Road Trip Revelation

I just got back from a short road trip with my daughters, Anika and Kirsten. First we visited Haugen family members in Upper Michigan whom we haven’t seen since before the Pandemic, and then wound up in a tiny Airbnb above a natural food store in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin. On our last morning in Door County I opted to find seating for us as they ordered our breakfast burritos at a favorite spot — Good Eggs, in Ephraim.

While we had been enroute to the U.P. a few days earlier, Anika played the road trip playlist she had made, which included some worship music. We listened to Honey in the Rock by Brooke Fraser Ligertwood with Brandon Lake. We weren’t familiar with the reference to honey in the rock in the Bible, and had some discussion about what the lyrics meant.

There’s honey in the rock
Water in the stone
Manna on the ground
No matter where I go
I don’t need to worry now that I know
Everything I need You’ve got
There’s honey in the rock

Knowing the context about Manna being provided each day to the Israelites in the wilderness, we surmised it had to do with God’s faithful provision for us, and of the sweetness found in His presence. We figured my brother-in-law, Tim, the pastor, may have insights about its meaning. So we discussed it over dinner with Tim and Ann, and found a few references to “honey in the rock” in the Old Testament. One verse is Deuteronomy 32:13, which is included in Moses’ parting speech to the Israelites, recalling God’s care and provision for that “crooked and twisted generation” in the wilderness: “He suckled him with honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock.”

We zeroed in on verses in Psalm 81 as being the most likely inspiration for the song: “Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! …But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you” (v. 13 & 16). I didn’t think a lot more about it.

And then I sat down at a sailboat called Honey Rock and found it remarkable that our trip was bookended with this biblical imagery, as though my week with my daughters had a theme. It’s had me musing. On the surface, a rock is a hard, unforgiving place, and it’s unlikely that one would find honey there, although I’ve since learned that bees will use rocky crevices as hives in the wilderness. So it’s not unheard of.

In any case, it’s an image of God providing what is needed, even in barren places. And not only what is needed, but what is pleasing.

And because God himself is referred to as The Rock in the Old Testament (in the same passage in Deuteronomy mentioned above, among others), with Jesus becoming the cornerstone and foundation of our faith in the New, the words also speak to me of taking delight in the presence of God. The presence of Jesus. There’s honey in The Rock. That’s the meaning I resonate with today. That, in itself, is a sweet revelation to me. I’ve known hard, barren places.

In my brief look online for others’ thoughts on this topic, I found that Tim Keller preached a sermon about honey from the rock, and it turns out that the ideas from his podcast were percolating in Brooke Ligertwood’s brain prior to her collaborating with Brandon Lake to write the song, even as Brandon had come to her with the “honey in the rock” idea based on a conversation he had with someone else. I love when God brings it all together like that. As though in troubling times, God provides a theme of encouragement to those who are listening.

Here are the four big ideas of the passage, according to Tim Keller:

1) life is a wilderness,

2) there’s a rock in the wilderness,

3) there’s honey in the rock, and

4) God has sent his son Jesus to pass the test in the wilderness on our behalf.

So I’m sitting there waiting for my breakfast burrito and orange juice, soaking in the sun, when I’m gently prodded by the faded words on a beat-up sailboat to see that I’ve received honey in the rock. I’m seated at the table. It’s a small reminder to me that God not only provides for me, but that it’s my awareness of his presence that makes my life sweet.