Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you. Deuteronomy 6:3

God was not saying the land literally had rivers of milk and waterfalls of honey, like an all-natural Candyland, but the term expresses the abundance of the land.

Milk comes from cows (livestock) and honey comes from bees (natural). It’s saying that the work of the farmers will prosper as well as the natural resources around them.

Cows are mammals and bees are insects, showing the full spectrum of the animal kingdom.

Cows eat grass and bees pollinate flowers, showing the totality of the agricultural world.

Milk is a drink and honey a food. Milk is a dairy and honey a sweet. Many tastes and many types of food are represented. (When the spies returned from the land, they brought an abundance of grapes, showing the fruitfulness of Israel—another food, another taste).

By saying the land is flowing with milk and honey, God painted a picture of a land of abundance, working in perfect synchronization of plants and animals, in harmony with man and blessing any who live there.