The Greater Need
“When did we see you hungering . . ?” Matthew 25:37
Hungering – Ah, but Jesus didn’t say we saw Him starving. You see, the word here is peinao, not limos. The Greek word peinao means to be in need of regular nourishment while limos means to fatally lack sustenance. The application difference is important. Too often we think righteousness is associated with relief from famine. We think Jesus commented on limos, telling us that those who step in with aid for disaster victims are meeting the standard He set in this parable. We think seeing Him hungry is the same as seeing the starving masses of the world and sending them our surplus. We are wrong.
What is at stake in Jesus’ parable is not famine relief but rather daily required nourishment. According to the parable, when we provide of the daily bread of another, we are demonstrating the character of the Kingdom. We don’t have to wait for disaster to strike. We only have to see that someone is in need. They don’t have to be starving. They only have to be hungry.
Of course, peinao covers a wider range than just hunger for food. It really means an avid desire for something necessary for life. Most importantly, in the Old Testament background peinao suggests persistent hunger. It is the daily need for life-giving elements. What are these daily needs? Well, we could start with obvious ones – from our perspective. Food and shelter come high on the list. But the Bible doesn’t start here. Yes, of course, life requires food and shelter, but the biblical priority is peace with God above and beyond everything else! Deuteronomy 28:47 makes it clear. Rejection by God brings terrible, life-threatening results. No human effort to provide life’s necessities will ultimately succeed if there is no peace with God. Our perception of what is necessary is clouded by the influence of the yetzer ha’ra. We discover the first commandment is the most important commandment, not for religious purposes but for life itself.
So, what do we really need for life? We need God on our side. With that in place, everything else is an enjoyment of His blessings. How can Jesus call the hungry blessed? Only because in His mind, the persistent need for peace with God leads directly to submission to God’s will – and that guarantees God’s provision. Only those who have an avid desire for the righteousness of the Lord will ultimately be satisfied. Their persistent hunger for Him will bring a life of fulfillment. Of course, that does not mean a life of the fulfillment of the desires of the yetzer ha’ra. It means God places His desires into our hearts and then proceeds to bring them about in the lives we live.
Do you know someone who is hungry, who has an avid, daily desire for peace with the Lord? That desire might show up in the need for food, shelter and work, but that will not be the end of the story. Nor will it be the end of fulfilling the need. When you feed someone who has a persistent desire, it is never a one-time event.
“When did we see you hungering?” Every time you encounter someone who needs to know God is good, all the time.
Topical Index: hunger, peinao, limos, daily bread, blessing, Matthew 25:37
Talk about finding those who are hungry, I just got off the phone at 4:30 AM with a young man who is so hungry he called at 3:30 to be fed. He doesn’t understand yet that God has put this hunger to know Him within his heart, but I was able to give him what he needed. He is a young man that has only 16 days being clean of methamphetamine. I met him sunday night at a Narcotics Anonomous meeting and he was surely seeking to get to know God. I was able to talk with him after the meeting and shared the gospel with him. He has called twice since then and was under attack when he called this morning. It was an honor and priviledge to be able to feed this hunger. Thanks be to our Lord. Please pray for him and pray that God will give boldness to continue to speak into his life.
“It was an honor and priviledge to be able to feed this hunger.”
Hi Jeffery,
I can understand what you are going through with the “young man,” appreciate your play on the usage of the word “hunger,” and will say a prayer for you and your friend.
Things become very clear when you deal with the victims of methamphetamine; on the one hand you’ve got the slow path to God and on the other the “fast track” to death.
Thanks Michael, Your prayers are welcome. Matthew has asked me to be his sponsor which will give us time together. Planning on spending my day off on friday with him I ask God to open the eyes of his understanding and to take off the blinders.
Jeff
This is timely material for me at least. Lately God has begun revealing to me the ridiculousness of most of my conceptions of “righteousness”, that when I think about “serving God”, the images I conjure up are always full of some high deed, some patronizing beneficence or proud act of nobility. I think of some dramatic “plane of being” where I perpetually rejoice in my generosity, and where I revel in my pride at being “virtuous”. When I think about the word “charity”, it has a temptation of its own. The word sounds so noble, I begin to think that, if I only were more charitable, then… But I never continue the thought, at least not consciously, because if I did, it would be: “…then I would truly deserve to be proud, then I could really boast about something of worth, and see how great I am in this humility?” I have no trouble imagining the Pharisees rejoicing in their deeds of righteousness. I have no trouble understanding why Jesus said to not let one hand know what the other is doing. And sometimes I think that even then, even when you are concealing your righteousness and not making a show of it, you can still tempted to death by pride. Everywhere I go I find this war within my members that Paul speaks of…
Joel … excellent point … not where my mind was at in reading this … but now that you state a very clear scenario regarding tzedakah … I can relate!
And it boils over into the broader concept of being His servant and its pride trap … ahh the allusions of servitude unto the image of Moshe …
Always another onion layer to peel back …. 🙂
I guess we are safe if we always remember there is one and only one hero given to us … Yeshua!
We are just a vessel of distribution. It is not like it is our money or even our thoughts.