Hungry & Thirsty (Matthew 5:6)
God let his people grow hungry and thirsty three times in Exodus 15, 16, and 17. All of this seems odd because God has just saved the people from being enslaved in Egypt. Why would God allow them to go without food or drink for some time? The answer is found in Deuteronomy 8.
Deuteronomy 8:1--3 (ESV) --- 1 “The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
In verse three, Moses tells Israel that God let them go without food to learn humility. They needed to know that God is the one who provides everything that they enjoy. They needed hearts that were not focused on what they saw or what they could get for themselves. They needed hearts that learned to rely on God for everything they enjoyed. He was their provider. This was to prepare them for more incredible blessings than they have ever known.
Deuteronomy 8:4--10 (ESV) --- 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. 6 So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.
I love how the latter part of this text reveals God’s plans to give them total satisfaction and provide for their every need. This is what God wants to do for his people, but sometimes they forget that he has given them everything they enjoy.
Deuteronomy 8:11--20 (ESV) --- 11 “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.
Sometimes, they think in their hearts, “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.” Because they think that way, they fail to obey God or give him the obedience and honor he deserves.
Wanting More Than Food & Drink
When Israel comes into the promised land, they receive all of the food and sustenance they desire, forget God, and start looking for satisfaction in otherworldly pleasures. Here is a summation of what they will do before they even do it.
Deuteronomy 32:15--18 (ESV) --- 15 “But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked; you grew fat, stout, and sleek; then he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation. 16 They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. 17 They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. 18 You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.
Jeshurun is another word for Israel. He says that they will forget him and worship other gods.
When Israel chooses to forget God and pursue things that are not God, he disciplines them again. He lets them hunger again. He lets them suffer so that they think about God, who is in control of everything. We see all of this play out throughout the rest of the Old Testament. Most notable is 1 Kings 17. In the days of Ahab and Jezebel, Elijah prays for drought, and God gives it. He takes away their food and drink, hoping that it will turn their hearts back to God. But ultimately, it didn’t work. Men wanted more.
Why Study Hunger & Thirst?
As we look at this little story at the beginning of Israel, some may say, “So what?” Why are we talking about God letting Israel be hungry and thirsty? I want us to think about how disconnected we are from hunger and thirst. We tend to have the heart of Israel once they get in the promised land. We tend to think, “We will never run out of food or water.” We forget God and say, “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.” The progressive movement of our society is based on the belief that we will evolve to be some superior form of ourselves. Our generation is loaded with this pride. As a result, we are starving to death and grumbling after we miss a meal. We don’t see that bread and water are not everything. This is why we need to understand this concept. Then, we will try to see the answer God gives us.
This is the same thing that happens over and over again in Israel. They get destroyed by God, but they don’t learn to rely on God and obey him. Does that sound familiar to us? Have we failed to learn obedience? How many of us have everything we need physically but fail to be satisfied and honor God with obedience?
Why? What is going on? Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that “God has placed eternity in man’s heart.” God has given us a heart and soul that longs for eternity, but nothing we see in this world is eternal. It is all disintegrating. We are hungry for something more than food, wealth, relationships, and fame. We long for spiritual fulfillment. The advertisement promises us fulfillment. They try to convince us that every purchase is the last one we will ever need to make. But it’s all a lie. Listen to the contrast in Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes 5:18--6:3 (ESV) --- 18 Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. 19 Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil---this is the gift of God. 20 For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. 1 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: 2 a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil. 3 If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life’s good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.
Solomon says that it’s good to be content with the food and drink that we earn. But he also warns us about a great evil he sees on the earth. He says that some have everything they desire on earth, but God doesn’t give them the power to enjoy them. Instead, a stranger enjoys them. This man is too busy searching for more. He is not satisfied because it’s never enough. Life is about more than obtaining all that you can or constantly pursuing more. It is suitable for us to enjoy what we are given, but it is evil to think that the things we get on earth will fill the void inside us. What’s missing is eternity and something that will stop death.
The Promise
Throughout the prophets, we see a promise that God would destroy the people and their land. He would punish them with famines and droughts. He would take away the beautiful land they have enjoyed for so long and make it a desert. But he also promises to turn the barren land into a place of plenty. He will bring about restoration and make it to where people will never hunger or thirst anymore.
Ezekiel 34:29 (ESV) --- 29 And I will provide for them renowned plantations so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, and no longer suffer the reproach of the nations.
Ezekiel 47:7--9 (ESV) --- 7 As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. 8 And he said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh. 9 And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes.
Joel 2:26 (ESV) --- 26 “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame.
These are just pictures of the restoration that God wants his people to enjoy. So all of Israel went back to the promised land hoping for the fulfillment of that promise. What has happened for the last two thousand years? Not a whole lot. It’s still a barren wilderness. It’s not a tropical rain forest like we enjoy in Mobile, AL. Why not? Did God fail to deliver this promise?
Fulfilled
When we come into the New Testament, we don’t see Israel become a bunch of plantations. We don’t see a complete transformation of the landscape. What we see is God’s people continuing to suffer from hungering and thirsting.
1 Corinthians 4:11 (ESV) --- 11 To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless,
2 Corinthians 11:27 (ESV) --- 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
But the crazy thing is that they do it willingly.
Philippians 3:7--11 (ESV) --- 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith--- 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Why? Because they finally see something more significant than physical food, fame, and success. They finally understand how to live obedient lives and remember God when they have prosperity.
Philippians 4:12 (ESV) --- 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.
Jesus has changed everything by delivering on this promise in the most interesting way. There is one book in the New Testament that describes this completely.
Living Water
The Old Testament foretells a life-giving stream in Ezekiel 47. It flows out of the temple and creates vegetation wherever it goes. Jesus is fulfilling this.
John 4:10--15 (ESV) --- 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
In this text, we read about a woman coming to a well for water. Jesus tells her that he can provide living water that will keep her from ever being thirsty again. Then, he goes on to tell her that he is the Messiah. As we read through this story, Jesus never explains what the living water is or how he can provide it. But when Jesus’ disciples return, he tells them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.
John 4:31--37 (ESV) --- 31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’
In this text, Jesus again talks about providing living water to everyone who believes in him. But, in this case, he tells people that once they believe in him, they too will become a well of living water for others to drink. They will spread the word about Jesus and be able to provide living water to all who believe. Verse 39 explains this living water to us with John’s commentary.
He says, “This he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” If you have been in our classes about the Holy Spirit, this should make more sense. The life-giving stream of water is the pouring out of the spiritual blessings through the Holy Spirit. This nourishes our soul and fills us with life as we understand the love of God and his forgiveness of our sins.
The Bread of Life
We see that the living water is not the same as an endless stream of water physically nourishing our thirst. What about food? In John 6, we see Jesus feed the 5,000. This is the only miracle mentioned in all three gospels. He multiplies bread, so everyone starts to think that Jesus is going to provide for them as Moses provided for them in the wilderness. They will have food forever. After Jesus feeds them, all of the people are ready to make him their king. But Jesus withdraws and escapes the people. He walks on water, gets in the boat with his disciples, and makes it to the other side.
This is odd behavior because it seems like Jesus would want the people to accept him as their king. But he knows what’s in their heart.
John 6:25--27 (ESV) --- 25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”
He tells them that they only followed him for the physical food. That’s all that they care about. Jesus doesn’t want people who are here for physical food. If we need to set up a fellowship hall and kitchen to keep someone here, read John 6 and look at how Jesus feels about that kind of disciple. He lets them walk away.
But what about the food that endures to eternal life? That sounds like what we want. That might give us the satisfaction that nothing in this world can bring. Let’s see what Jesus says about that bread.
John 6:28--35 (ESV) --- 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
John 6:36--40 (ESV) --- 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
In the final words that we are going to look at, we see that Jesus knows they don’t believe in him. But he tells them that if they genuinely believe in the promises he is making them, they will never be cast out or lost. Everyone who truly believes in him and submits to the will of the Father will have eternal life. They will all be raised from the dead because they have eaten the bread of life and tasted the life-giving stream of water. That’s what Jesus says his words represent.
Application
Is your soul finding nourishment in Jesus? Is listening to him a part of your daily routine? The nourishment is available, but we have to take it in. Think about what it would look like for us to take Jesus in as the true bread of life daily? How would that change my life and how I handle trials in life? How would that affect the pursuits I have in life? Jesus has to be more important than food to me.
So what do we pursue? We want satisfaction in possessions, careers, relationships, and satisfaction through all kinds of temporary pleasurable experiences. Guess what. It’s all the same thing. It only lasts for a little bit. Then, we need more and more.
We didn’t come to Jesus to enjoy paradise. We came knowing that we might have to give paradise up to follow in his footsteps. The truth is that we have paradise to look forward to, but Jesus did not come to draw men and women to some temporary comfortable living situation. He came to draw people to God for eternity and eternal treasures. If you want it all and you want it now in the form of sensual satisfaction, Jesus is not the answer to your quest. But Jesus offers total spiritual satisfaction for your soul. Your spiritual food is to do the will of God.
The crazy thing is that we live in a blessed society with as much good food as we want. There is enough food, and it is cheap enough that we could kill ourselves with food. But we are not satisfied with food or drink. We always want more and more. It never satisfies us for more than a few hours.
Isaiah 55:1--3 (ESV) --- 1 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
If you are thirsty or hungry for satisfaction, why spend all your money on temporary things that will never satisfy you? God offers eternal satisfaction for free. I know that our society has deceived us with the notion of eternal satisfaction. I know that we have all been fooled with the promise that something is free. We get hooked into something that costs us way more than what it’s worth through the schemes of men.
God promises rich food that will give life to your soul. We will find delight by listening to his words and receiving them with diligence as our souls are made alive. Inside we will have a blessed assurance that we will live on after this life. This is why Christians in the first century could live such uncomfortable lives where they are starving and still say that they are rich and satisfied. Knowledge and hope of eternity give you something much more significant than anything you can buy.
Matthew 5:6 (ESV) --- 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Now righteousness and a relationship with God are available free of charge through the blood of Christ. God promises to be with you and bring you into eternity after you die.
Conclusion
God created us with mortal bodies that need food and drink to survive. But our life is more than a mortal body. We have souls that need nourishment and sustenance. We have cravings that go beyond a grumbling stomach or a dry mouth. We yearn for something more significant than the possessions, career success, or pleasures we find in life. We want something that provides a deeper fulfillment than these things can provide. Jesus offers rich food. He is the bread that gives life to our souls. He is the living water that keeps us from thirsting for things that will never satisfy. We must listen, believe, and submit our lives to his service.
We eat physical food, but we don’t trust it to provide the satisfaction that only Jesus can provide. We own possessions, but we don’t crave more and more because Jesus is enough. We strive for success in our careers, but we don’t put success above serving God. We see ourselves as stewards of things we enjoy in life.