day no. 15,695: brooks of honey and butter

Job 20:4-7, 17, 20-23, 27-29
Knowest thou not this of old,
since man was placed upon earth,
that the triumphing of the wicked is short,
and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
Though his excellency mount up to the heavens,
and his head reach unto the clouds;
yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung:
they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?
He shall not see the rivers, the floods,
the brooks of honey and butter.
surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly,
he shall not save of that which he desired.
There shall none of his meat be left;
therefore shall no man look for his goods.
In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits:
every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.
When he is about to fill his belly,
God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him,
The heaven shall reveal his iniquity;
and the earth shall rise up against him.
The increase of his house shall depart,
and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.
This is the portion of a wicked man from God,
and the heritage appointed unto him by God.
and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.

The promised land is defined as a place where milk and honey flow freely and frequently. When we eat ice cream on Friday night for dessert after our weekly pizza party, I make a point of acknowledging it. Where there are milk and honey, there is ice cream! And if this is how good fallen ice cream is, can you imagine how good perfected milk and honey will be? How much sweeter will glorified cows produce perfect cream and sanctified bees work to produce holy honey? 

Matthew 7:9-11
What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

I love my children and strive to give them the best that I can. But I am a sinful dad. So then, if a sinful dad like me can provide this kind of milk and honey, just imagine what God has in store for those who love Him? Imagine what kind of ice cream He is capable of providing! He withholds no good thing. And He has access to better honey and butter than I can get my hands on.

But the wicked will be cut off from the land of honey and butter. No milk and honey are waiting for them in their future. The ice cream this side of Jordan is the best they will be ever get to enjoy.  However, for the righteous, this the worst ice cream they will ever taste. And if this is the worst, we can only imagine the best! The wicked will have the pleasures of the belly removed since they saw fit to worship their bellies. They will not receive the kingdom where bellies are filled.

Phillippians 3:18-19
For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.

There is a difference between setting your mind to enjoy the things of earth because you are grateful to God who made it and setting your mind upon the earth in order to worship it. The one worships God by appreciating what He has provided. The other bypasses the Giver and glories in the gifts. There is fresh, cold milk and thick, sweet honey awaiting those who set their sights higher than the hillsides and beehives. And those that look up will one day look down to see a bowl full of the best ice cream that has ever existed.