Hunger and thirst

Lessons of the fall come in our flesh (body function, relationships, sustenance/hunger, death)

The Lessons of hunger

Good food - (Gen.1-2)

“Dust shall you eat” (3.15)

“In pain you shall eat” (3.17)

“By the seat of your face you shall eat bread” (3.19)

Famine

“Famine in the land” (12.10, Abraham)

“Famine in the land” (26.1, Isaac)

“The famine was severe in the land” (43.1, Joseph)

Isaiah 25.6-8

Luke 13:29 “And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.”

What bread doesn’t mean

2 Thessalonians 3:10 “For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.”

Matthew 4:3 “And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.””

What it means - John 6.22-66

Luke 15:16 “And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.”

What does this hunger look like?

(Matthew 5.1-12)

“First commandment” of Jesus’ 10 commandments from the Mount.

MESSAGE:

The disciple is poor, mourns, and is meek (5.3-5).

Knows spiritual neediness, awareness of sin and reliance on God (poor).

Mourns their own sin, the sins of others

Psalm 119:136 “My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law.”

Serves a power above self (meek)

Opposite of quarrelsomeness, selfish ambition, self-assertion (James 3.13-14)

The disciple hungers to be like God (5.6).

The first three lead to showing mercy, forgives (5.7)

And to killing sin in his life (5.8)

And to self-less peacemaking (5.9)

The hunger leads to this.

Psalm 42:1–2 “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?”

Psalm 63:1 “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”

Isaiah 55:1 ““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.”

CONCLUSION:

Sin brought famine.

It is illustrated in our flesh, but points to the deeper issue.

Its easy to see when someone lacks physical food

Melting away, bloated stomach

Ground root to stave off hunger while starving in Benin

Spiritual starvation?

Go back to Genesis and see.

Self-promotion, anger, battling with brothers and sisters.

Never seeing my own sin

Twisting even the Bible to justify everything

Not seeing how things injure God, only myself

Amos 8:11–12 ““Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.”