Deuteronomy 11:8,9
“Keep every commandment…, So that you may prolong your days on the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey”.
The Lord is bringing the people into their new homeland.He had promised it to them hundreds of years earlier. It’s a blessed place that He wants them to be. However, there is a condition attached as to how long they can stay. It’s obedience. We read in the future history of Israel that they are only partially obedient. They get captured and sent into captivity into Babylon. They were evicted for 70 years.
God wants us to be in a blessed place. Jesus says in John 10:10b “…I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” He wants us all to have a life so full that it’s abundant. David says in Psalm 23, “My cup runneth over.” Go wants our lives to be full of joy and blessing that we can hardly contain it. But just as with the Hebrews, we have to do what He says.
The Lord created us as free agents to do as we please. He gave the commandments and asks us to follow Him. While we are free, He were made to be in relationship to Him. However, He doesn’t apply any force. If we are to go His way and seek Him, it’s because we choose to.
Moses says that the land is “flowing with milk and honey”. It’s bountiful and good. It was to be fully satisfying. A place to build a home, grow crops, live and prosper. They were to have learned their lessons about obedience. They were to be in adulthood in their faith. They had occasional lapses. We can as well.
I picture our lives in Christ as a walkway. When we stay in the center, we are closest to Christ. It’s like being right under the water spicket. We get the most. The plants near the faucet grow more. We could also walk on the edge of the walkway. The dangers are closer. Their is worldly influences and more temptation. We get beat up. We’ll be miserable. We got The Lord, so we know that He has more for us. We feel the guilt as well. We also are exposing ourselves to sin and compromise. This is a difficult place. We aren’t living the full life God wants for us. It’s our choice.
Lord, thank You for the abundant life You have for us. Help us to stay in it.