Psalm 50:12-13

Psalm 50:12-13

If I were hungry!

It’s not often that Almighty God shares with us the finer points of His diet – only He doesn’t! These are things we do not need to know, anyway, God is Spirit, and I suspect that His appetites are very different to ours. So, I wonder if these words are almost said in jest? Can you imagine our Creator suddenly appearing and announcing that He is hungry? Jesus got hungry – in the wilderness, when tempted by the devil. He also got thirsty, when hanging on the cross. Only He wasn’t. I mean, He was thirsty but that’s not what He meant. A sponge full of wine and vinegar was never going to satisfy the craving of a dying man who had endured hours of brutal suffering. Jesus thirsted, but He also desired to fulfil all Scripture and the bitter water that was a curse to Him. Psalm 6:21 says, “They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.” 

Our God could take anything He needed from this world and He has the power to recreate too. So, why would He need to be constantly offered the flesh of bulls or the blood of goats? He must have been so exasperated that the Israelites assumed these were offerings to appease Him when, in fact they were offerings to atone for them. As we have commented before, these things are a means to an end, and it is typically human to make the means the end in itself. Please, use the paraphernalia of religion if you must but only as a way to seek Him. Look beyond the symbols and find the reality in relationship with Him through His Son. All the rest is meaningless. 

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