Is Milk and Honey Enough?

~Tracy Frederick

I cannot imagine the emotions the Israelites must have felt when Moses told them God had listened, God had remembered His promise and God was going to provide. Did they think God was cruel? Did they blame God for the life they were living as slaves? I mean, weren’t they God’s chosen people? Wasn’t God supposed to take care of them? But, had He forgotten them? I mean, they were slaves! Each day was another day of beatings, scrounging and begging for food, working in oppressive heat with little water. So, when Moses told them of God’s plan to save them, to lead them to “deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to being them up to that land unto a good and large land, unto a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex 3:8). I can’t imagine the feeling, the gratefulness to their God. Exodus 4:31 says they believed that the Lord had heard their affliction and visited His people and they bowed their head and worshipped.

But, it wasn’t long, as you know, before they began to doubt….was it really as good as God promised? Is it really worth it? And, the idea of the land flowing with milk and honey faded. The weariness of the journey and the immediate desires of their lives distracted them from the promise. And, so, some never made it, after all of the walking in the desert, after all of the many days of marching and living in tents and struggling through the dessert, they just lost their belief in the promise. For many,  a large, bountiful land flowing with milk and honey just wasn’t enough….they just couldn’t wait that long…

Some people are too much like the Israelites wondering around on this earth, circle again and again, having lost their way, growing weary of the journey and forgetting the promise: “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. (John 14:2-4). 
They walk is long, and the trials are tough and hot…and tiring…and difficult and just…well, HARD….but He promised…He never forgets ….for those who are His (Acts 2:38)...and  keep walking,…and hoping…. and believing (Rev 2:10) that the land of milk and honey IS enough…more than enough...