Milk and Honey
Throughout the Pentateuch and into Joshua, the land of promise is a land “flowing with milk and honey.” After that, the phrase virtually disappears. It is used in the prophets to describe the land given to Israel after the exodus (Jeremiah 11:5; 32:22; Ezekiel 20:6, 15; the partial exception is the “curds and honey” in Isaiah 7:22). Why?
Hippolytus may give us a clue. He describes an oblation of milk and honey alongside the oblation of wine; the milk and honey is a reminder of the land promised to “the Fathers” but also a reference to the land that Christ gave, that is, His flesh, “whereby they who believe are nourished like little children.”
Milk and honey are the foods of childhood, as Isaiah 7:15 suggests. In her infancy, Israel was given a land of baby food.
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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