Hunger for God...

— I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

Here this symbolism is clear, God is perfectly willing and able to satisfy all our deepest needs and longings.

Implied here, is that we are not really open to enjoying what He provides for us.

Look down to the last verse where the symbolism returns: — 16 He would have fed them also with the finest of wheat; And with honey from the rock I would have satisfied you.”

God has spectacularly rescued the people from their slavery in Egypt, responding to their own cries of distress.

— 6 “I removed his shoulder from the burden; His hands were freed from the baskets. 7 You called in trouble, and I delivered you...

Then comes the passage that we began this meditation. “Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you [warn you]! O Israel, if you will listen to Me! 9 There shall be no foreign god among you; Nor shall you worship any foreign god. 10 I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

And then you have the disappointing response — 11 “But My people would not heed My voice, And Israel would have none of Me.

So before there was this promise of being satisfied by God, now, far from that we read in — 12 So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, To walk in their own counsels.

So God desires to satisfy us with Himself by providing for us and rather than falling down in utter adoration of thanks and praise for the goodness of God towards man, what do we do?

What keeps us from hungering after God? (Turn to ).

But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ 20 Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’

The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie.

It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world.

It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night.

For all the ill that Satan can do, when God describes what keeps us from the banquet table of His love, it is a piece of land, a yoke of oxen, and a wife ().

The greatest adversary of love to God is not His enemies but His gifts.

And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth.

— Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.

In another place he said, “The desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” ().

“The pleasures of this life” and

“the desires for other things”—these are not evil in themselves.

These are not vices. These are gifts of God.

They are your basic

meat and potatoes and

coffee and gardening and

reading and decorating and

traveling and investing and

TV-watching and Internet-surfing and

shopping and exercising and

collecting and talking.

And all of them can become deadly substitutes for God.