Hunger
Hunger is the physical need and desire for food. In Scripture it can also picture deep spiritual longing, especially for God, righteousness, and His word.
At a Glance
Hunger is the physical need and desire for food. In Scripture it can also picture deep spiritual longing, especially for God, righteousness, and His word.
Description
Hunger in Scripture is first a literal human need for food and therefore a reminder of creaturely dependence, weakness, and the effects of life in a fallen world. The Bible speaks of hunger in ordinary experience, in famine, in poverty, and in fasting, and it presents the care of the hungry as part of righteous compassion. At the same time, hunger can be a spiritual image: people may hunger for righteousness, for God, or for the truth and sustaining power of His word. Jesus Himself experienced real human hunger, which testifies to His true humanity, and He also taught that human life depends ultimately on God rather than bread alone. The safest summary is that biblical hunger refers both to physical need and, by analogy, to a rightly ordered spiritual longing that God alone can finally satisfy.