SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/27/2020
9:42 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “The Meaning
of Spiritual Hunger”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 5:6
Message of the
verse: “6 “Happy
are those who are hungry and thirsty for true goodness, for they will be fully
satisfied!” (Philips).
There are many people around the
world today who are going hungry, but the Lord has truly blessed our country in
that most people in our country, and most countries in the west who have never
really known what true hunger is about.
The “hunger and thirst” that our Lord is speaking of here is of a much
more intense sort, the kind many people go through each and every day of their
lives in different parts of the world.
Realize this that Jesus was using a metaphor for spiritual hunger that
many, many people around the world are going through each and every day of
their lives.
John MacArthur tells a story from WWI in his commentary
that I will quote at this time as it surely has much to say about the meaning
of hunger.
“During
the liberation of Palestine in World War I, a combined force of British,
Australian, and New Zealand soldiers was closely pursuing the Turks as they
retreated from the desert. As the allied
troops moved northward past Beersheba they began to outdistance their
water-carrying camel train. When the
water ran out, their mouths got dry, their heads ached, and they became dizzy
and faint. Eyes became bloodshot, lips
swelled and turned purple, and mirages became common. They knew that it they did not make the wells
of Sheriah by nightfall thousands of them would die—as hundreds already had
done. Literally fighting for their
lives, they manged to drive the Turks from Sheriah.
As
water was distributed from the great stone cisterns, the more able-bodied were
required to stand at attention and wait for the wounded and those who would
take guard duty to drink first. It was
four hours before the last had his drink.
During that time the men stood no more than twenty feet from thousands
of gallons of water, to drink of which had been their consuming passion for
many agonizing days. It is said that one
of the officers who was present reported, ‘I believe that we are all learned
our first real Bible lesson on the march from Beersheba to Sheriah Wells. If such were our thirst for God, for
righteousness for His will in our lives, a consuming, all-embracing, preoccupying
desire, how rich in the fruit of the Spirit would we be?’” This quote MacArthur
gives is from a book entitled “Water” and was written by E. M. Blaiklock in
August of 1966 and the quote is found on page 27.
MacArthur goes on to say that this is the kind of hunger
and thirst of which Jesus speaks in this beatitude. Jesus was using the strongest and deepest
impulses in the natural realm here to represent the depth of desire the called
of God and redeemed have for righteousness.
MacArthur states “The present participle is used in each case and signifies
continuous longing, continuous seeking.
Those who truly come to Jesus Christ come hungering and thirsting for
righteousness, and those who are in Him continue to know that deep longing for
holiness.”
There is a parallel passage in Luke 6:21a where we read “Blessed
are you who hunger now.” The desire for
righteousness is to characterize our life now and then in the rest of our earthly
existence.
A
good example of what Jesus is talking about, that is to hunger and thirst for
righteousness all of your earthly life is found in the life of Moses. Moses was 80 years old when he went up on the
mountain to see the burning bush, and I believe that this began his hunger and
thirst for righteousness. He then went
to Egypt and saw God destroy that nation, and then completely destroy the army
of Egypt as He drowned them in the Red Sea.
Moses saw God’s glory in the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire that
led Israel through the wilderness. Moses
built the Tabernacle and saw the Lord’s glory shining over the Holy of
Holies. We read then in Exodus 33:11 “Thus
the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his
friend.” Was this enough for Moses? The answer is no for Moses was never
satisfied and always wanted to see more.
He continued to plead, “I pray Thee, show Thy glory” (v. 18).
We can see that Moses never had enough of the Lord and
yet from that dissatisfaction became satisfaction. Because of his continual longing for God,
Moses found favor in His sight as seen in veres 17, and God promised him, “I
Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of
the Lord before you” (v. 19). Moses
would eventually be hid in the cleft of the rock and have the Lord’s glory pass
behind him for if he looked on it in his human condition he would have died
instantly.
More examples from the OT as David writes in Psalm 63:1 “O
God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my
flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
Think for a moment of the apostle Paul who had great
revelations from God, and yet he was not satisfied. Paul had given up his own righteousness that
was derived from the law and was growing in “the righteousness which comes from
God on the basis of faith.” However he
still longed to “know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship
of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Philippians 3:9-10). Then we see that Peter expressed his own
great desire and hunger when he counseled those to whom he wrote, and before I
quote 2 Peter 3:18 I have to say that this is one of my favorite verses and
that this was the very last words that Peter would write before he and his wife
were crucified upside down for the cause of Christ: “but grow in the
grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the
glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”
Now we have a quote from John Darby
that I found in MacArthur’s commentary as he writes “To be hungry is not
enough; I must be realty starving to know what is in God’s heart toward
me. When the prodigal son was hungry, he
went to feed the husks, but when he was starving, he turned to his father.” “That is the hunger of which the fourth
beatitude speaks, the hunger for righteousness that only the Father can satisfy”
(MacArthur).
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I want to
think for a moment on 2 Peter 3:18 which tells me that I am to continue to grow
in grace and in the knowledge of God, that I am not to be satisfied unless that
I am growing in His grace and knowledge.
As I am learning from these beatitudes that I am poor in spirit and
cannot do this on my own I have to continue to realize that it is the Holy
Spirit through the Word of God that can cause me to grow and the more that I
grow then like Moses, David, Paul, and Peter the more I desire to grow.
My Steps of Faith for Today: 2 Peter 3:18
“but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. To Him be the glory, both now
and to the day of eternity. Amen.”
4/27/2020 10:44 AM
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