207. Land of Milk and Honey
Jeremiah 11:5 That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I and said, So be it, O Lord.
God promises us a kingdom of fertility and abundance in the Paradise Kingdom of God in heaven with Him. This Promised Land is guaranteed to us by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is an eternal life of bliss, health and wealth. The exultant and exuberant joys of this eternal life with God are described in physical and material terms like this: it is a “land flowing with milk and honey.” This colorful phrase helps us understand the spiritual kingdom, which came with Jesus.
Jeremiah is writing this oath from the Lord at a time when the people to whom this promise of land appears entirely unfulfilled. They were exiled from the land and they certainly weren’t living in fertility and abundance. Jeremiah reminds the people that the promise of God will still indeed be fulfilled. Our NT understanding of this promise is that it is spiritual and eternal, not physical and temporal. When Jesus appeared on earth He proclaimed, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” “The kingdom of God is within you.”
The good news of this future promise is also for us in the present life; it lives in the hearts of all believers. We have within us the “land flowing with milk and honey.” The spiritual blessings are abundant: forgiveness, love, peace, joy, and real life. We enjoy the “already” aspects of the kingdom in an inward and spiritual sense. We may not see it or feel it, but by faith it is real. Once we are shed of the sin and evil of this body and this earthly life we will enjoy the kingdom by sight forever. For now, we live by faith.
Our answer to this promise is, “Amen, so be it.” Amen is the response of faith. We are saying, “I believe it. I know it is true. I claim it as my own.”