The atmosphere of the Old Testament, is one filled with relentless hunger. This definition of hunger differs from the common conception of the word. Hunger is: “A craving or urgent need for a specific nutrient .” This hunger does not concern the desire for food but the desire for a relationship with the Christ. Jacob’s continuous plight for God’s blessing, or David’s uncontrollable passion for the Lord, are living testimonies of humanity’s hunger for something more than themselves. According to Hebrews, this hunger originates from deep within the human physic, due to the measure of faith that God has given to each person.
Observing common worldly functions gives great insight into this lost, and felt emptiness, that is occurs on a daily bases among unbelievers. These sad attempts to satisfy and fill, whether it be a push toward wealth, sexual fulfillment or popularity, end up amounting to nothing and leave broken, contrite spirits. King Solomon continually emphasizes, in the book of Ecclesiastes, the meaningless nature of earthly living. Solomon was one of the wealthiest men in all of history and was described in the book of 1st Kings as having 12,000 horses, horsemen, 1,400 chariots and a yearly income of 666 talents of gold. Despite his vast material wealth he knew that it was only spiritual wealth that would satisfy. Solomon understood that a life that was not tangential with its divine purpose was not worth living.
• Why should we pursue God?
Since the beginning of time, God has let us choose whether or not we wanted to pursue Him. Adam and Eve were the first humans to be given such a responsibility and they unfortunately chose the latter. This defining moment in human history is an excellent illustration of a situation where humanity is deceived into refusing God. It is moments like these that beg the question, all over the world, during both the old and the new covenantal periods: Why should the Lord be pursued and sought after by man?
The answer to the question lies in three distinct facts about God:
God is all-powerful.
God holds a great unsurpassing love for His people.
God is all-knowing.
The delivering of Israel from Egyptian rule was amazing feat which included the creation of plagues of mind boggling proportions, the death of every Egyptian first born and the dividing of an entire ocean. Moses, for the most of his life, was smart man who understood the might of God and revered it. A review of the book of Exodus would show how much his life depended on God’s absoluteness. In Exodus 2, Moses was divinely saved from the wrath of the Egyptian pharaoh and finally, in Exodus 12, releases Israel from bondage through God power. Moses was a man who realized early on in his life that he could do absolutely nothing on his own. Without God’s unlimited power, and His love-based willingness to weald that power, he was a meaningless, lifeless fleck of dust.
The post-Exodus God had an exuberant amount of compassion for His people, the Isrealites, during their time of wandering. Constantly, the people kept falling away from God’s plan and kept pushing the lordship of God from their priority. Moses and later Joshua, however, continued to seek after God on behalf of Israel. Not only was Israel forgiven by God, but many were spared their very lives, and continued to thrive in blessing. Exodus 34:5-7 states:
Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.
Being a passage written directly after Israel’s blatant refusal of God authority, in the land of Baal, God openly reveals his persistent love and patience. Despite the short-comings of the Israelites, the Lord still gave to them the promised land of Canaan. God later sent the Babylonians, in the book of Jeremiah, to conquer and to punish Israel; however, He still imparts mercy, and promises that Israeli freedom would eventually return. The Old Testament clarifies the fact that humanity is inherently sinful, and would perish, without the loving kindness of God, and the constant pursuing of His leadership by intercessors. Jeremiah 29:11 is a declaration from God telling His children that He has plans to prosper them, give them hope and to give them a future. It states immediately in the next verse that God hopes that they will then seek Him, so that he can find them and impart to them even more of a blessing.
Falling backward a few centuries brings us to the story of Joseph. Genesis 37 describes the turbulent life of Joseph. He was singled out by His parents which created jealousy among his brothers. His brothers decided to sell him to Egyptian-bound slave traders, so that they would not have to see him ever again. At this point to Joseph’s life, it would seem as if there was no hope for his future. The temptation would have been there to give up on God and to mope about his suffering. Joseph however did not do this. The scriptures never refer to a time when he uttered a word of self-pity. Joseph trusted that His God was the all-knowing God of 1st John 3:20 and lived out his life in peace. It didn’t take to long until God made Joseph the second in command for all of Egypt. Joseph was a radical and persistence pursuer of God. His life was completely bent on trust in an all-knowing higher power.
• How should we pursue God ?
A man who is convinced that he should begin to pursue God’s plan and purpose for his life, may not know how. God wrote the Bible just for humanity for the very purpose of teaching man how to seek after him. The Bible gives us three main suggestions as to how to be an active pursuer of God:
Setting God as your priority
Becoming a person who becomes sensitive to Godly calling.
Being a living sacrifice.
Setting someone who can not be seen as a top priority can be difficult, however, the more it done the more real God will seem. God will begin to open your eyes and let you experience His absoluteness, just as he did to the widow in 1 Kings 17:7. This widow lived during a time of great famine. She had one child and had only one more jar of oil and a handful of flour. She told her son that they were going to prepare their last meal and then die. The prophet Elijah then came to their house and asked the widow to prepare for him this last meal. The widow, who sensed that it was God talking through Elijah, obeyed him and to her surprise her oil and her flour never ran out until the end of the famine. This woman had the Lord set up on a pedestal in her heart, and was ready to be tested in a time of trial.
It is important for a person not only to set God as a priority but for him to be able to sense his life’s divine calling. This involves living a life that is tangential with God’s will. Reading God’s Word is a great way to stay in tuned with the Lord. Becoming a servant by taking spiritual ownership is another. The great leaders of the Old Testament got into there great position of influence because they knew the will of the Lord. Because they knew the Lord’s will they understood the ways as to follow Him.
The term “living sacrifice” is not readily used in the Bible until the New Testament. There are, however, many cases in the Old Testament where this future concept is divinely commanded. All of the Old Testament leaders and prophets went through times in their life when they needed to put the familiar and comfort aside and simply obey the Word of the Lord. Moses was living a good life in a place that had become familiar before God told him to return to Egypt and to lead his people to the Promised Land. Abraham was living a comfortable life until God tested him, by commanding the sacrifice of his son.
Our role as pursuers of God is to give things up for the One we wish to follow. This may not be initially pleasuring but with time Gods plan is eventually carried out and the big picture is revealed.
The active pursuing of the Most High God is one of the sole purposes of the Old Testament. This section of the Bible is filled with detailed historical accounts of men and women experiencing God. This supernatural view of entire lives wrapped up in these few pages gives an amazing oversight of God’s overall plan in all of our lives. Pain and struggle that a person is dealing with in one season may be for the sole purpose of giving happiness and joy to that same person in another season. This all-powerful, all-loving, and all-knowing God that we serve has so much in store for every single life that he has created. It is partly our job, however, to make a choice that will bring us to our highest potential in Him.
