God Leads To Abundance

“Entering the Promised land”

July 10, 2005

“Two of the spies, Joshua (the son of Nun), and Caleb (the son of Jephunneh), … said to all the people, "It is a wonderful country ahead, and the Lord loves us. He will bring us safely into the land and give it to us. It is very fertile, a land ’flowing with milk and honey’! Oh, do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land. For they are but bread for us to eat! The Lord is with us and he has removed his protection from them! Don’t be afraid of them!"

Num 14:6-9 (Living)

I want you to understand the background of this incident. God’s people had lost favor with the rulers of Egypt and had become their slaves for hundreds of years. No one was left alive who had seen Joseph as the leader of Egypt - second in command only to Pharaoh, himself. They only experienced life as slaves. They were looked down upon and mistreated and abused. To be a Jew or and Israelite was not considered a blessing by most people.

But God had left them with promises- wonderful promises that they could build their hope on. Promises of freeing them from slavery and giving them a land that flowed with milk and honey. That doesn’t mean that much to us - but to a people who lived on leaks and onions and garbage that other people didn’t want - it was a tremendous promise. To a people who had no sugar, no flower, no milk - nothing sweet or good - it was a fantastic promise! Their daily fare was bland and plain with very little spices or condiments to make it tasty. If they had enough gruel to dispel the hunger pangs - they were doing good. A cup of dirty river water was all they had to wash it down with.

Don’t you think that a nice cup of cool milk would have been heaven to them? Don’t you think some honey over that grain cereal would have been wonderful to them? It reminds me a little bit of when I was in Korea. The only milk we had was powdered and to someone raised on raw milk that floated with speaks of cream - it was pretty awful! I couldn’t drink it!

And to someone raised on Mom’s home cooking, the mess hall wasn’t too appealing. It was usually pretty bland and tasteless. And often we would sit around and talk about what we would eat when we got back to the ‘world’, as we called it. We would make our mouths water as we talked about all our delicious favorite foods. These people probably saw some of their slave masters eating delicacies and rich deserts and longed for some of their own. Then someone would mention God promised them their very own land that flowed with milk and dripped with honey. What a promised to place your hope in! What a great promise to build up hope.

I want you to know that God promises you a land that flows with milk and honey, too. Listen to what the prophet says,

“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jer 29:11 (Living)

This promise is not just for the Jews. I believe this promise is for all God’s people. This promise is for you. 1. God has a wonderful plan for your life. Before you were born, God had plans for you. King David says,

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit them together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous--and how well I know it. You were there while I was being formed in utter seclusion! You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your book! How precious it is, Lord, to realize that you are thinking about me constantly! I can’t even count how many times a day your thoughts turn toward me. And when I waken in the morning, you are still thinking of me!

Psalms 139:13-17 (Living)

Paul said,

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Do you understand that before you were even born, God had plans for your life. I think He had a plan ‘a’ and a plan ‘b’ and probably a lot of other plans. Maybe you are

working on plan “m” or ‘T’ right now. But that point is that God loves you. He thinks about you constantly! And He has such tremendous plans for you. He wants to take you to the promised land - right now. He has a much better life for you right now - right here! Listen.