My dear readers,

Are you hungry or full?

Proverbs 13:25: “The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul: but the belly of the wicked shall want.”

God designed the body of man, i.e. his earthen vessel, to eat every day. In this way, man is constantly a dependent creature of God. He depends on what this world produces, for everything on earth has an expiration date, except the soul of man which cannot die from the moment it exists. When Adam disobeyed God’s Word and sinned against God, God punished man with a curse on the earth that man depends on for his survival. God said in Genesis 3:17-19, “¹⁷And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; ¹⁸Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; ¹⁹In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

No longer was looking after the earth a joy and a pleasure. He must work hard till the day he dies; even when he is old and without strength, he must still eat. How will he eat without the strength to work? He must save for his future and depend on others to feed him. Such a destitute future worries a sinful man. He works hard for the rest of his life with this devastating dark cloud hanging over his head until he dies.

Man lost the satisfaction and enjoyment in his work after he sinned against God. But this manner of life is good for man because man is now a sinner. He has less time to sin and hurt others when he is working hard to eat and survive. He is also exhausted at the end of the work day, with less energy to commit transgressions. By slowing down sinful behaviour, God slows down the moral decay of humanity. However, sinful man continues to resist the efforts of the Almighty by working fewer hours and spending more time in satisfying the lusts of the flesh and the eyes and the pride of life, which they euphemistically call “work-life balance.”

The ignorant world has little to no choice in corrupting itself as it is ruled by sinful men and women, controlled by the god of this world.

Israel was supposed to be different and behave better. God had given her His holy Word to be the lamp unto her feet and light unto her path and, therefore, Israel could experience an inward contentment that allowed any Israelite to live a life that is pleasing to the LORD.

Proverbs 13:25 provides us with a contrast that helps us evaluate whether we are living that life that is pleasing to the LORD.

• Eat to satisfy the soul – Jesus rebuked the devil, who tempted Him after He had spent forty days and forty nights in the wilderness, by turning the stone into bread. The retort of Christ was, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (cf. Matt 4:4b). The basis for Christ’s assertion is that physical bread cannot fully satisfy, as God had designed the human body to survive by continual eating daily. The fact that man does not stop eating with just one singular meal in his life is evidence that physical bread cannot be man’s primary goal in life. Furthermore, no matter how much food a man eats, he will still die. The nature of food is to keep man alive. But physical food cannot keep death at bay. It delays the visitation of death but is powerless against its inevitability.

However, God's Word has the power to satisfy the soul fully. When deliciously baked, physical bread may satisfy the soul for a moment, even as it satisfies the body, but soon the satisfaction will wane. The person may even find that “delicious” bread revolting if he eats it day and night for a month. But God’s Word in Christ satisfies the soul fully. The child of God who has experienced God's salvation grace has had all his sins cleansed from his mind, soul, heart and being, and he will never be tired of eating God’s spiritual food, i.e. God’s holy word. He may study God’s Word day and night for a thousand years and still desire more.

The reason is that the soul of the born again was once as dry as dust, filled with sins and evil. The moment the blood of Christ washed away all his sins, his soul begins to taste the cool, refreshing living water of Christ in his entire being. The power of Christ’s death on the cross has impacted his life, and God has transformed him from a sinner in bondage to sin to a saint eternally liberated from that sinful bondage. His soul is spiritually alive and blessed with the mind of Christ, enabling him to feed himself with God’s Word. God’s holy Word is his daily spiritual food. The Holy Spirit who dwells in him now will help him understand and apply God's Word in all aspects of his life and relationships. He is holy and righteous in motive, thought, word and deed.

He experiences a newness of life, as if he is living in a new world and in new relationships that he has never tasted before. The taste is sweeter than honey, and it gets sweeter with every passing day as he draws closer to his God, whom he now calls “Abba”, which means “Father”. He delights in new spiritual experiences, such as attending worship service every Lord’s Day and keeping the Lord’s Day as holy unto God. He loves to study the Bible and attend all the ministries where the Bible is preached or taught. He does not have enough of hearing of God's Word. He begins to distance himself from worldly activities and gravitates naturally toward Christian fellowship and activities. He loves his new life in Christ beyond measure. He feels like a man who has found the purpose for his life and existence. He is fully satisfied in his whole being by the grace and mercy of God.

• Is the belly always hungry? – However, the belly of the wicked is never satisfied. The wicked is an unbeliever or a professing believer. He does not have the Holy Spirit dwelling within. He continues to possess only the carnal spirit. He may live in Israel and do all the things other believing Israelites do, but his heart and mind are still controlled by sin. Sin’s bondage continues to plague him. He is tired of his hypocrisy, pretending to be a godly Israelite, but cannot find the strength from within to reveal his true sinful self because he cannot afford to lose face and all the man-made accolades he had gained by his hypocrisy.

If he is a leader, he would rather miserably live on in his hypocrisy until he dies and be cast into hell than show his true sinful self to his followers who have been idolising and following him blindly, like in a cult. He had spent many years of his life cultivating his cultic image, and the cost is too high for his foolish pride to pay if he wants to be truly saved from his sin by Christ. Living in Israel, he is surrounded by everything scriptural, like an ordained minister today living in a church. Yet he finds it nearly impossible to know God in Christ personally because of his stubborn pride that stands in his way like a ten-foot wall blocking him from stepping into the kingdom of heaven, when all he needs to do is to humble himself and repent of his sins.

He feeds on carnality like an unbeliever stuffing himself with physical food daily till he dies. The more he hears God’s Word, the worse he becomes. He knows the truth of God’s Word in his heart, but he continues to obey the carnality of his sinful heart. What makes an unbelieving Israelite more miserable than a Gentile unbeliever is the hypocritical life he persistently lives; he knows that it is wrong in the sight of God, but finds no strength from within to repent and crawl out of his offensive skin of carnality!

Today’s version of the unbelieving Israelites is faithful church-going unbelievers living in carnality from Monday to Saturday. They behave like every child of God in almost every conduct except for their sinful hearts that are still unregenerate. They surround themselves with earthly possessions, but they remain empty within. Their souls can never be satisfied with the satisfying of their outward, carnal flesh. Sadly, they remain hungry.

The worst are the ordained ministers and pastors, much like the scribes and Pharisees of Christ’s time, who are dressed in their pastoral garbs and walk with their noses in the air because of their theological degrees, demanding that they be coddled and obeyed by slaves to their masters. They are never satisfied with all the external trappings of the Christian church. They cannot take any form of feedback from anyone, whom they would immediately regard as their enemies, especially when it hits home. They fear being exposed. These modern-day doctors of law see themselves as leaders who must be obeyed blindly. All perceived oppositions are castigated from the pulpit that has become a guillotine to instil fear and silence them. These leaders’ followers are like the blind leading the blind. Such behaviour reveals an attitude of fearful carnality that no man-made accolades can ever satisfy. Jesus warned His disciples to never behave in this sinful way, as they are supposed to care for God’s children. They must learn to wash the feet of God's children and not lord over them.

Are you hungry or fully satisfied in your soul and faith?