We are in Exodus chapter three with our word for today which is actually a phrase. חָלָ֖ב וּדְבָ֑שׁ milk and honey. It is used 20 times in the Old Testament. Our phrase is main way God uses to describe the promised land before He gave it to them. This is how it is used in our chapter today which is the first time it is used in the Bible. Exodus 3:7-8 Then the Lord said, “I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians ...to a land flowing with חָלָ֖ב וּדְבָ֑שׁ milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Exodus 3:16-17 Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them...I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to...a land flowing with חָלָ֖ב וּדְבָ֑שׁ milk and honey.” When the spies are sent into this land and come back here is what they report about it. Numbers 13:26-27 We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with חָלָ֖ב וּדְבָ֑שׁ milk and honey! Here is its fruit. So God delivers on his promise. The land is there just as God described it full of abundance and prosperity which is what this is referring to. And they brought back evidence of the fruit. All the people had to do was trust God and go and get the land. But there was a problem. Remember that list of people that God would include along with the milk and honey? Well those were no ordinary people. Numbers 13:28, 33 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there… We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them. So the people were faced with a decision would they focus on the evidence of how great the land was that God was giving them or on the enormous people that they were going to have to face to get the land? Joshua and Caleb have the right prospective on this. Numbers 14:6-9 Joshua...and Caleb...who were among those who had explored the land...said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with חָלָ֖ב וּדְבָ֑שׁ milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” God had given the people no reason for them not to trust that he would do what he said he would do. As we will see when we get to Numbers the people, like we tend to do, allowed their fear to influence their decision not to trust God. What is interesting is that even when the people disobeyed God it did not change God’s plan it only hurt those who disobeyed. The children were able to go into the land whereas the parents missed out. So when we disobey God we are the one’s missing out. God is still faithful the land is still called by our phrase. Then those missing out blamed God for not doing what he said but they failed to own up to why they missed out it was their own unbelief. Numbers 16:12-14 Then Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram,...But they said, “We will not come! Isn’t it enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with חָלָ֖ב וּדְבָ֑שׁ milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? And now you also want to lord it over us! Moreover, you haven’t brought us into a land flowing with חָלָ֖ב וּדְבָ֑שׁ milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards.” Wow did you catch that? They called their oppression and suffering in Egypt a land flowing with milk and honey. They were truly delusional and blamed God for their current circumstances. I’ll close with the great Proverb that reminds us that it is easy to blame God for our own actions. Proverbs 19:3 A person’s own folly leads to their ruin, yet their heart rages against the Lord.
