BEES BUZZ OFF

By Michael G. Mickey

On a number of occasions in the past I have documented the disappearing act our honeybees are performing, commonly referred to as colony collapse disorder, and the impact it may have in relation to bible prophecy. It's time to revisit that issue.

I've heard it said that one of out of every three bites of food we eat in a day exists because of honey bees. If that's correct, we have a lot to be concerned about where the survival of the honeybee is concerned and beekeepers are sounding the alarm once again. Something is wrong, they're telling us.

The future of earth's food supply:

As we look into the prophetic future, particularly inside the Tribulation Period, it is clear that the world's food supply is going to become scarce.

Revelation 6:5-6: And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and [see] thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

Walvoord states the passage above (and below) describes “a time of famine when life will be reduced to the barest necessities.”

Revelation 6:7-8: When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.

On 2-21-07, I quoted an Associated Press article which read, in part:

"A mysterious illness is killing tens of thousands of honeybee colonies across the country, threatening honey production, the livelihood of beekeepers and possibly crops that need bees for pollination."

On 4-24-07, I wrote a follow-up article on the issue, quoting a Reuters report that read, in part:

"Go to work, come home. Go to work, come home. Go to work -- and vanish without a trace. Billions of bees have done just that, leaving the crop fields they are supposed to pollinate, and scientists are mystified about why".

On May 2nd, 2007 I wrote another commentary based on an Associated Press report that really drove the point home concerning how important the honeybee is to mankind's survival. It stated the following, in part:

"Unless someone or something stops it soon, the mysterious killer that is wiping out many of the nation's honeybees could have a devastating effect on America's dinner plate, perhaps even reducing us to a glorified bread-and-water diet."

Honeybees don't just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of the tastiest flowering crops we have. Among them: apples, nuts, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash and cucumbers. And lots of the really sweet and tart stuff, too, including citrus fruit, peaches, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, cantaloupe and other melons.
Breakfast for me this morning was fresh cantaloupe. It makes you think, doesn't it?

In February of this year, 'New Scientist' reported the following, in part:

"The world's honeybees appear to be dying off in horrifying numbers, and now consensus is starting to emerge on the reason why: it seems there is no one cause. Infections, lack of food, pesticides and breeding - none catastrophic on their own - are having a synergistic effect, pushing bee survival to a lethal tipping point".

And what are we hearing now, three months after that?

The Palm Beach Post is quoting a recent survey that found:

"20 percent of the nation's roughly 2.3 million honeybee colonies, found a 29 percent loss of managed bee colonies."

The percentage of loss reported by the survey is less than in recent years, but one beekeeper quoted in the article sounds far from comfortable with what is taking place:

Dave Hackenberg, a beekeeper who winters his bees in Florida, criticized the survey for not asking the right question. He said his hive numbers dropped from 3,500 in October 2008 to 2,800 this January, within the time period of the survey. But by February, he had lost 300 more hives.

Will colony collapse disorder play any role in the fulfilment of bible prophecy? I don't know, but it well could if God doesn't intervene, especially when we take into consideration the fact no one but God seems to know why so many of our bees are dying.

Matthew 24:7: For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.