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[[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/jn_de_2019_01_20|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]] [[topics_collection_ix|| Theme Collection ix ]]

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====== Milk and Honey ... ======

Sunday, Jan 20, 2019. Do you want to be rich? Do you want to be well set with your life and your environment?
Do you want to live in a country where milk and honey flow? Yes, you will probably say. Yes, it would be
good not to have to fight for the basic things in life day by day, but to be well set, to be prosperous, 
to be rich and to have all what is needed - and a little bit more. 

It is very exciting - this phrase of a "land, where milk and honey flows" comes from the book of Exodus, the
second book of the bible. What is the framework in which this phrase is used?  

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** Out of Slavery ... **

The people of Israel have been in slavery for many years. They have been in Egypt. And now God is talking to
Moses at the burning bush. He is promising to free his people, and to bring them into a land where they have
plenty. It is adressing the needs we talked about. It is about the desire to be save and in a neighborhood
where all is well. Let us look into this passage, the following part formulates the promise a second
time:

<color #aa0000>
16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, 17 and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”’ 
</color> (Exodus 3, 17ff)

There might be several objections to this approach. In particular today, in a time where Israel is back in 
this land, we might question the task. Why is God giving them this land? But remember: many years before this
event there was a guy called Abraham. He lived in the land of Canaan. He lived there with his family, with 
all their animals and servants, and
they had to flee during a great drought. It was his land, the region where he had been for so long! 

We live in a time where migration is one of the big questions of our time. But it is good to dig deep
here. And it is necessary to look at all cases individually, to study them in a wider context. 

What type of migration is good, 
what is bad? Not everyone can come and take the land of others. Occupation and power struggle ahs been
a part of the world ever since. Today colonalization is strongly opposed. At the same time, we do not have
a solution to the need of migration, to suppression and poverty. Not everyone can go everywhere,
and destroy what they want to destroy. But there is still mercy, truth and love, which can guide our
hearts when we set rules, today and tomorrow!


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** God wants good Things for all ...**

God wants good things for his people. He wants good things for all! Here, we hear that he wants
to give a land where milk and honey flows to his people. He wants them to prosper. They are the people
who want to live with him. They are open to his interaction. They pray to him. They ask him to be
their God, to be in their life!

In the modern Christian traditions we have sometimes forgotten that God wants good things for his people. 
We have, of course, heard the story of Jesus. We all know that he died at the cross. We know that his
kingdom is not of this world. We know about the spiritual meaning of salvation, about the reconciled
relationships, about mercy, love and truth. 

We also have heard about the suffering of the apostles. We know about the suffering of the Christian
church during the Roman empire for about 300 years. Christian faith became mainstream in western 
countries after that - not necessarily a perfect development, since suddently everything was Christian
in these countries, good or bad, according to Jesus teaching or against it. But still suffering went
on for those who were close to the original texts, even in Christian countries Christians were persecuted,
now under Christian rule. We also know about many Christian suffering today
in communist and Islamic countries. 

Some parts of the Christian church have started to re-discover that God wants good things for his people -
and not only for them, but for all people! It is good to re-discover this, of course keeping a wise 
balance with all what Jesus himself tells his disciples about suffering for the gospel. 
(Roland Potthast)
[[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/topics_collection_ix|... further texts]]
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