Blessings belong to those who Hunger

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.  Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare” Is.55

          In His classic teaching “The Sermon on the Mount”, Jesus declared that the blessings of God belong to those who “hunger and thirst after righteousness”. To hunger and thirst for righteousness is to desire deep within our being those things that belong to the kingdom of God. In saying this, Jesus is conveying that God is most concerned with those things that occupy the desires of our hearts, and not with the reasoning and rational of our natural minds.   

Solomon wrote “He (God) has set eternity in the hearts of man”, meaning He created us with a longing deep within our beings for the very eternal kingdom He sent His Son to establish (Eccl. 3:11). That He places this in our hearts confirms that God is most concerned with what things comprise our desires and passions. The Psalmist was called “a man after God’s own heart” because he possessed a longing, a hunger, and a thirst for more of God.  We see this passion in verses such as “my soul longs even faints for the courts of the Lord, my heart and flesh cry out for the living God” (Ps 84).  And “Oh God you are my God, early will I seek thee, my soul longs for thee, my body thirst for thee...”(Ps 63).  

The opposite of this passionate spirit that God requires of His children is the passive religiosity Jesus warned would be so prevalent in many in the last days. He said that in that day “the love of most will grow cold” (Mt.24:12). He is warning of the absence of “love” or “passion” in the faith of many.  He also warns that many in the last days will coldly declare “Lord Lord, didn’t we…. “ thus revealing a passionless and works oriented faith (Mt. 7:23).  That attitude provoked the Lord’s stern response of “depart from me for I never knew you”. His rebuke again reveals that it is not the words that men profess or the works that they do that assures them eternal life with God, but rather the passion for him that fills their hearts.       

The Laodicean church in the third chapter of the book of Revelation is described as a church that is without passion and hunger for God. They contentedly declare, “we are rich and not in need of anything”, revealing a passive and carnal spirit that recognizes no need to draw nearer to God. They are a people without passion or hunger for God, possessing no desire for what Jesus described in His interaction with Mary and Martha as “a better thing”.  

The “better thing” Jesus was speaking of is similarly expressed in one of the great older hymns that prays and pleads for “just a closer walk with thee”.   This is the desire of all those who have come to recognize that great desire for God that He has placed within the human hearts.  Passion, longing, hunger, thirst, desire, these are all characteristics that as the words of Ecclesiastes declares God created in man from the beginning of time. It is man’s fallen nature that has dulled his awareness of that need within him to know and love God more. Without those desires, Paul describes the faith of those without this loving passion as only “clanging symbols” (1Co. 13:1).  

The Lord still keeps His table set for those who hunger and thirst for more of Him. Solomon wrote that “He brought me to His banqueting table” (S. of S. 2:4). Peter describes the abundance on that table as “spiritual milk”, which like that abundance declared in our opening verse of Isaiah 55, is offered with the intent of bringing satisfaction to the innermost being of man. To the faithful the Lord promises to give of His “hidden manna” (Rev.2:17). The satisfaction found by those who hunger and thirst for more of God is the abundant spiritual life the Lord offers all who are not content with the shallow religious culture of so much of the present-day church.                                                                                                         The table the Lord so abundantly set can be seen in the abundance of the preaching and teaching of the word of God available today. Although there are many ministries that only preach and teach with the words and wisdom of men, the spiritually hungry will always search the storehouses of these ministries to hear and feast upon the spiritual manna. Preaching and teaching, books, podcasts, websites, bible studies, etc. are all available in abundance today for those who are truly passionate for more of God.

“My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding  indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding” (Pr.2).            

  Only those who recognize the emptiness of the natural and often religious existence so common today and long for the reality of spiritual life, will strive to taste of the heavenly manna of true intimacy with Christ that alone can satisfy the soul. “Blessed are those who hunger & thirst after righteousness, they shall be filled”