Some of the most evocative words, in my opinion, in the Old Testament come from Ecclesiastes 3:11 [ESV]. The Preacher writes, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”
Restlessness and longing are universal traits of the human heart. God has put eternity in our hearts and we have an inconsolable longing to be with our Creator, but we choose to reject the Lord at all turns. Isaiah put it like this in 55:2-3 [ESV]: 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to Me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, My steadfast, sure love for David. And Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, stated it this way in 2:12-13 [ESV]: 12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, 13 for My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Is it not simply amazing how little things have changed throughout these thousands and thousands of years? These words spoken to the people of Judah have a remarkably eerily application to us today. Have we not as a people forsaken the Lord, and sought to replace the void created by our rejection of God with materialism that only leaves us wanting more and more, and we never get filled, just as a cistern that holds no water will never satisfy one’s thirst? Or worse yet, some choose to fill the void in their soul created by their rejection of God by seeking solace and comfort in drugs or alcohol.
We drink at broken cisterns. And we eat bread which does not satisfy. Jesus has something to say to us this morning about this universal experience of an inconsolable restlessness and longing. He has something to say about the insatiable hunger of the human heart, and about the relentless thirst of our soul. His words are found in the Beatitudes in His Sermon on the Mount in which our Lord and Savior declared in Matthew 5:6 [ESV], “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
What is the righteousness Jesus is talking about? Quite simply, it is seeking the Lord and His will in your life. In Matthew 6:33 [ESV] Jesus says, “But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Jesus is the solution to all the world’s hungering and thirsting, for He is the “Bread of Life” (John 6:35) and the “Living Water” (John 4:10) that will truly satisfy throughout all of eternity!
Restlessness and longing are universal traits of the human heart. God has put eternity in our hearts and we have an inconsolable longing to be with our Creator, but we choose to reject the Lord at all turns. Isaiah put it like this in 55:2-3 [ESV]: 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to Me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, My steadfast, sure love for David. And Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, stated it this way in 2:12-13 [ESV]: 12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, 13 for My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Is it not simply amazing how little things have changed throughout these thousands and thousands of years? These words spoken to the people of Judah have a remarkably eerily application to us today. Have we not as a people forsaken the Lord, and sought to replace the void created by our rejection of God with materialism that only leaves us wanting more and more, and we never get filled, just as a cistern that holds no water will never satisfy one’s thirst? Or worse yet, some choose to fill the void in their soul created by their rejection of God by seeking solace and comfort in drugs or alcohol.
We drink at broken cisterns. And we eat bread which does not satisfy. Jesus has something to say to us this morning about this universal experience of an inconsolable restlessness and longing. He has something to say about the insatiable hunger of the human heart, and about the relentless thirst of our soul. His words are found in the Beatitudes in His Sermon on the Mount in which our Lord and Savior declared in Matthew 5:6 [ESV], “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
What is the righteousness Jesus is talking about? Quite simply, it is seeking the Lord and His will in your life. In Matthew 6:33 [ESV] Jesus says, “But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Jesus is the solution to all the world’s hungering and thirsting, for He is the “Bread of Life” (John 6:35) and the “Living Water” (John 4:10) that will truly satisfy throughout all of eternity!
No comments:
Post a Comment