The Richland Church of Christ

Hungry?

It is different for both of my older boys, although they both do it. They both love a type of food, yet it never seems to fill them. For Theo, it is any bread, rolls, muffins, donuts, etc. This last weekend Amanda went to Bunko with the other women at church, and I got the boys the special treat, pizza. That night I witnessed it for Cooper; he ate all by himself close to three slices of pizza. That is a lot for anyone, but for a tiny little boy, it was impressive. I kept cutting it up, and he kept eating; I eventually just had to put a stop to the consumption. We live in a time and place where the question of food is not “If?” but “How much?” Our current food situation is a rare time in the world and history where food is so accessible that we don’t wonder where our next meal will come from, but what will it consist of, and will I enjoy it? We wonder, “Will it satisfy me?”

I noticed a common Biblical theme lately. Jesus references it often, and I encountered it in two separate and unrelated studies. It pertains to food and satisfaction. Here are the unrelated yet incredibly related verses.  

“Meanwhile, his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” 33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” 34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” (John 4:31-34).

 “For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.” (Luke 12:23)

Whenever we read the words of Jesus, we have to ask ourselves this question, “Is Jesus the exception or the rule? If he is the exception, then I can dismiss it as impossible, but if he is the example, I must believe and commit to his way of living. According to 1 Corinthians 11:1, we are to use Christ as our example; so, Jesus is never the exception; his life and conduct will always be the rule.

Jesus states that his food is doing what God sent him to do and to complete that work. Doing what pleases God is what fills and sustains Jesus. The thing that provides life and energy for Jesus is not consuming food but committing our lives to God. So many people live from meal to meal, hobby to hobby, and purchase to purchase. I think we know that simply consuming anything does not bring about happiness, contentment, and it will not sustain you. I believe that when Jesus mentions that he has food that the disciples don’t know about, he is referencing Deuteronomy 8.

(Deuteronomy 8:1-3) 
“Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors. 2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”

Moses relays this concept well; if you want to live and increase (thrive), do God’s will. The time of wandering in the desert wasn’t strictly a punishment, and it wasn’t because Moses was lost; it was because the Israelites needed to understand what it means to rely upon and trust in God. Don’t be upset with the Israelites, because for many, it takes more than 40 years to trust in God completely. Forty years to know that God fulfills and sustains, not the Egyptians or their own hands; it is God that provides and satiates.

Our hearts are always in the “wilderness,” we should constantly assess whether or not we will keep God’s commands. Will we cling to God’s word as they contain the essence and gift of life?

Like the Israelites in the desert, God provides us with food from above. We can either say that God sustains us or that we have provided sustenance for ourselves. The areas of your life where you determine that God can’t satisfy you; you will attempt to gratify yourself, and you will discover that these things can never fulfill you. Like my boys that seem never to be full of bread or pizza, the world will never be enough for anyone, and it will only leave each one of us hungry for more. Yet, there is a food that the world knows nothing about, and it is a food that fully satisfies. Food that the world doesn’t know about is that when we trust and rely on God, we will be satisfied indeed.