A Land Flowing with Milk and Honey

I, like many who attended Sunday school as a child, learned that God gave to Israel "a land flowing with milk and honey," but I never stopped to think about what that meant other than a general idea of abundance.  Now, in the spring, living in one of the most fertile ares of the country, I think I have a better grasp of that description.  Milk and honey means lots of good pastureland filled with lots of flowers!

Before they could conquer Canaan, the Israelites were forced to wander in the desert for 40 years, until everyone that had been of military age when they left Egypt had passed away.  This was God's punishment for their cowardice because upon scouting out the land that was good but occupied, the Israelite spies lost faith in an easy victory and tried to persuade the people with lies, telling them that they were better off in the desert.

 

I spent two days in the desert in southern Israel and I can't imagine spending 40 years there.  It is brown and dusty even in springtime.  There is nothing green except small bushes growing in the dry stream beds or wadis. Food is scarce and water is scarcer, bubbling up in springs, but not flowing far.  It is quiet and completely desolate and completely safe from other people.  It is my opinion that the Israelites were not so much lost in the desert as hiding out in it.



So contrast that with the "promised land," the good land of Canaan.  Here's a picture of the Jezreel Valley in the lower Galilee, where the Canaanites had their royal city of Megiddo.  The land is flowing with milk and honey because it is incredible pasture land, filled with grasses for livestock and flowers for bees.  The Canaanites were famous horsemen and the rich plains of the Jezreel Valley enabled them to keep a well-provisioned cavalry.

The flowers here are beautiful.  They carpet the hills in ever-changing colors like living works of art.  No one flower has dominance so each patch of land contains new and interesting combinations of color and form.  Here is just a small sample of the goodness of the land:

 The purple flower is Judean viper's bugloss (which has got to be the best name in the world!)

 Red flowers are corn poppies and purple ones are stork's bills

Not sure what the little pink ones are, but they are fabulous.  The red flowers here are crown anenomes and they are rare (no black center).

I wish I could just spend my days in the fields studying this profusion of color and texture, but, sadly, I need to go to work.  The flowers will be there next weekend.

As for my meditation, I think about what the Israelites wanted to give up on because they lacked faith in God.  If they had not trusted God for victory over much better fed, better trained and better provisioned armies they would have remained out in the dusty desert forever.  When they finally crossed over the Jordan into the territory controlled by Jericho, God said to Joshua three times, "Do not be afraid; do not be terrified."  This is great wisdom.  If fear overcomes your faith, you might miss the unexpected blessings of the good land.