Chapter 2: Suffered to Hunger.
Chapter 2: Suffered to Hunger.
DEUT. VIII: 1-10.
FROM THE FOOT of Pisgah Moses reviewed the wanderings of the forty years, and bade the people remember all the way by which they had been led. He recognized the leading of Jehovah in every step and every day of that terrible march, and with the clear-sightedness which comes at the end of an accomplished purpose, he saw something of God's meaning in it all. There were, apparently, three reasons why God chose the way of the wilderness as the route for Canaan, instead of the comparatively easy one .along the shores of the Mediterranean.
The first purpose was that God might humble His people. Theirs had been a wonderful history. For them the land of Egypt had been smitten with the ten plagues. For them the first-born of Pharaoh had been stricken on the steps of the throne. For them ten thousand lambs had shed their lifeblood on the eve of the Exodus. For them the Red Sea had cleft its waves, whilst Pharaoh and his host sank like a stone in its depths. For them angels had spread the daily breakfast on the desert sands. For them the rocks had flowed with water, and God Himself had descended in a chariot of cloud. There was every danger, therefore, lest the pride of their heart should rise, and lead them to think that there was something in themselves which had secured so great a succession of marvels. Therefore, God led them by the way of the wilderness, that, as they came face to face with its difficulties, they might be able to realize their impotence and dependence on Himself.
This is a clue to the mystery of your life. This is why God permits you to come up against blank walls to measure yourself in vain against immeasurable and infinite forces, to stand looking down into depths you cannot fathom, and up into heights you cannot reach-to peer in vain into the mists that roll around the edge of your little life. Thus you shall know yourself to be but finite, insignificant-a worm and no man-less than nothing, and vanity.
But there was a second reason why God led the people through the wilderness-that He might know what was in their heart. We none of us know how weak and sinful our heart is until we are brought face to face with temptation. We pride ourselves upon our purity, as white robes; but it may be we are pure only because we have never been subjected to the temptations which have blasted the lives and characters of others. We seem gentle and forgiving; but it may be that we have been sheltered from the vehemence of jealousy, envy, and hatred; have lived amongst those who have loved and honored us; and have been undisputed monarchs in the little world of our life. We boast our honesty; but we have never known what it was to leave behind us in our homes a number of little children crying for bread, whilst all around plenty seemed strewn within our easy reach. It is not in Goshen with its flesh-pots and unstinted abundance, but in the wilderness where the supply of water fails, and the last crumb of bread is devoured, and the pressure of want crushes the soul-it is there that God knows what is in our heart, and our pretensions to nobility are tested to the uttermost.
But the third and main reason why God led the people through the wilderness was to suffer them to hunger. It may be that hunger had been comparatively unknown by them before they found themselves in the wilderness; and is it not a remarkable expression that God suffered them to hunger? Of course He could have so contrived that they had not hungered. The manna might have fallen before ever they came to Moses to murmur against him. The vast flocks of birds might have been carried on the wings of the wind within easy reach of their tents before the supplies which they brought with them from Egypt had been exhausted. But no, God suffered them to hunger. He had implanted the appetite for food; He knew how keen the pangs of hunger were, and yet he permitted them to suffer. How wonderful that God should let people suffer, and should put them into circumstances in which suffering is inevitable!
There is other and worse hunger than that for food. The hunger for love and sympathy! The hunger for a tone in a voice that is never heard! The hunger for the touch of a hand that is never felt! The hunger for opportunities of ministry that always elude the grasp! The hunger for congenial occupation, for knowledge, for travel, for refinement, art, beauty! God has implanted a strong desire for these things in our hearts, and yet He puts us into positions where there is no food, no answer, no satisfaction-nothing but the sense of a gnawing, aching desire.
Why is this? Partly, that we should learn that the true life after all does not depend upon the full supply of those food-stuffs which men deem so necessary, but upon something deeper, purer, diviner-God Himself. He suffered them to hunger that He might make them know. In other words, had it not been for the hunger, Israel would not have known, and we should not know, what is revealed in the lack of all else. Life, which is life indeed, consists not in the abundance of things that we possess, but in knowing God, in having God, in being known and possessed by God, in receiving and feeding upon the words of God. Oh, blessed Hunger, that drives the soul to God, and suddenly finds in God more than all. "Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God."
We would not say one single word against accepting all innocent and right things that God puts into our life to meet the hunger implanted in our souls, but we affirm that, as it was with Jesus in the wilderness, so it is with many of His saints, who are chosen to close fellowship in His redemptive purpose, that ordinary supplies are cut off, in order that they may be driven to find the springs of life in God.
And what is it which really feeds man's soul in the things that he so eagerly seeks? Is it not a Divine quality which is in them, because they have come from God, as His gift, and as containing His thought? It must be possible, therefore, to derive from God Himself at first hand and without intervention of any of these things, those qualities that are necessary to sustain and satisfy the soul. 0 hungry one, take thy hunger, of whatsoever kind it be, to God Himself, and learn to find in Him thy bread.
Then the manna came. All around the desert-camp there lay the small, round thing, freshly steeped in dew, and waiting to be gathered by the host. Beautiful in appearance; sweet to taste; prepared and ministered by angels. It was a rare gift, but Israel would never have known it, had they not first known hunger. God has something better for us than we fear. Not the leek or the onion, the garlic or the swine's flesh, but angels' food. Something so refined, so exquisite in its texture, so superabundant in its gladness, so divine in its quality, that it were better for us to have one meal of it a day in the desert than be in Paradise itself without it. Arise then, hungry pilgrim of the wilderness march, do not sit brooding in thy tent, eating out thy soul in thy despair, go forth unto God, unto God, thy exceeding joy. Take thy vessel with thee, and gather for thy need.
If thou gather much thou shalt have none to spare, and if little, thou shalt have enough. "Thou shalt eat and be satisfied, and bless the name of the Lord, who has dealt bountifully with thee," and God alone is enough.