A Land Flowing with Milk & Honey

The phrase “land flowing with milk and honey” is used 21 times in the Hebrew Bible to reference the place on the earth that God’s family would dwell. 

This land was promised to Abraham, pursued by Moses, and entered into by Joshua and the Israelites. This land is nothing if not a stage set apart for God to display what it is to be the people of God, the family of God. 

Why flowing with milk and honey? 

Flow literally means to gush or ooze.

Milk comes from the sheep who are led to graze by their shepherds.

Honey comes from the crops tended by the farmer.

There are two different types of honey referenced in the Bible. One type is the type we know of made by bees. The other is closer to our understanding of jam. A product made out of figs, dates or fruit trees. 

The promised land is a unique land where the shepherd and the farmer can both live and thrive. 

Ancient rabbis describe a scene of goats dripping with milk grazing under a fig tree oozing with “honey.” To describe a place where cattle grazing and crop farming can co-exist is simple, right? Not really. Very few places in the Middle East are for both shepherds and farmers. 

When the violent army of Assyria threatens to invade and overtake Israel, the Bible references the threat as this: making Israel a place of just milk, not honey. 

This unique juxtaposition reminds me of Jesus. He rarely leaves things that seem separated, apart. He challenges our ideas of who can co-exist. Remember when he tells the story about the outsider Samaritan who helps the wounded person, therefore declaring the Samaritan the best kind of neighbor? Remember when he does what no rabbi would do and genuinely connects with the woman at the well? 

Listen to Jesus in Matthew 5, “You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes His son to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?” 

If the promised land is a unique place where very different people pursuing very different purposes can experience “flow” together, perhaps the things that seem opposed in your life are not actually in opposition. 

If Jesus lived the way of love beyond power dynamics and dividing lines, perhaps he knows something about how the promises of God come into full focus on earth. 

What in your life feels like apples and oranges? 

What doesn’t seem to go, much less flow, together? 

Our story, as the people of God, is like the promised land of Israel—a place where very different people and products can flow freely. Take the time to ask Jesus about it today. 

Jesus, what seems to me to be at odds in my life? 

Jesus, what’s the truth? 

Jesus, how do you see it? 

Jesus, what do you want me to know from your heart?