Hunger has been a chronic scourge upon humanity, marking history with misery and death through crop failures, droughts, wars, and plant diseases. From the famines that drove Joseph's brothers to Egypt in the second millennium BC, to severe starvation in Rome in 436 BC, England in AD 1005, and across Europe in various centuries, the specter of hunger has persisted. Even in the nineteenth century, despite technological and commercial advances, millions perished in Russia, China, India, and Ireland. Today, thousands in Africa and hundreds in Latin America and other emerging nations succumb to malnutrition and related diseases. Hunger, alongside war and pestilence, remains an aggressive neighbor to vast sectors of the human race. In the biblical context, the people of the scriptures lived in arid lands without modern water systems, making hunger and thirst not mere discomforts but frightening, life-threatening realities. Hunger and its close associate, famine, left powerful impressions on desperate minds, affecting figures like Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, and the people of Israel in Egypt and Sinai, as well as David, Elijah, and Elisha. The search for food played a crucial role in Israel's history, with physical hunger keenly felt in the wilderness. As recorded in Exodus 16, the Israelites grumbled about scarce food and lack of meat, their fear and ingratitude leading them to irrationally prefer Egyptian bondage over the miracles and hardships they faced. Hunger can also result from disobedience to God, as seen in Haggai 1, where a lean harvest and economic distress reflect the consequences of straying from divine will. Deuteronomy warns that physical hunger may follow if Israel disobeys God's Word, with God withholding resources like rain to punish a broken covenant. Amos envisions an even graver famine, one of God's Word, highlighting a deeper spiritual deprivation. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ addresses hunger and thirst in Matthew 5:6, proclaiming, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." This speaks to a spiritual longing far surpassing physical need, a hunger satisfied only by God through Him. This beatitude marks a solution to humanity's spiritual bankruptcy, urging a desperate, intense desire for perfect righteousness akin to a starving person's need for food or a dehydrated person's craving for water. Such heartfelt yearning, though painful, is essential for spiritual growth, driving individuals to seek God. In John 6, Jesus describes Himself as the Bread of Life, meeting both physical and spiritual needs, reinforcing that true satisfaction comes from pursuing divine righteousness over fleeting worldly desires.

Jesus describes a person who from the very depths of his innermost being has a driving need to satisfy a desire. Jesus is not using hunger or thirst as the emptiness or dryness felt between meals but a hunger or thirst that seemingly can never be satisfied. With physical appetite this would be a hunger and thirst that even after a full meal with plenty of drink would still feel as though much more could be eaten and drunk. Nothing can better express the kind of desire to obtain righteousness. The Bible's writers frequently employ the imagery of hunger and especially thirst to illustrate an ardent desire particularly for the things of God. Even limiting hunger and thirst to normal daily need for nourishment illustrates a continuous cycle of consuming a most vital necessity for spiritual life and strength. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness is deeply involved in accomplishing important steps toward salvation. God enables one to have this desire and make use of it but choices must be made to sacrifice in accomplishing His desire. When God gives someone a responsibility He also by His grace provides the means for him to accomplish it. The righteousness Jesus refers to in Matthew 5:6 includes three kinds and each is important in its own right. All three are to be sought within each Christian's relationship with God and with fellow man. The first is the righteousness of faith that comes when God justifies a sinner by grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. It is amazing how hungry and thirsty one becomes for God's offer of justification leading to salvation. Hunger and thirst have brought one this far but it is only a beginning. If it is a true godly hunger and thirst it remains even though one is justified because the justified person realizes God has only begun a good work. The hungry person will recall that justification brings reconciliation and therefore peace with God and access to Him but it also brings with it the hungering and thirsting for the very glory of God. The second kind of righteousness for which one is to hunger and thirst is the one that occupies the greater portion of life after conversion. Jesus does not say blessed are those who have hungered but rather blessed are those who hunger. This hungering and thirsting is a continuous state and it must be this way for the second kind of righteousness elsewhere called pursuing holiness going on to perfection or growing in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. This righteousness is created in one imparted by God's Holy Spirit following justification as one experiences the relationship with God. It is seeking godly character to be prepared for living in His Kingdom. God cannot create His holy and righteous character by fiat. It requires the willing and freely given cooperation of the called. Through this beatitude God presents a serious challenge. Because it is continuously needed it establishes a demanding requirement. How much does one want goodness the righteousness of God. Does one want it as much as a starving man desires food or a parched man wants water. Most have a desire for God's Kingdom and His righteousness but it is frequently nebulous rather than sharp. When the time comes to make a choice one is not prepared to make the required effort or sacrifice that the righteousness of God demands. It is situations like these that reveal that one does not desire righteousness more than anything else. There are things one can do to enhance the initial hunger God gives. If one were physically hungry or thirsty every last ounce of strength would be given to find food and water or die in the effort. One must be willing to do whatever it takes to make progress in the quest for God's righteousness. Spiritual growth may also seem so slow that it is thought not to be happening but efforts must be kept on making even as the physical and growth will occur. God is the source of what makes one grow spiritually so the relationship with Him must be kep

Hunger and thirst arise in the account of a young sailor adrift for twenty-three days after his ship was torpedoed, leaving him parched, emaciated, and desperate for any sustenance amid the salt water surrounding him. This physical craving illustrates the spiritual condition Jesus describes in Matthew 5:6, where those who hunger and thirst for righteousness receive the promise that they shall be filled. Such hunger reflects an acute awareness of an unfilled need for God's way of life, producing an irresistible urge to change from a base nature into His noble character and to attain the potential He offers. Psalmists express this longing through images of a deer panting for water brooks, a soul thirsting in a dry land, and a heart crying out for the living God, which leads to diligence in prayer, study, fasting, and meditation, along with ready yielding to God and to brethren. When this hunger is satisfied, God, the church, and the individual all benefit. Yet God does not automatically remove wrong hungers acquired in the world, so each person must overcome them by yielding to His instructions. Jesus warns that gaining the whole world while losing one's soul profits nothing, as uncontrolled cravings for food, alcohol, power, position, or vengeance produce only destruction. Biblical examples include Amnon's lust that led to rape, murder, and family grief, and Adonijah's ambition for the throne that ended in his execution. Jesus counters these dangers by commanding His disciples to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Him, subjugating every thought and embracing the circumstances God provides. Those who lose their life for His sake find it eternally, while those who cling to wrong hungers lose it. By yielding under God's mighty hand and setting the mind to hunger and thirst for righteousness, one receives the fulfillment of legitimate desires and avoids the trap of Satan's enticements that lead to death.