We, in the rich West, hardly know what hunger is. We sometimes get hungry if we miss a meal, and that only serves to increase the pleasure of the following meal. But what if you do not know where your next meal will come from? We close our eyes to the photographs of emaciated children and adults who look like concentration camp inmates, skin over bones. A kind of inner blockade comes into play in our minds and we quickly pass on to ‘normal things’ on our day’s agenda. Hunger and thirst are topics we would rather not be confronted with. A person can apparently survive forty or fifty days without food before death from starvation approaches, but without water, man cannot survive more than a few days; he can last a week at most.
The Israelites suffered hunger and thirst in the desert.2 They were freed from the slavery of Egypt and on their way to the Promised Land, but how they longed for the pots of meat, the flesh pots in Egypt.3 They even forgot about the oppression and molestation, the beating and the lack of freedom, the murder of their sons,4 the thrashings, and the contempt. The scorching sun, the cares of life, hunger and thirst caused them to long back for Egypt. The Lord took care of them with bread from Heaven5 and water from the rock, meat in the form of quail,6 and oases on their way7 He provided for times of refreshing. He gave them victory over their deadly enemies8 and even over the poison of snakes9. But they themselves were their own greatest enemy. It is what comes out of the heart of man—unbelief, covetousness, hunger for power, his own form of religion—that makes him unclean, Matthew 15:10-20. And because of unbelief, a complete generation died in the desert and never made it to the Promised Land.10 They left Egypt, but ‘Egypt’ was still in their blood. They were unable to cope with their salvation and freedom. They could not handle their freedom. They could not live by just trusting the Lord. And only when the following generation was circumcised at Gilgal, a new phase in their walk with God started. “Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the shame of your slavery in Egypt.” Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.”11 Man is only delivered from his old selfish life by circumcision of the heart. Frustration, bitterness, deep hunger and thirst for righteousness, the balm of comfort and forgiveness, redemption and deliverance are only found through the knowledge of Christ.12 Only then are you really satisfied—and shortly too in full, in the ‘Promised Land’ of our Heavenly destination.
• When we were children and we sometimes did not want to eat everything on our plate, my mother always said: ‘You didn’t live during the War!’ She meant World War II in Europe. Good food was never thrown away at home.
• Sobriety, moderation and frugality are healthier than excessive gluttony and self-indulgence, leading to waste. According to the opinion of many doctors, diseases of the heart and the circulatory system and, indeed, even some types of cancer, are totally the result of our unbridled Western lifestyles and unhealthy eating habits.
Bible References:
1.NIV 2.Exodus 17:1–7; Numbers 20:2–13 3.Exodus 16:3 4.Exodus 1:8–22 5.Exodus 16; Numbers 11:4–9 6.Numbers 11:10–35; Psalm 78:12–37 7.Exodus 15:27, 17:1–7; Numbers 21:10–20 8.Exodus 17:8–16; Numbers 21:21–35 9.Numbers 21:4–9 10.1 Corinthians 10:1–13 11.Joshua 5:9 NLT and KJV 12.John 6:22–59, 3:14–21; Matthew 5:6
