There is a strange sort of balance in the Christian life, and it’s not about how much honey should go in the milk.
We are to cling to God’s promises, forever and always. But sometimes, we are not the patience, humble servants we should be. “Where’s my milk and honey?” we may very well demand.
The Israelites were promised milk and honey when they left Egypt, and they got a desert. I think I’d probably complain too. Deserts are hot and no fun. Plus, in the end, they never got their milk and honey. “Ah, excuse me, God. You promised! Aren’t you supposed to fulfil ALL Your promises?”
The Israelites who left Egypt did not receive their promise because they were both too impatience and too scared to take it.
They spent months in the desert complaining about their journey to the promised land. On and on and on. Ugh, sort of like traveling with a kid. Anyone hear an, “Are we there yet?”
But for all their impatience, they reached the promised land, saw the giants, and didn’t take the milk and honey. Because they had to do something scary first.
But aren’t we the same sometimes? We look at our life and say, “Hey, God, where’s the milk and honey? Wait, you mean I have to work for it? Ah, no thanks.”
Don’t complain while you wait. Don’t give up in the desert and don’t be too cowardly to grasp His Promises.
Sometimes, the tasks we must do to claim a promise can be arduous, even daunting like taking a million-ish Jews across a desert (how hard that must have been for Moses, who by the way, only got to see the Promised Land not enter it!) or fighting giants (I admit, I don’t want to fight giants either). But I must ask,
How much is the promise worth to you? Are you willing to work for it? Patiently wait for it?
God will often ask us to wait for a period before He delivers a promise. I was reading Luke chapter 1 the other day when Gabriel tells the childless and rather advanced in age Zacharias, “God has heard your prayer. You will have a baby boy.” I can only imagine the grey-haired man saying, “Ah, bit late don’t you think? I prayed that like 30, 40 years ago!”
God doesn’t always give us the promise when we think He should. His ways, His timing isn’t ours. But it is perfect.
That perfect timing can mean the promise never comes in our lifetime. And yet, we’re still to hold onto that promise.
Yes, that’s right. Hold on in faith to a promise you may never receive.
Jesus’s disciples and many of His followers expected Jesus to set up His kingdom when He first came to earth. And wouldn’t they—His devoted followers and friends—be honoured in His Kingdom? Oh, what anticipation and joy! Or so the commentator Matthew Henry suggested of Mark 15:40-41.
Instead, Jesus hung on a cross.
All their hopes, all their dreams gone with Jesus’s death.
Sometimes, the promise God fulfils isn’t the promise we expected.
Jesus’s disciples and followers thought God was going to give them the kingdom. Instead, He gave them (and the whole world!) the best fulfilled promise of all time, forgiveness of sins through Jesus’s death on the cross. And that is our God. He knows best. Even when the world seems dark, as it would have to the disciples when Jesus died, God’s plan is perfect, the best thing ever. God knows what promises we really need fulfilled and when.
God will fulfil His promises. We can hold to that. We ought to hold to that.
This we know of a certainty God will always keep His promises.
So, hold on even if the wait is long, even if you have to work hard to obtain the promise. Hold on.
Expect milk and honey. Expect God to keep His promises, but don’t become bitter if it’s your children that get the milk and honey not you.
Hold onto His promises in a sweet spirit of submission and faith.
What helps you walk the fine line between expecting and demanding God’s promises? Is there something troubling you now?
