The Master's Blesseds: Chapter 4
By J.R. Miller
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness--for they shall be filled." Matthew 5:6
We would probably say, at first thought, that the satisfied are the happy, that those who have every desire fulfilled are the blessed. We do not think of intense and painful hunger, as a desirable state. Yet the Lord pronounces one of His beatitudes upon the unsatisfied, those who hunger and thirst.
However, it is not in the condition of hunger, itself, that the blessedness lies--but in that of which hunger is the sign, and that to which it leads. It is the token of life and health. A dead man has no desire, no longing for anything. One who has no craving for that which is good, no thirst for God, no yearning to be holy, to be like Christ, to be filled with the Spirit--is spiritually dead!
There is a touching story of one who was in declining health and went to the warm South in the winter to search of renewed life. She wrote to her friend, cheerful letters in which she spoke of the charm of the place, the wonderful luxuriance of all vegetable growths, and the abundance of food upon the table. Yet every letter contained the sad note, "If only I could eat, I would soon get well here; but I have no appetite." Then in a few weeks her frail body was borne back to her home--dead amid plenty, not for the lack of food--but for lack of hunger. Blessed are those who hunger, for hunger is a mark of health and of vigorous life, while the lack of it tells of disease and coming death.
The same is true of the mind. Hunger is blessed, because it is a mark of intellectual health. While one craves knowledge and is eager to press out upon the broad sea to discover the new worlds that lie beyond it--one's mind is alive and in wholesome state. Satisfaction with one's present knowledge, without desire to learn more, is evidence that one has reached the limit of one's mental growth. The artist had reason to weep, when he found himself satisfied even with his magnificent creation, recognizing the truth that he had now reached his best, and that there was no further progress for him.
In spiritual life, the principle is the same. Those who hunger--are blessed. The unsatisfied, are those whose souls are prospering and in health. Not to be eager to know more of God and to have more of the life of God in the heart--is to be spiritually dead. Longing is an invariable mark of true religion. Not the soul at ease, content, satisfied--but the soul thirsting for God, is the Scriptural ideal of God-likeness. Men are represented as hungry and thirsty. The soul is too great to feed on anything which this world can furnish. The beginning of salvation is the awaking of a desire to find God, to come back into His favor, to be restored to fellowship with Him, to be blessed with His love and to be filled with His life. The state of true blessedness, is one of hunger for God.
Thus Jesus spoke of Himself as bread, the bread of life, offered to meet this spiritual hunger. He said He was the bread of God, bread from heaven, of which if a man should eat--he would live forever. The faith that turns to Christ and receives the blessings that He has brought to the world, is spiritual longing. It begins in a consciousness of personal need, which finds full satisfaction in Christ. Not to hunger is therefore to go unblessed. It tells of a soul satisfied without God. But a yearning for God, is evidence of the beginning of spiritual life.
There is a story of child who had dwelt by the sea--but who was found by a wealthy relative and carried away to an inland valley. His home there was more beautiful and luxurious--but he was not happy. Something was lacking. He missed the music of the ebbing and flowing tides. He missed the dewy spray on his cheeks. A feeling of homesickness possessed him. One day he climbed to the top of a high hill, and far off he saw a blue spot on the horizon. "The sea! The sea!" he cried, with trembling heart. He rested not until he had found his way back to his heart's beloved home. So it is with the soul that becomes homesick for God. It finds no satisfaction, until it rests in God. Blessed is such hunger, for it tells of hope.
