The Hungry
Scripture Reading: Proverbs 27:7
One who is full loathes honey, but to one who is hungry, everything bitter is sweet.
Some proverbs seem to be written by Captain Obvious. They aren’t telling us anything we don’t know. These are truth bombs dropped into our hearts and radically changing our world. They are statements of truth that, if we gave it a minute of thought we would see that they are saying something true.
This proverb is an example of that. When you are full, the push back from the table, and I can’t eat one more bite kind of full, nothing sounds good. Not even honey can tempt you to take another bite. In contrast, to a person who is famished, almost anything will taste great.
So, there is nothing here that seems all that helpful, at least on the surface. But when you think about this in relation to spiritual things it takes on a whole other dimension. I don’t think it is off-base to do that either. Jesus, in the Beatitudes, said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
When we find ourselves loathing spiritual food and righteous living, it is a sign that we have stuffed ourselves with other things. We have feasted on spiritual junk food and lost our appetite for the honey of the word and worship. When we, like the Psalmist, thirst for the Lord like a deer seeking water, we find even the bitter things of God to be sweet.
May the Lord make us hunger and thirst for righteousness.
