1202. The Lack of Hunger–Its Significance

The Lack of Hunger–Its Significance

"Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto Me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness" (Isa_55:2).

There are two things which should be emphasized as we enter upon a study of Christ the Bread of Life–the Bread that came down from Heaven.

1. The absence of hunger is a sign of death. The wicked are dead in trespasses and sins (see Eph_2:1-2). In the story of the good Samaritan the assaulted Jew was left "half dead." The unsaved may also be spoken of as half dead–spiritually dead, physically alive.

One of the certain marks of death is an utter lack of hunger. The wicked have eyes which see not; they are blind. The wicked have ears which hear not; they are deaf. The wicked are past feeling. The wicked have no taste for the Heavenly Manna.

Christ said, "Ye believe not, because ye have no life in you."

Paul said, "The natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them."

It would be folly to ram food down the throat of a dead man. We need not marvel that sinners take no interest in, and have no leanings toward the things which are distinctively spiritual; they are alienated from God, strangers to the covenant of promise, and without hope in the world.

2. The beginning of hunger is the sign of the Spirit's quickening. When we asserted that the dead have no hunger, that the wicked never seek for God, that God is not in all their thoughts; some may have doubted the statement. They at once thought of that wonderful Scripture: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters," or, they thought of that other Scripture, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink." These passages, however, primarily refer to saints and not sinners.

The question before us is this–If life is imparted through the eating of Christ the Living Bread, how then tan a dead man, who has neither hunger nor power to eat, partake of the Living Bread? Our reply is simple indeed.

Were it not for the fact that the life-giving Spirit quickens the heart of the unregenerate, he would never come to God. "No man cometh unto Me except the Father draw him."

It is God Who visits the earth and waters it; it is God Who provides the grain when He has so prepared the earth (see Psa_65:9, R. V.).

Thus, also, does God first visit the sinner and prepare his heart for the reception of the Bread of Life, which God also provides.

God makes the ground soft with showers; He greatly enriches it, that He may bless the springing thereof, and crown the year with goodness.

When there is a yearning after God within a sinner's breast; when he panteth after God as the hart panteth after the water brook, then he should praise God, for the Holy Spirit is fulfilling His office work. Hunger is caused by the Spirit.

There is a striking passage in Hos_2:21-22 : "And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the Heavens, and they shall hear the earth:

"And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel."

The words above set forth the fact of how Jezreel, which means sown of God, receives her food. "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled."

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR