For Jehovah thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of water-brooks, of springs, and of deep waters, that gush forth in the valleys and hills;
Moses sets the promised land before a people still in the wilderness. He begins not with its crops or its wealth, but with its water.
The wilderness behind them was never the destination. It was the road, and the testing ground, between the country they left and the land now described.
God brought His people Israel out of Egypt to bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey. Between Egypt and the land He led them through the wilderness to test them. The wilderness did not form part of God's purpose for them; Canaan was the land of promise… There was no shortage there — everything they needed was available in abundance.
Water is named first because in that part of the world water is life. And no one can make a spring.
Those who have been in the Middle East know how scarce good, clean, fresh water is… It means life, it means refreshment, it means health and wealth, for people, cattle and crops. God promised this in Deuteronomy 8:7… There was plenty of water… A man may build a reservoir and do all sorts of things with water. But a spring is something God alone gives. He provides it. It springs up with life and energy, fresh and pure and clean.
The contrast with Egypt was hard to miss.
How fair was the prospect! How bright the vision! How marked the contrast to the Egypt behind them and the wilderness through which they had passed! The Lord's land lay before them in all its beauty and green freshness, its vine-covered hills and honeyed plains, its gushing fountains and flowing streams… How different from the leeks, onions and garlic of Egypt!… It was the Lord's own land: this was enough.
The uneven ground is part of the promise, not a flaw in it. People can irrigate a flat country by their own effort. A land of slopes needs rain from heaven.
They are to know the "living God" in the constant display of His resources for them. Their land is not to be a dead level like Egypt's. It is to be a land of valley and hill, which must have the direct "rain from heaven" upon it… And what mines of wealth in the depths of these hills — "a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you shall dig copper"! What "fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills"!
The springs rise in the low ground as well as the high.
When God spoke of His earthly people taking the land He would bring them into, He said it was "a land of hills and valleys" (Deuteronomy 11:11). But He also spoke of "fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills" (Deuteronomy 8:7). So there is provision to refresh our souls whatever the circumstances we find ourselves in.
Commentators read the land as a picture, and they differ over what it pictures.
Beyond lay the good land, beckoning them: "a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills." This reminds us of the fullness of the Spirit, which abounds at all levels for us. It is a land of grain and fruits, with precious metals stored inside it.
Others stress that this good land is not a picture of heaven at the end, but of what God gives His people to enjoy on the way.
The Lord has called His people now to a good land which is to believers what Canaan was to Israel. Canaan is not heaven by and by. In heaven there is rest; in Canaan there is fighting. Our Canaan is the knowledge and enjoyment of heaven's blessings while we are still living on earth.
Plenty carries its own danger.
He also reminds them, as a motive, how God had dealt with them along the way. God had humbled and tested them, so that the blessings of the good land He was bringing them into would not make them proud. It was God who gave them the strength they needed.
- Bringing. God took Israel out of Egypt to bring them in. The wilderness was the testing road; the land was always the goal.
- Springs. Water heads the list because no one can build a spring. It rises where God alone makes it rise.
- Levels. Valleys and hills mean no flat, self-managed country. The water comes down from heaven and rises up in high ground and low.
- Reach. The fountains break out in both, so refreshment reaches a believer on any ground.
- Guard. The richer the gift, the greater the risk of pride. So Moses ties the promise of plenty to the memory of being humbled.
a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive-trees and honey;
Moses describes the country Israel is about to enter by listing what grows there. Seven kinds of produce cover bread, fruit, oil and sweetness. The list is not a farming report. Commentators read it as a picture of what God gives His people, and as a test of whether they will remember the Giver.
The list gains its force from what Israel had left behind. One writer sets the two lands side by side:
How fair was the prospect! How bright the vision! What a contrast to the Egypt behind them and the wilderness they had passed through! The Lord's land lay before them in all its beauty and green growth. It had vine-covered hills and honeyed plains, gushing fountains and flowing streams. How refreshing the thought of the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive! How different from the leeks, onions and garlic of Egypt! Yes, all so different! It was the Lord's own land: that was enough. It produced and contained everything they could possibly want. Above its surface, rich abundance; below, untold wealth, treasure without end.
One writer counts the foods of each land, and notes how they were gathered:
In Numbers 11 they craved six things they had eaten in Egypt — fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. They forgot the hard slavery. Egypt's prosperity depended on the Nile, but they did not know its source. The land God brought them into drank water from the rain of heaven. Seven things grew in that land that could be gathered without stooping.
The three staples behind the list — grain, grape and olive — meet three different human needs:
In itself it was to be full of all kinds of good things — wheat, wine, and oil (Deuteronomy 8:8). Of these good things another scripture says, "wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man's heart" (Psalm 104:15).
The same three trees speak in Jotham's parable in Judges 9, and there each names its own quality:
As we know from Jotham's parable in Judges 9, the olive tree speaks of fatness (Judges 9:8-9) and the fig tree of sweetness (9:11). The vine speaks of joy: "Shall I leave my wine that cheers God and men?" (9:13).
The pomegranate had a place in Israel's worship as well as on its tables:
Its fruit is as large as an apple. It appeared alternately with bells at the bottom of the high priest's robe, as a type of fruitfulness. It was also copied as an ornament on the columns of Solomon's temple.
Honey closes the list, and it is the one item Scripture elsewhere puts a limit on:
Scripture describes the land promised to Israel, in its riches, as a "land flowing with milk and honey." Honey is the figure of natural sweetness. It is very sweet, but it was not to be eaten too freely. And it could not go into what was offered to God. But the manna was not honey. Though it had the sweetness of honey, it could be fed on all the time. All the sweetness of human affection and closeness is found in the "Son of Man," but with nothing in it that can decay. Honey easily ferments and turns sour. In this sweet closeness there is complete stability.
One writer draws out what the good land pictures, and adds a condition:
These things are pictures of our blessings — the spiritual blessings we have in Christ Jesus. We have full title to them. But we can only enjoy them if we walk in faith and obedience to His Word.
The rest of the chapter turns that abundance into a warning, and the warning is not only for Israel:
In the latter part of this chapter Moses warns them of the dangers hidden in prosperity. Then would come the temptation to settle down in the comfort and forget God's goodness to them. They would be drawn away to seek false gods. So it happened in their history, as we know. Again, we as Christians have to remind ourselves of the same thing. For us also, days of outward and earthly prosperity are times of spiritual danger and defeat.
- Giver. The land was the Lord's own land. It drank rain from heaven, not water from the Nile. Its produce is a gift, not an achievement.
- Gift. Grain, grape and olive answer to bread that strengthens, wine that gladdens and oil that makes the face shine. The list leaves out nothing they needed.
- Growth. Seven things grew there, all within reach without stooping — unlike the six foods Israel craved back in Egypt.
- Guard. Honey pictures natural sweetness. It is good in its place, but God kept it out of Israel's offerings. Manna, not honey, was the daily food.
- Grip. These blessings are ours in Christ by full title. We enjoy them only while we walk in faith and obedience. That is why prosperity, not hardship, is the moment of greatest danger.