Milk and honey are produced out of the mingling of two lives, the vegetable life and the animal life. In Deuteronomy 8:8 honey is put together with the plants: first wheat, barley, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree, and then honey. And in Deuteronomy 32:14, milk is put together with the animals: the cattle, the flock, the milk, and the fat. This is because, for the most part, honey has to do with the plant life, and the greater part of milk is related to the animal life. Honey is derived mainly from the plant life—the flowers and the trees—and it involves a part of the animal life—the bees. When these two lives are mingled together, honey is produced. But honey, for the most part, belongs to the vegetable life. Milk is also the product of both the animal life and the vegetable life, but it belongs mainly to the animal life: it is produced from the grazing in the pasture (vegetable life) by the cattle and the flock (animal life).
Hence, milk and honey speak forth the goodness and sweetness of the life of Christ. Such experience is produced from the two aspects of the life of Christ, the generating life (the vegetable life) and the redeeming life (the animal life). The more we experience Christ as wheat, barley, and so forth, and at the same time as the cattle and the flock, the more we will enjoy Christ as milk and honey.
The final aspect of the riches in the good land is minerals, including stones, mountains, iron, and copper. These are for the building, for the kingdom, for fighting, and for security, indicating that some elements in the life of Christ are both materials for God’s building and weapons for spiritual warfare.
Stones signify Christ as building material for God’s dwelling place. He is the foundation stone, the cornerstone (Isa. 28:16; Psa. 118:22), and the topstone. First Peter 2:4-5 says, “Coming to Him, a living stone, rejected by men but with God chosen and precious, you yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house.” This clearly indicates that Christ is the stone for God’s building. If we experience Him as the stone living in us, He will make us, who were people of clay, living stones, transformed by His stone nature, that we may be built together with others as a spiritual house upon Him as both the foundation stone and the cornerstone.
Stones are always related to mountains and hills. If we want rocks, we must have mountains. Mountains and hills in the Scriptures always signify resurrection and ascension. If we want to be transformed from a piece of clay into a stone, we must be in the resurrection life. If we are living and walking in the resurrection life, we are enjoying the reality of the mountains and the hills, and with these mountains and hills inevitably there are stones.
Mountains and hills are for the building of the house, the city, and the kingdom of God. In Palestine most of the cities are built upon hills and mountains. A city is the center and symbol of a nation, a kingdom. This means that spiritual authority, the heavenly authority, is always in resurrection. If we are in the resurrection life of Christ, we will have the authority of heaven. Daniel 2 shows us that Christ is the stone that is cut out without hands and becomes a great mountain, which is the kingdom of God on earth (vv. 34-35).
The Bible tells us that Christ will rule the nations with a rod of iron. Iron, therefore, stands for the authority of Christ. All authority both in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ (Matt. 28:18). He has been exalted to the heavens, to the right hand of God (Acts 2:33; 5:31), and has been made Head over all things (Eph. 1:22). He has the iron. The rod of iron is in His hand (Rev. 19:15).
Copper stands for the judgment of Christ. Christ’s judging power and judging authority issue from the trials that He suffered. His feet are like shining bronze, as having been fired in a furnace (Rev. 1:15; 2:18). The feet represent the walk, the life on earth. The walk and life of the Lord on earth were refined by God. He was even tested by the enemy and by mankind. By all these tests, the Lord’s life and walk were proved and came forth as perfect, bright, and shining. He has the qualification and the position to judge others.