September 9 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Matthew 5:1–10

Devotional

There is so much hunger and thirst in this world. It is not a hunger and thirst after physical nourishment, but a hunger and thirst in a spiritual sense. People under severe tension crave relief. A sick person thirsts for health, a lonely one for love. A proud person hungers after honor; one who lives for pleasure desires to have more pleasure, and a covetous one longs for wealth and possessions. Even if they receive their desires, it is still questionable whether their hunger and thirst are really satisfied. It is to be expected that their hunger will continue to gnaw in them and that their thirst will continue to burn. That is because in the matters of this world one will never find full satisfaction.

But there is also a hunger and thirst that will lead to everlasting satisfaction. That is the hunger and thirst for righteousness. What is righteousness? It is what man needs to be able to stand before God. Hungering and thirsting ones lack the ability to stand before God. Just as someone without food and drink must die, so a person will perish without righteousness. He will perish forever if he is not filled with righteousness. In himself he can only find the opposite of righteousness— unrighteousness—and this leads his guilty soul to death. In himself he cannot do anything else but increase his debt. He can only aggravate his sin and multiply his unrighteousness.

His garments are daily becoming dirtier, and he is aware that God is too holy to have communion with the unclean. But where can he find a garment in which he can stand before God? Maybe he has often tried to wash his own garments, but as he was trying to wash out one sin, another sin arose instead. Maybe he also tried to cover sins with his self-righteousness, but that garment of self-righteousness ripped in pieces when he tried to stand before God. All these frantic attempts of self-cleansing or of self-improvement only cause his hunger and thirst to become worse.

Yet these ones who hunger and thirst after righteousness are said to be blessed. They call themselves miserable, but Christ calls them blessed. It is not that their blessedness lies in their hunger or thirst. They certainly would not want to exchange their need for all the possessions of the world. They would still rather choose their own misery. But they cannot live off their hunger and they cannot be quenched by their thirst. Their hunger and thirst do not make them blessed. They are declared blessed because they will be satisfied. They call themselves miserable because they cannot see anything else than their need. Christ calls them blessed because in such people He is able to work out His salvation. He is waiting precisely for such people who lack everything; they cannot give it to themselves. He satisfies them with His righteousness.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.