A Land of Milk and Honey

On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of Egypt into a land I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands. Ezekiel 20:6 (NIV)

The Bible mentions a “land of milk and honey” in 24 passages in the Old Testament. We picture this as a place of abundance, where the grass is green and lush, the trees tall and strong, fresh water flows through multiple streams and rivers. A place like the garden of Eden. A place kind of like where I live in Wisconsin, where we have plenty of dairy cows and quite a few bee keepers.  A place I have a hard time picturing when I think of the hard desert landscape of the Middle East.

Yet, when God promised the Israelites that He would free them from their bondage in Egypt and give them a land filled with milk and honey, that’s just what He meant. The milk flowed from goats instead of cows and the honey may have come from dates instead of bees. Maybe the terrain wasn’t as lush as we would picture it with our Westernized eyes, but it was still a land of great beauty to the Israelites. Wouldn’t any land of freedom look magnificent?

Maybe that’s why I find the desert terrain of East Africa so fascinating and breath-taking. It feels ancient, a place filled with history and mystery, a place to tread lightly.