"Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." -Matthew 5:6
Jesus stood on the mountainside and told a ragtag group of poor folks they should hunger and thirst for righteousness. They were well acquainted with hunger. Many of them would follow Jesus across the lake after He fed them from a little boy's brown bag lunch of barley loaves and fish. Their arid climate demanded their reliance on rain on the good and evil. Crops grew on the early and late rain. Without rain they could not drink and they would not eat.
Jesus had recently left the wilderness where He was challenged with the pangs of hunger and chalk-dry mouth longing for water. No doubt He was faced with the temptation to "turn these stones into bread" on a daily, even hourly, schedule. But He adamantly repeated men and women are not sustained by physical bread alone, but by the very words of God leaving His lips. The bread which cannot spoil is of greater importance to us than the bread in my kitchen.
With amazing clarity Jesus spoke to the people of their spiritual hunger on many occasions. In John 6 the people track Him down in Capernaum. They had eaten of the loaves and fish, He slipped away in the night to meet the disciples on the lake (walking on the water), and the crowds found Him.
"Teacher, when did you come here?" they asked. But Jesus knows why they came: "Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me, not because you saw the miracles, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled." In other words, you don't care where the food came from, you are just happy you ate. You are hungry again and now you want to know if there is a second course. "Don't just work for the bread that spoils, bur for the bread that lasts for eternity which the Son of man will give to you."
We have all probably eaten until we felt we couldn't eat another bite. Many have eaten to the point they feel like just looking at food would hurt. And just like me you probably found yourself hungry again in a few hours or the next day. Jesus wants us to eat from the table of life. He wants us to eat and never desire another bite from another table ever again.
Jesus finally makes it absolutely clear to them, "I am the bread of life." In Matthew 5:6 He says to hunger after righteousness. In John 6:35 He says He is the righteousness we must eat to be satisfied. He is the bread which will fill our spiritual bellies.
The water which quenches our thirst is the living water Jesus offered the Samaritan woman in John 4. In John 7 He again offers living water, this time to all who believe. The Holy Spirit is the water to wash our hearts and quell the overwhelming thirst of our hearts.
You know the song based on Psalm 42:1,2. "As the deer pants for the water brook, so my soul longs after you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;..."
God placed a hunger and thirst for righteousness in us, but we ignore it, cover it, hide it. Some of us think we've lost it. God wants to restore it. Philippians 2:12, 13 reminds us to seek God and His salvation for ourselves. Paul writes about God working in our hearts to restore the appetite for Him and bringing satisfaction through the fulfillment of His will in us.
Hunger and thirst for righteousness. You will be happy, blessed and satisfied. Jesus promised.
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