The first time we see this expression is when the Lord appears to Moses and instructs him to go to Pharoah with the Lord’s message to let His people free from captivity in Egypt.  We read in Exodus 3:7-8, “And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto A LAND FLOWING WITH MILK AND HONEY; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.”

So much is revealed to us about the Lord in these two verses.  He is the omniscient One who SAW His people’s afflictions and HEARD their cry.  Indeed, He sees and hears all things.  He is the SYMPHATIC ONE who knows their sorrows.  He is the DELIVERER, who takes His people from a land of slavery and oppression and delivers them into a ‘good land and large’, a land flowing with milk and honey.

I’m sure that most of us know the story of how Pharaoh refused to let the Lord’s people go and it took a series of plagues upon the land before Pharaoh did let them go.  After reaching Canaan, the land of milk and honey, Moses sent twelve spies to spy out the land to determine whether they could go in and take it from its inhabitants.  We have the spies’ report in Numbers 13:27, “And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.”  Yet, these men also said in verse 31, “But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.”  Although the Lord had promised His people this land, they did not have faith that He could deliver their enemies into their hands.

So, what does it mean that this land would be FLOWING WITH MILK AND HONEY?  Certainly, the usage of this phrase is metaphoric.  It represents a land of great supply and pleasant fruit.  A land flowing with milk is symbolic of a land that has plenty of grazing fields for the cattle.  When the cattle is well-fed, the cows will give much milk.  A land that is flowing with honey is symbolic of a land that is full of vegetation with which the bees make an abundance of honey.  Some have taught that this honey is not the honey that comes from bees, but refers to the sweetness of dates that grew in the land.  Either way, the milk and honey speak of great provision from the Lord for His people.

Let’s take a lesson from this.  As believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, we also enter this land of milk and honey.  Joshua 14:9 tells us, “And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children’s for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the LORD my God.”  Wherever they stepped, they owned.  The same is true for us today.  When we give ourselves to the study of God’s Word, where we step, we own.  As we spend time in God’s Word, He will reveal His precious truths to us, and they become ours and a part of us when we take them and appropriate them to ourselves.

Milk is spoken of in the scriptures as a type of God’s Word.  1 Peter 2:2, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere MILK OF THE WORD, that ye may grow thereby.”  How we need to drink of that continuous fountain of God’s Word.  Just as babies love and long for milk, we should love and long for the milk of the Word.

Honey is also spoken of in the scriptures as a type of God’s Word.  Psalm 119:103, “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”  As believers today, we need to avail ourselves of this flowing milk and honey.  It is where we get our strength, our guidance, our proper nutrition.  It is where we learn about our Lord.  Honey is both sweet and nutritious.  Where many man speculate about who God is and what He is like, we learn those things from feeding upon God’s Word on a daily basis.  (222.6)