I’ve always been puzzled about the “land flowing with milk and honey”[1] promised to Israel in the Bible. Puzzled because, when you go through the Biblical story, the land seems to be continually experiencing famine. There are at least ten different famines in this land of milk and honey in the Old Testament. I mean, it starts right from the beginning. No sooner does God promise Abraham and his children the land[2] when, three verses later, a major drought hits that land and forces him to seek refuge in Egypt.[3] Then, the same thing happens during the time of his son Issac and he has to relocate to the region of Gerar.[4] Then it happens again with Isaac’s son Jacob, eventually moving the whole family to Egypt again, where they will spend their next 400 years.[5] All within the first three generations! What a promised land!? And this pattern continues.
When we get to the book of Ruth, the first line begins, “In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land” causing Naomi to flee to Moab.[6] Even during the glory years of king David we read that, “During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years.[7] Then there is the famine during the time of the prophet Elijah,[8] and since his successor Elisha asks for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit,[9] he gets a double portion of famine thrown in.[10]
Now, if this was a piece of real estate I was promised, I’d want to renegotiate. “Hey Lord, what about Australia, Denmark, or maybe Canada.” I’ll take the land of maple syrup and oil instead.”
So, this whole thing is rather puzzling to me. It makes me wonder what it could all mean. Why would God promise, and seem to overpromote, a land that could frequently be rather crappy? I think we begin to discover the answer in the book of Hebrews. There, in chapter eleven, we read:
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going… By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country….
They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had the opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.[11]
Did you notice several things in this passage? First, Abraham made his home in the promised land, like a stranger in a foreign country. Second, he never received the promise (nor would his kids), even if/when he fully took over the land because they knew they were foreigners and strangers on earth. Third, if it was only about that chunk of land, they would have had the opportunity to return to the land. Fourth, what they were really anticipating as the promised land was a better country – a heavenly one. A city God has prepared for them.
Ultimately, it never was about what we today call the land of Israel and Palestine. The whole book of Hebrews deals with the shadows of the Old Testament and the reality of their fulfilment in Christ in the New Testament. The Law could never make us right with God.[12] The blood of bulls and goats never could take away sin.[13] The priests could never truly be a mediator between God and the people.[14] Sabbath rest never could be fulfilled in reality by taking a day off a week.[15] Moses never really was the saviour of the people.[16] And all the temple rituals and beauty of the sanctuary never did bring someone to God.[17] All of this was merely a shadow meant to prepare and point people to the one who could do all these things. And the land of milk and honey is the same.
The problem of mistaking the shadow for reality is something Paul spent his whole ministry fighting against, even combating those who thought they could have the shadow and the reality.[18] Once the reality is here, you no longer need the shadow. In fact, clinging to the shadow will trip you up, just as it continually did in the Old Testament times. Even if you could get all the land, Temple, priesthood, lambs, sacrifices, Sabbaths and Laws perfectly aligned, it would still fail, because none of it has the strength to deal with the issues of sin and death. And this brings us back to all those famines.
Think of the shadows as a menu. A menu cannot nourish you. Even if you are absurd enough to eat the menu. All the menu can do is point you to the real food and increase your desire and hunger.
Here is my possible answer to all the famines in the land of milk and honey.[19] Maybe it was so the people would never get too comfortable there/here. To let them know that this world will never satisfy. Just like some of our troubles we face in our land and in our body remind us of the same thing. I’m meant for a new earth and a new body. We are currently only in the shadowlands.[20] So, famine and hardship stir a longing for something better, where comfort can often produce apathy. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.[21]
I’m still on pilgrimage. I’m still a stranger and a foreigner. Not to rally up a new crusade to retake modern day Palestine and Israel. All that would do is spill more blood and I (or anyone else who did so) would still be a foreigner. Because the Promised Land is not on this earth, but is the new heavens and earth. I can only get there through the gate of Jesus Christ.[22] And when he comes back to bodily raise the dead, it will be then that he takes me home, to the land flowing with milk and honey, where there will be no more mourning, no more crying, no more sorrow and no more famine.[23]
[1] Exodus 3:8. But it is also mentioned about twenty other times in the Old Testament.
[2] Genesis 12:7
[3] Genesis 12:10
[4] Genesis 26:1
[5] Genesis 41:54-56
[6] Ruth 1:1
[7] 2 Samuel 21:1
[8] 1 Kings 17:1, 18:2
[9] 2 Kings 2:9
[10] The two famines are found in 2 Kings 4:38 and 2 Kings 8:1
[11] Hebrews 11:8-16
[12] Hebrews 10:1
[13] Hebrews 10:4 & 11
[14] Hebrews 5:1-3
[15] Hebrews 4:1-11
[16] Hebrews 3:1-6
[17] Hebrews 8:5
[18] The whole book of Galatians.
[19] Although I do recognize that, in some cases, they were directly given as punishment for sinful disobedience.
[20] If you “Christianise” it, Plato’s allegory of The Cave illustrates this well, although what Plato meant by shadow and reality is not the same thing as a Hebrews/Christian understanding of shadow and reality.
[21] Matthew 5:6
[22] John 10:9
[23] Revelation 21:4
Stef Piva 
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