“No grain offering that you bring to Adonai is to be made with leaven, because you are not to cause any leaven or honey to go up I smoke as an offering made by fire to Adonai.” Leviticus 2:11
This verse really stoked my curiosity. Leaven seemed clear cut to me. Leaven in likened to sin in scripture. We see this in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8. “Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know the saying, ‘It takes only a little hametz (leaven) to leaven a whole batch of dough?’ Get rid of the old hametz, so that you can be a new batch of dough, because in reality you are unleavened. For our Pesach (Passover) lamb, the Messiah, has been sacrificed. So let us celebrate the Seder not with leftover hametz, the hametz of wickedness and evil, but with the matzah (unleavened bread) of purity and truth.” However, I really had to investigate why honey was not to be burned by fire as the Bible itself doesn’t tell us.
There were two types of honey in biblical times, that of the honeycomb from bees, and that from dates, or date honey. It is the date honey that is being referenced in this verse from Leviticus as it was the primary type of honey used. According to various searches about honey in biblical times, it is stated that the reasoning behind honey not being used in this offering was two-fold. First honey acted as a leavening agent and as leaven was forbidden, so was the honey. The second reason was because honey was an offering that other religions offered to their gods. As Israel was called to be set apart and not like the nations, this was another reason as to why they were honey was forbidden to be burned with the offering.
Like most times that I am studying a verse, I end up on a rabbit trail chasing a particular word or thought, and this time was no exception. I got caught up on the word honey and what Adonai wanted to teach me about it. It was a sweet discovery, I must say. (Pun very much intended!)
As I have been praying about and studying about honey, The Chosen dropped Season 3 Episode 3, which shows Yeshua returning home to Nazareth to celebrate Rosh-HaShannah, the New Year. I went to The Complete Jewish Study Bible and Rabbi Jason Sobel’s book Aligning With God’s Appointed Times for some background on this Holy Day.
One of the fascinating facts about the holy day of Rosh-HaShannah is that it is considered the New Year, yet it’s not called that in the Bible. The truth is, this day comes in the seventh month of the calendar year and was given a different name. The biblical new year starts in the spring with the moth of Nisan (Exod. 12:2), the beginning of the new agricultural year. However, the sages gave such significance of the first Shabbat of the fall holidays that they eventually considered it as the “spiritual” new year, hence the name change as well. Biblically known as Yom Teruah (the Day of Sounding/Festival of Trumpets), this day became Rosh-HaShannah, the Head of the Year.
The purpose of this holy day is summed up I one word: regathering. Since the fall holidays call Israel to regather to a pure faith in God. Rosh-HaShannah came to represent the day of repentance. It is the day when the people of Israel take stock of their spiritual condition and make the necessary changes to ensure that the upcoming new year will be pleasing to God. So important was this day of Rosh-HaShannah that, I fact, the entire preceding Hebrew month of Elul takes on a holy significance of its own. The sages stressed that the forty-day period from the first day of Elul through the tenth day of Tishri (Yom Kippur) was to be a time of special spiritual preparation. This was based on the belief that it was on the first of Elul that Moshe ascended Mount Sinai in order to receive the second set of Tablets of the Law and that he descended on Yom Kippur (Pirqe Rabbi Eliezer 46) – The Complete Jewish Study Bible
In one of the scenes of this episode of The Chosen, you see Yeshua offered apples and honey, and he dipped the apple into the honey, took a bite and said it was for a “sweet and good new year”. Rabbi Jason shared concerning the honey, “The stickiness of the honey symbolizes sticking to God and His sticking to us. The Hebrew word for this kind of bonding, deveikut, is the same word used in Genesis when describing a man cleaving to his wife.”
We can clearly see a contrast concerning honey in regard to the grain offering and its symbolism for Rosh-HoShannah, and while thinking about the two of them, I felt dropped into my spirit, “Sweetness and goodness does not and cannot come from us, it only comes from God.” Matthew, Mark, and Luke given an account of Yeshua’s statement only God being good. Mark’s account reads, “As he was starting on his way, a man ran up, kneeled down in front of him and asked, ‘Good rabbi, what should I do to obtain eternal life?’ Yeshua said to him, ‘Why are you calling me good? No one is good except God! You know the mitzvot – ‘Don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t give false testimony, don’t defraud, honor your father and mother,…’” (Mark 10:17-19) I cannot offer up goodness (sweetness) to God, because I am of a sinful nature. Goodness only comes from God as He is kind, fair, ethical, and right.
It is also interesting to note, that while man could not offer honey to God, what He gave to man, His Word is likened to honey and being good.
The fear of Adonai is clean, enduring forever. The rulings of Adonai are true, they are righteous altogether, more desirable than gold, than much fine gold, also sweeter than honey or drippings from the honeycomb. Psalm 19:10(9)-11(10) – Note that both date honey and bee honey are referenced by the psalmist.
Taste, and see that Adonai is good. How blessed are those who take refuge in him! Psalm 34: 9(8)
Taste, and see that Adonai is good. How blessed are those who take refuge in him! Psalm 34: 9(8)03
If the written Word is sweet and good, how much sweeter is the Living Word? Throughout scripture it is repeated, “For Adonai is good, his grace continues forever!” There is no goodness that I can offer to God, but I am indeed thankful for the goodness that He extended to me, that I may taste and see that He is good, that I may experience that goodness and stand in confidence that His grace continues forever, that the more I am in the Word, the sweeter it becomes. And that like the stickiness of honey, I can stick to Him because He is that true friend that sticks closer than a brother. (Proverbs 18:24)
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