#word study

What does it mean to hunger and thirst for righteousness?

To get a better understanding of what this means we will look at the original Greek words used in Matthew 5:6

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Hunger

Original Word: πεινάω

Part of Speech: Verb

Transliteration: peinaó

Phonetic Spelling: (pi-nah'-o)

Short Definition: I am hungry, needy

Definition: I am hungry, needy, desire earnestly.

It means we ought to be starving for God in our souls, Continual hunger day by day. This brings us close to God and leads us into eventual spiritual victory. The earnest desire for God should be at the very heart of our being.

Only the bread of life which came down from heaven can satisfy our souls.

Thirst

Original Word: διψάω

Part of Speech: Verb

Transliteration: dipsaó

Phonetic Spelling: (dip-sah'-o)

Short Definition: I thirst for, desire earnestly

Definition: I thirst for, desire earnestly.

Psalm 42:1 as the deer pants for streams of water,

so my soul pants for you, my God.

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When can I go and meet with God?

Like a plant in the desert craves water. It cannot continue to live without some water. Only the water can sustain life. Only the water of the Holy Spirit can slake your spiritual thirst.

Take a deep drink now from the wells of living water. Amen

Righteousness

Original Word: δικαιοσύνη, ης, ἡ

Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine

Transliteration: dikaiosuné

Phonetic Spelling: (dik-ah-yos-oo'-nay)

Short Definition: justice, justness, righteousness

Definition: (usually if not always in a Jewish atmosphere), justice, justness, righteousness, righteousness of which God is the source or author, but practically: a divine righteousness.

There are at least two types of righteousness found in the New Testament. 1. Legal righteousness such as we obtain from Jesus when we are born again, we receive the righteousness of Christ, and this is in a sense a one off situation. This passage however seems to be talking about moral righteousness which is something we achieve on an ongoing basis. It is from our sense of the divine justice that our good deeds flow to the poor and the hurting.

Filled

Original Word: χορτάζω

Part of Speech: Verb

Transliteration: chortazó

Phonetic Spelling: (khor-tad'-zo)

Short Definition: I feed, satisfy

Definition: I feed, satisfy, fatten.

If we hunger and thirst for God, He will fill us like we have just had a sumptuous meal. When we hunger, we will be fed, we will be satisfied and our souls will be fattened.

God is in the filling business;

He will fill us with;

1. The Holy Spirit

2. His love

3. His moral righteousness

4. A satisfaction that can continue to grow

One bible scholar put it like this, the more of God you want the more get and again the more you want.

How can we become hungry and thirsty for God?

Jesus awakens the desires of his believers hearts. Consider these words of Jesus: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you" Luke 11:9. Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking, it is an open secret. You need to want it and it is appropriate for us to ask for it! Amen

It's whom you ask, where you seek and what door you knock on that makes all the difference. What could be more exciting than a journey into God himself for that is what he desires for you and me?

Conclusion

God does not ask us to deny our burning desire for intimacy, beauty and adventure. Religion does that. Jesus invites us to intimate communion with himself and his Father that will truly satisfy the deepest longings of our souls. Where are you looking to satisfy your deepest desires and longings? Only God will satisfy your deepest desires if you look to him for fulfilment. God is calling his mature ones here today to hunger and thirst for him and to begin seek his face.

Amen

Personal Prayer

Then someone [heis] came to him and said, ‘Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal [aionion] life [zoen]?’ And he said to him, ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one [heis] who is good. If you wish [theleis] to enter into life [zoen], keep [tereson] the commandments.’ . . . 

Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish [theleis] to be perfect [teleios], go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure [thesauron] in heaven [en ouranois]; then come, follow [akolouthei] me.’ When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many [polla] possessions.

- Matthew 19:16-17, 21-22 NRSVA (1995)

Then Jesus told his disciples [mathetais], ‘If any [tis] want [thelei] to become my followers [opiso mou elthein], let them deny themselves and take up their cross [stauron] and follow [akoloutheito] me. For those who want [thele] to save their life [psychen] will lose it, and those who lose their life [psychen] for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole [holon] world but forfeit their life [psychen]? Or what will they give in return for their life [psyches]?’ 

“There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality” Romans 2:9-10

So one version says “upon every soul of man that doeth evil” and I thought the soul part was interesting so I went to the handy dandy Bible Hub to check out the Greek. 

(So psychēn is used 41 other times in the bible but other variations are used as well.)

So I followed the rabbit trail to the Strong’s Concordance and got this. 

And isn’t that just so beautiful!  

Free will and individuality and singular importance to God is right there, with every breath we breath and with every thought we have. 

Praise God for everything He does for us, and His never ending Grace! 

Hebrew Word Study: Does Exodus 4:10 Confirm Moses was disabled?

In this stop on my Bible Tools Tour, I take you through the Hebrew of Exodus 4:10 and then through scholarly articles to show that Moses' claim to be "heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue" is about having a speech impairment. You don't need to know Hebrew to learn from the Hebrew of a Bible passage! 

The powerful leader Moses has a disability — what does this mean for our theology around disabled persons in our own time, in our own faith communities? 

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