard so their hive survives the winter.
Studying God’s Word helps us prepare for our hard seasons.
And like those bees, our hard season-our winter-is coming. In 1 Peter 4:12, it says “do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you.” Jesus suffered death, what makes Christians today think our lives should be free from hardship?
But what do we turn to when life gets hard? What do we do when we are surrounded by darkness, and it feels like God has left? In reality, our winters in life reveal who we really are and what we really believe.
My answer: Study up; live the Word. Be ready when the snow starts to fall. Say with psalmist in Psalm 119:10-11, “With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”
Conclusion
The honey bees labor- they toil- in order to see their hive mature and survive the hard season. And like those honey bees we labor and toil by studying God’s Word. In the labor, we come to know God and who He is. We grow and mature in our faith and we prepare for the hard season that is promised to come our way.
And one day, when I’m an old, hippie, herbalist beekeeper, I hope to open my hive and know even more about the bees. Their labor ends with a harvest of sweet honey; our labor ends with a harvest sweeter than honey.
Psalm 119:103 says, How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Labor is worth it. We can snuff out all the excuses and imitate how the bees work with joy. Those little bees are simply doing the work they were meant to do. Studying God’s word, knowing Him more and aligning our life with his-that is what we are meant to do.
