1. Conflict between Ranchers and Farmers ¨C Always a conflict
A Texas rancher met up with a Wisconsin dairy farmer. The two men began talking about their land and the milkman told the cattleman that he operated his business on 125 acres. The Texan scoffed at such a small parcel of land. He said, "Yankee, that ain¡¯t nothin¡¯. On my ranch I can get in my truck at sunrise and I won¡¯t reach the fence line of my property until sunset." The dairy farmer snorted, "Yeah, I used to have a truck like that."
2. God displays Grace to his people in the Land of Milk and Honey
7 Then the LORD said, ¡°I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Per¡äizzites, the Hivites, and the Jeb¡äusites. 9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Exodus 3.7-9
a. Milk = Shepherds (desert area) ¨C East and South regions
b. Honey = Farmers (fertile farmland) ¨C West and North Regions
3. God intended to bring them into the Promised Land but 10/12 spies failed in faith ¨C after all God had done for them in their deliverance and care in the wilderness ¨C back to the wilderness for 40 years
29 your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and of all your number, numbered from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me, 30 not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephun¡äneh and Joshua the son of Nun. Numbers 14.29-30
4. In the Promised Land or in the Wilderness, God would be with his people
a. Results depend on what you look for
b. A teacher wrote on the board: GODISNOWHERE ¨C some students saw: God Is Nowhere; some saw: God Is Now Here
I. Land of Milk ¨C Shepherding Land
A. This Land Was Unpredictable
1. The weather was undependable
a. 11¡± of rain/year
b. Exact amount for winter wheat crop
2. God also works in unpredictable ways
a. Abraham came to Beersheba ¨C no rain ¨C not even 11¡± ¨C went to Egypt
b. Dealt with Moses in an unpredictable way
c. Coming of Yeshua (Jesus) was unpredictable ¨C baby in swaddling cloths rather than triumphant king
B. This Land Was Isolated
1. A Good Place to Learn faith
a. Dwight Eisenhower: ¡°Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of tomorrow with the handle of anxiety or with the handle of faith.¡±
b. Survival came by the blessings of God ¨C even in the edge of the Promised Land
c. Place of preparation for Moses; Israel; Yeshua; Shaul (Paul)
d. Special place for Elijah ¨C 40 days at Mt. Horeb ¨C 1 Kings 19.8
1) As Moses at the Mount of God ¨C same cave/cleft?
2) God was not in the spectacular ¨C Wind-Earthquake-Fire
3) He was in the still small voice
4) Sends Elijah to anoint new king of Syria (Hazael) and Israel (Jehu) and to call Elisha
2. Benefits from the wilderness:
a. Encouraged the maturity of Abraham
b. Place from which Torah; Tabernacle; Levites; Sanhedrin would come
c. Better in the desert
The word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 ¡°Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD,
I remember the devotion of your youth,
your love as a bride,
how you followed me in the wilderness,
in a land not sown.
3 Israel was holy to the LORD,
the first fruits of his harvest.
All who ate of it became guilty;
evil came upon them,
says the LORD.¡± Jeremiah 2.1-2
3. God taught them dependence in the desert ¨C Rock; shade; rescue form water (wadis ¨C 4 weeks of rain in the spring; 4 weeks of rain in the fall)
He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. Psalm 40.2
II. Land of Honey -- Farmland
A. Predictable Land
1. 20-60¡± of rain each year; famine years 11¡±
2. Always reaping as opposed to Negev farmers who were always praying
B. Populated Land
1. Fertile land produced big cities
2. Coastal areas, etc. ¨C Philistines
a. Baal and Yam were their gods
b. Israel assimilated into their culture
C. Prosperous Land ¨C a place where God rewards faith
1. Easy life
a. Fig trees had 5 harvest/year
b. Developed classes ¨C in desert each helped the other; in farmland one would hire the dirty workers to do the dirty jobs
2. The danger of Ease ¨C 10 ¡°And when the LORD your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, with great and goodly cities, which you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, and cisterns hewn out, which you did not hew, and vineyards and olive trees, which you did not plant, and when you eat and are full, 12 then take heed lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Deuteronomy 6.10-12
In March 1977, a few days before his fight with Jimmy Young in Puerto Rico, George Foreman stood on the hotel balcony and wondered about the meaning of life. He had come a long way in 28 years from poverty to wealth. He was the heavyweight Champion of the world.
Yet in spite of his success he said I was empty. For 10 years he had gone through the same routines getting ready for fights. In the end he had another win, but for what? My goal for life is another W. He thought, ¡°Is that all there is to life?¡±
¡°Money didn¡¯t fill the void. He had more cash in the bank than most could dream of. Three homes, a dozen cars, and a ranch-yet with all that stuff, I was still unfulfilled. Would another car make me happy? One more house? Some mysterious piece of the puzzle was missing, but I didn¡¯t know where to find it. More than once I toyed with the idea of driving my car over the cliff. (God in my corner- G. Foreman)
a. ¡°The human spirit can endure anything but perpetual prosperity.¡±
b. Do we get blessings and curses mixed up?
c. The people stopped praying and depending on God; became consumer-driven ¨C if the LORD did not deliver they turned to Baal and Yam
d. [Mother Teresa once visited the USA during the time she was ministering to starving; diseased; dying people on the streets of Calcutta. A typical shallow American asked her what she thought of the worlds most sophisticated democracy. She replied, ¡°I have never seen a more starved people.¡±
e. 11 ¡°Behold, the days are coming,¡± says the Lord GOD,
¡°when I will send a famine on the land;
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the LORD.
12 They shall wander from sea to sea,
and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD,
but they shall not find it. Amos 8.11-12
f. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;
because you have rejected knowledge, Hosea 4.6a
1. America is following the path of Israel
a. Out of Oppression by the Grace of God
b. Into struggles of beginning a nation with allegiance to God
c. Prosperity
d. Apathy to God
e. Idolatry ¨C Jamie Foxx ¨C ¡°Our Lord and Savior, Barack Obama¡±
2. The challenge in prosperity is to hold to God in spite of the distractions
3. [Telegraph Story
Back when the telegraph was the fastest method of long-distance communication, a young man applied for a job as a Morse Code operator. Answering an ad in the newspaper, he went to the office address that was listed. When he arrived, he entered a large, busy office filled with noise and clatter, including the sound of the telegraph in the background. A sign on the receptionist¡¯s counter instructed job applicants to fill out a form and wait until they were summoned to enter the inner office.
The young man filled out his application and sat down with the seven other applicants in the waiting area. After a few minutes, the young man stood up, crossed the room to the door of the inner office, and walked right in. Naturally the other applicants perked up, wondering what was going on. They talked among themselves that they hadn¡¯t heard any summons yet. They assumed that the young man who went into the office made a mistake and would be disqualified.
Within a few minutes, however, the employer escorted the young man out of the office and said to the other applicants, ¡°Gentlemen, thank you very much for coming, but the job has just been filled.¡±
The other applicants began grumbling to each other, and one spoke up saying, ¡°Wait a minute, I don¡¯t understand. He was the last to come in, and we never even got a chance to be interviewed. Yet he got the job. That¡¯s not fair!¡±
The employer said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but all the time you¡¯ve been sitting here, the telegraph has been ticking out the following message in Morse Code: ¡®If you understand this message, then come right in. The job is yours.¡¯ None of you heard it or understood it. This young man did. The job is his.¡±
