By Garry and Norma Umphress
https://awakegloriousbride.com
Blessed Are Those Who Hunger And Thirst For Righteousness, For They Shall Be Filled
Welcome back and thank you for pressing in to know more about the Beatitudes and their importance in our walk and communion with Jesus, our Savior and Messiah.
These beatitudes are really causing my spirit to leap within me and the more I press in, the more I am wanting to know more of who I am in Christ Jesus. Could this be a hunger and thirst for righteousness?
Have you noticed how in this study we can see how God, in His infinite grace and mercy, used the old testament prophet, Isaiah, to reveal Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and God’s plan for the salvation of mankind centuries before? Of course, He used all of the old testament as a type and shadow of the living Christ to come. Just imagine the richness of His glory throughout scripture when we can taste and see it.
What is Righteousness and why would we hunger and thirst for it?
Definition – (The quality of being honest and having moral principles, walking in integrity, justice, fairness).
Isaiah 55:1-3
“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you.”
Wow! What an invitation. Free of charge, price is non-negotiable. Here, the Son of God, the son of man, and our salvation invites us to come unto Him. When doing a Bible Study on scripture, it is always important to understand the context in which scripture is written/given. In the old testament times, buying wine was something acquired that brought happiness and milk was an item of sustenance. Bread in Hebrew means Gift, Living Source. When the Holy Spirit spoke through the prophet Isaiah, he was referring to Christ.
Jesus is the feast (fulfillment), his word is the recipe (ingredients) and if we Listen carefully to Him and only partake of Him, then and only then can our soul delight itself in the abundance of what Christ has to offer. It’s our choice. But, I must ask, “who on earth would not want this fulfillment?” Especially during this age. Give me more, Lord God Almighty, give me more. Let’s read the above scripture again with a new perspective.
Isaiah 55:1-3
“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, acquire happiness and sustenance buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread a gift and living source, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good (partake in truth), and let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you.”
Isaiah 56:1-2
Thus says the Lord: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, for My salvation is about to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it; who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
When we seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness with all our heart, and not in an attempt to discredit him as a Pharisee or Sadducee does, all these things are provided to us. What things? The Kingdom of God and His righteousness! We are filled with the Holy Spirit of Truth and our heart’s desire is to do His heart’s desire. And, guess what? Yes, He will give us the desires of our hearts.
One item of confusion for many is the reference to the Sabbath in scripture. I feel it is important to remember that the old testament pointed to Jesus Christ over and over and over again, but so many miss it. Since this is a study on the Beatitudes, I encourage you to read Hebrews, Chapter 4 and do your own study from there. You will learn that God requires us to trust Him, walk in His statues, and not defile our temple (we are the house in which He wants to dwell), so that we will rest in Him by allowing him to do a work through us while on this Earth (versus, us doing works that are dead) and know that eternal rest will be our reward.
John 6:26-29
Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him’”
John 6:35-39
And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst, but I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.”
I will leave you with one more scripture before moving on. I pray you are beginning to taste and see the goodness intended for you:
John 7:37-39
On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let them come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture had said, ‘out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’.” But this he spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
We must glorify Jesus Christ in order for the Holy Spirit of Truth to rule and reign in us. God does not share His glory with another.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.