Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Matthew 5:6

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth (Genesis 1:1).  He created it good, and filled it with things that He declared good.

He planned from the beginning there to be a man, and that he would rule over the Earth and subdue it.  He would walk through the lands, fields, valleys, forests, and hills, and be its master.  He would bring the natural Earth into the pattern of the garden.

This failed, when the man ate from the fruit.  It is said that the woman was deceived, and the man chose to disobey willingly, so as not to be separated from the woman.  Genesis 3:6 indicates that the man was not somewhere far away when the woman sinned, but was “with her”.

Jesus came as the “last Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:45), and what the flesh was unable to do in pleasing His Lord, God did, in sending His own son in the likeness of sinful man (Romans 8:3).

In eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, death was brought to the first man, Adam, so that in dying he did die (Genesis 2:17).  In the partaking of that sin, Adam caused sin for all men (Romans 5:12).  And, the way to the tree of life was blocked to men (Genesis 3:22).

But the God of Mercy works…

Yet God does not take away life, but plans ways so that the banished one will not be cast out from him.

2 Samuel 14:14 (portion)

So, God planned a way…

Jesus said, when his disciples wanted to call down fire on those who didn’t receive their message said, “You do not know what spirit you are of.  For the son of man did come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” (Luke 9:55:56).

God came to seek and save those who were lost (Luke 19:10).  It was to come to teach (Mark 1:38), and to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).

Jesus came to restore, and said, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35).  He who comes to Jesus will not go hungry.  As God gave the manna from heaven in the wilderness, under the leadership of Moses, so Jesus is the true bread from Heaven.

Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” (John 6:63).

God’s desire from the beginning was that a man would walk in uprightness with Him, and that that Man would exercise authority over the Earth.  When man failed, it killed him, and it took the death of another to atone for that.  That man was Jesus Christ.

Today, we live in a world that is fallen and broken because of the fall and yet with the door of hope named Jesus to the power and authority of the first Adam.  What He lost, Jesus regained, and shares freely with us.

God’s heart has always been holy, righteous leadership and ruling, from the right heart, with the right authority, with the right rules.  Yet, even as in the book of Judges, the desire of the Lord has always been that He would be the one and only King over all the peoples.

Jesus said that when we can be happy while hungering and thirsting for righteousness, because we will be filled.  Filled means satiated, or gorged, or filled to the full.  Jesus is the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.

It therefore does not matter who or what is ruling or governing us.  It does not matter what level of spiritual powers of wickedness are in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12), because Jesus has all authority (Matthew 28:18), and His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will never be taken away (Daniel 7:14).  The plain truth of the matter is that because Jesus is on the throne, He will personally see to it, if need be, that we are filled when we are hungering and thirsting for what is on His heart, righteousness.

If a man will not work, he shall not eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10).  We are not guaranteed to be fed in every hunger, simply for hungering.  Hunger is considered ample proof that there is a food to eat that will satisfy.  Yet, Jesus said said simply that if we are hungering and thirsting for His Righteousness, we will be filled.

Hunger can be a most discomforting thing, and one could be come discouraged in the hungering, desiring for God’s righteousness to be seen on the Earth.  As Gideon cried out, “Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?” (Judges 6:13).  Yet, what Gideon failed to realize in that moment was that he was talking with an angel of the Lord.  The Kingdom was there, present before him, and he was found faithfully waiting, with the right cry.  Where are your deeds, Lord?

For such a response, Gideon was filled.  He still offered sacrifice; he still had his weaknesses and fears, but the man met with the Lord face to face, received direct instructions, although he himself thought he was the least of the least, and threshed his wheat in a wine press (not at all a suitable place for such a task).

Through the hand of the Lord, despite his fears, despite his need for confirmation after confirmation, the heart of a man desiring to see the righteousness of God and unwilling to let go, he saw it, and was satisfied.

The answer to the press is simply, “Don’t let go.”.  No matter how hard it looks, or difficult it seems, or how lean it is, in the midst of you wondering when, where, how, and and if, look up.  You will be filled.

Happy.