10-29-2024

Good Morning All,

   Deuteronomy 11:9, “and that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey.” 

    We are going to live in a land of milk and honey.  That is a phrase we don’t use much.  It refers to a land that is bounteous and fruitful.  So, do we live in a land that is flowing with milk and honey?

    It is always kind of funny to listen to farmers talk.  Most will always tell you that they farm the worst ground in the area.  One farmer told me that when the soil surveyor came through and surveyed the land; the surveyor told him that he would starve to death before he raised a family on this land.  Another tells the story of sending in a soil sample to a soil lab to be analyzed.  He received a letter from the lab telling him that he sent the wrong sample but that his dog has worms.  A fair number claim to farm in “No Hope Township.”  So apparently, most of us do not think we farm or live in the land flowing with milk and honey.

    A lot of this is just the humble nature of most farmers; they usually don’t brag too loudly about what they do.  Some might be self-preservation.  If you are renting good land, you don’t want everyone to know and then try to bid it away from you.  But deep down, do you live in a land flowing with milk and honey?

    This phrase has always fascinated me because when you look at the land that the children of Israel occupied; it would be hard to call it the land flowing with milk and honey.  It is mostly a desert and is about the only Middle Eastern country without any oil.  They build dams to catch the spring runoff from the mountains to have water for their gardens. How is this, the land flowing with milk and honey?

      The reason that it is the land flowing with milk and honey has nothing to do with the dirt of the land but with the owner of the land.  The children of Israel were living in the land that God was giving to them, as a gift, keeping a promise that he made to their forefathers.  It was a land flowing with milk and honey, not because it grew 250-bushel corn or 75-bushel soybeans, but because the children of Israel were living in the covenant of God’s grace.

      We too, live in a land flowing with milk and honey.  We live in God’s grace.  We are his children, righteous and redeemed before God.  We call him Father and he hears us; he embraces us with love that we cannot even begin to fathom.  We see that love in the life of Jesus; we see it in the empty tomb.  We see it in the promise of salvation that is ours.  We see it when we join in the communion of saints and the holy fellowship with our fellow believers.  We receive God’s blessings when we deserve his wrath; we receive his mercy when we deserve his judgment.  God’s love for us gives us our land flowing with milk and honey and nothing can take it away.

Dear Father, your mercies are new everyday as we live in your land flowing with milk and honey.  Forgive us when we are slow to see the wonders of your love and the greatness of your grace.  Guide us to live out our lives in such a way that we draw others to live in your land as well.  In Jesus precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret