The Purpose and Meaning of Life

9/12/2020 16 Comments

Purpose and meaning of life taught by honeybees

All creatures exist for a definite purpose, and it is in the fulfillment of such purpose that their lives become meaningful. 

If you are a keen observer of the different creatures around you, you would come to understand that each of them is aware of the very purpose of their existence, and that they are ready to carry out their purpose, no matter what it takes.  

Take the case of honeybees. A male honeybee, or a drone, knows that his purpose or duty is to mate with and impregnate the queen honeybee. And since he understands what his duty is, he performs it despite his knowledge that, in doing so, he would lose his life because after mating with the queen, he is destined to die. Hence, they call it sexual suicide.  

Below is an excerpt of an article entitled, “Sexual Suicide by Honey Bees: The tragic Plight of the Male Honey Bee.”

Sexual Suicide by Honey Bees: The Tragic Plight of the Male Honey Bee:

“The Male honeybee, called a drone, exists for one reason only—to mate with the queen. He is entirely expendable once he provides this service to the colony..."

The drone takes his mission seriously, however, and will give his life for the cause. Honey bee mating is one of the most dramatic examples of sexual suicide in the insect world. Honey bee sex occurs in mid-air when the queen flies out in search of mates. Drones compete for the chance to mate with their queen, swarming around her as she flies.

Eventually, a brave drone will make his move. As he grasps the queen, the drone everts his penis using a contraction of his abdominal muscles and hemostatic pressure and inserts it tightly into the queen's reproductive tract. He immediately ejaculates with such explosive force that the tip of his penis ruptures, and is left behind inside the queen. The drone falls to the ground, where he dies soon after…”
 

From this, we see how the male honeybee is taking his mission very seriously, even if it would cost him his own life.


It can be said that the life of the drone becomes meaningful because he is able to fulfill the purpose of his existence and becomes an instrument in the proliferation, or birth, of more honeybees. If the male honeybee, or the drone, takes his duty for granted, the bees of their kind would probably have already become endangered, or they could have undergone extinction. But because of their sexual encounters, the queen lays lots of honeybee eggs, which later on will be hatched and become young honeybees. 

It is not only the male honeybee, or the drone, that has a specific duty to perform. Actually, each member of the honeybee colony has a duty to fulfill. The queen, for example, is in charge of protecting the entire honeybee colony; it is her responsibility to defend their colony from intruders. And since she assumes a very huge responsibility, she is not required to go out to look for her food. That duty belongs to the worker bees. 

The worker bees are the ones who go out, hovering from one blossom to another to gather nectar for the queen. The worker bees collect nectar from flowers by sucking, and then, bringing it to the hive so that the queen will be assured of a steady supply of food. As the nectar is passed on through their mouths, it gradually turns into honey, which the worker bees store in honeycomb cells. As the queen honeybee cannot consume all of the honey that has been stored for her, the excess is consumed by humans.  

Honey, the honeycomb especially, does not only taste sweet, but it is also very beneficial to man’s health. In fact, eating honey is recommended by the Bible.  

PROVERBS 24:13 (KJV) says,

My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste:

We can always count on every pronouncement of God written in the Bible. Honey, indeed, is good; actually, it is considered as a complete food for it contains all of the essential minerals and vitamins that the human body needs. Its completeness can be likened to milk which is also considered as complete food for babies. 

It must be remembered that when God delivered the Israelites from the land of Egypt, He promised to bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey. 

EXODUS 3:8 (KJV)

And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey;...

That means the people of God would not lack nourishment in that land; both the young and the old would have a supply of complete food — milk for babes and honey for grown-ups. However, honey should not be given to infants or to children below one-year of age, as it could be detrimental to their lives. So, instead of honey, they should be given milk. Actually, even grown-ups are also advised to take just the right quantity of honey. 

According to the Bible, man should only eat a sufficient amount of honey, not excessively. 

PROVERBS 25:16 (KJV)

Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.

If you ingest more than the sufficient amount of honey, your glycemic level will rise and this might induce vomiting. 

The point that I want to emphasize is this. If honeybees have not been faithful in fulfilling the purpose of their existence, that is, if the male honeybee refuses to risk his life in mating with the queen honeybee, if the worker bees, likewise, do not gather and store nectar for the queen, and if the queen fails to lay and hatch eggs which become young honeybees, surely, not only will their colony perish but, most especially, humans won’t get the chance to benefit from the health and curative properties of honey. Apparently, although honey is originally meant for their queen’s consumption, humans benefit from it, too. In other words, men have become the end beneficiaries of the bees’ diligent performance of their respective duties. 

Actually, even if we speak of other creations such as trees, cattle, fishes, hogs, and chickens, you will realize that the end beneficiaries of their existence are also men. They exist for the purpose of sustaining men of their need for nourishment; and their existence becomes meaningful because they are able to fulfill that purpose. 

Now, if non-human creatures exist for a definite and noble purpose, the same thing must be true with humans. Man also exists for a specific purpose, or duty, which he also ought to fulfill. And that duty is to serve God. Man must not spend his life aimlessly and uselessly; instead, he must spend it in honoring God and in keeping His commandments because that is his whole duty. 

As it is written in ECCLESIASTES 12:13 (KJV), 

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

Man’s whole duty is to serve God, the Creator of life. We owe Him our lives and our beings.

ACTS 17:28 (KJV) says,

For in him we live, and move, and have our being;...

So, it is but rightful that our lives be spent in serving our Creator — for without Him, we could not have existed here on earth.

Sadly, the people then did not realize it, so they killed Him — the Son of God and Author of life.

ACTS 3:15 (RSV)

and killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.

Instead of showing love and gratitude to the Lord Jesus Christ and instead of serving Him, they even killed Him.

Indeed, it will be very unfortunate if we fail to understand the purpose of our existence, and if we won’t be able to discover the meaning of our lives, lest, we might just end up as loafers and idlers, or hedonists perhaps.

To understand the meaning of life is to know first the purpose of our existence as well as the duties that we have to fulfill. And it is in fulfilling our duties and in serving our purpose that our lives become meaningful.

As humans, our purpose and our whole duty is to serve God. That duty is what gives meaning to our lives — without it, our lives become purposeless and meaningless. So, if we want our lives to be purposeful and meaningful, we have to spend it in serving God. And serving God means honoring Him and keeping His commandments.

May God bless you!

16 comments:

  1. The purpose of life is finding your life in the conclusion of God's creation.

    #WhyDoWeExist

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  2. Man's whole duty is to serve God 😊😊
    Thanks be to God. ♥️♥️♥️

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  3. Indeed every human being has a purpose in life! And that is to serve God the Creator! Thanks be to God! -RND

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  4. Indeed every human being have a purpose in life! And that is to serve our God the Creator! Thanks be to God! -RND

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  5. Let us All remind ourselves that to do Good is the purpose of man in this world!
    To God be the Glory!

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  6. We cannot understand the true meaning of life without understanding and knowing its purpose. The purpose and meaning of life on earth is simply to do ood things and make our life useful to others. Our achievement of this purpose makes our lives meaningful while we are on earth.

    The ultimate purpose of life is to honor and serve God in eternity while the ultimate meaning of life is eternal happiness with God in paradise.

    Thanks be toGod!

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  7. Make sure to follow His commandments and its not heavy when you practice it with your heart.

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  8. Salamat sa Dios.
    Job 12
    King James Version (KJV)

    8 Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. 9 Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this? 10 In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.

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  9. Another full day of unraveling God's mysteries in the Bible. All thanks and praises to the Almighty for the enlightenment!

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  10. Humans are created to serve God with whatever gift bestowed upon them by God, trees serve their fruits.

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  11. The ultimate purpose and meaning of life is to serve, obey, and honor God until eternity. To God Be The Glory.

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  12. Serving God is the best way of living. Thanks be to God ❤️

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  13. There's a lot of philosophers that are still striving to know the real purpose of our existence. But the bible already tells us that our purpose is to serve our Creator, our Lord. To make our lives more meaningful, let's serve God.

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