FLOWING WITH MILK AND HONEY!
Part 2

"I am come down to deliver them out of the land 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" Exodus 3:8.

We continue to learn about the land God wants us to live in.

IT IS A LARGE LAND (Exodus 3:8)

It is not a small career to be a mother and home-maker. It is huge. It becomes bigger and more far-reaching as your family grows.

You start off as a married couple and gradually God blesses you with children from His bountiful hand. One day you have the blessing of grandchildren which exceed the number of your children. And then great-grandchildren, which usually surpasses the number of your grandchildren! The influence of motherhood not only affects the nation, but future generations.

Our land of motherhood should always be enlarging. God told the children of Israel, "I will enlarge your borders" Exodus 24:23 and Deuteronomy 12:20.

Isaiah 54:2-3 says, "Enlarge the place of your tent; stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not; lengthen your cords and strengthen your pegs. For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left. And your descendants will possess nations."

I have always loved G.K. Chesterton's words, "To be Queen Elizabeth within a definite area, deciding sales, banquets, labours, and holidays; to be Whitely within a certain area, providing toys, boots, cakes and books; to be Aristotle within a certain area, teaching morals, manners, theology, and hygiene; I can imagine how this can exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it.

How can it be a large career to tell other people about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe?

How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone and narrow to be everything to someone?

No, a woman's function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute."

IT IS A FLOWING LAND (Exodus 3:8)

It is a land that flows. * The Hebrew word "flowing" is zoob which means "to flow freely, to overflow, to gush out." It also has the idea of not only gushing, but oozing and dripping.

Are you flowing in your land of motherhood? Are you flowing and dripping with love, compassion, forgiveness, joy, wisdom and all the good things of God?

This is the opposite to the land of sighing, stinginess, misery, legality, depression and boredom.

It is a picture of productiveness and large-heartedness. It is a land of smiles, laughter and joy where you say Yes more than No. It is a land where you not only fulfill your duty to what has to be done each day, but you face every task exuberantly.

You love your husband profusely. You love your children exceedingly. You don't hold back, but overflow from the life of the Spirit of God who lives in you.

There is no stinginess in this land. It is a land of flowing and flourishing, gushing and giving. It's a picture of God's generous heart revealed in these lines...

He might have doled His blossoms out quite grudgingly,

He might have used His sunset gold so sparingly,

He might have put but one wee star in all the sky,

But since He gave so lavishly, why should not I?"

I have to admit that I don't always have this attitude. I can be miserly and restrictive, but I pray that that God will work His attitudes in me so that I will always flow with blessings to others and have a heart that freely gives.

IT FLOWS WITH MILK (Exodus 3:8)

God's land specifically flows with "milk and honey." Some commentators say that this is literal, others figurative. I believe it is both.

A Talmud description says, "Milk flows from the goats' (udders), and honey flows from the dates and the figs (Ketubot 111b)." Other translators say that it was actually wild honey.

But what does it mean in the "land" in which we live each day?

Flowing with milk speaks of nourishing and nurturing.

Milk gives sustenance to build healthy bodies. The mother flows with milk from her breast to nourish her babe. She continues to nourish and sustain her children with wholesome foods. She nourishes them as she educates them in wisdom and the ways of God.

The land of motherhood is a nourishing land. It is what we were born to do. It is our anointing. Let's not be stingy with this gift, but overflow in it!

Next week we will talk about flowing with honey.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL
www.aboverubies.org

 

PRAYER:

"Dear Father, I have been guilty of being stingy in my love and nurturing. Please anoint me to flow with the anointing of your nurturing gift that you have given to me. Help me to be constantly nourishing my children. Amen."

AFFIRMATION:

I am a nourishing mother!

 

*Twenty times the Bible speaks of the land which "flows with milk and honey."

Exodus 3:8, 17; 13:5; 33:3; Leviticus 20:24; Numbers 13:27; 14:8; 16:13-14; Deuteronomy 6:3; 11:9; 26:9, 15; 2 7:3; 31:20; Joshua 5:6; Jeremiah 11:5; 32:22; Ezekiel 20:6 and 20:5.

Many women like to save these devotions. They print them out and keep them in a folder to read over and over again. Some print them out and pin them on the fridge with a magnet to read through the week.