As you know some interesting topics can come up when we old guys meet for breakfast each morning at the local café. Today was no different. One of the guys asked if someone in the bible actually ate locusts and honey or if they ate a honey locust (a plant indigenous to North America). I told him John the Baptist ate actual locusts and honey. He said he wouldn’t eat it. I showed him where fried locusts are considered a treat in many parts of the world including our neighbor Mexico.

In Mark 1:6, John the Baptist is described as, "John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey." We have to be careful not to “over-spiritualize” a verse, which to me means scriptural interpretation that exceeds its intended meaning, but there is a truth I can see in what John ate. In the Bible “honey” is often associated with a blessing of God such as when God was preparing for his people a land of milk and honey. Locusts were often associated with famine or judgment from God. John was sharing the message of repentance and the coming of the Messiah so those who received the message would experience the joy and blessings from God and those who rejected the message would receive judgment. Now the Bible may have been just telling us John liked locusts and honey, but to mention his diet may have shared a deeper meaning. Just a thought. Either way, we face that important decision; receive Jesus or reject Him, both with eternal consequences.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Acts 4:12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
John 1:12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.