Lamentations 4:9 "They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger; for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits for the field". I get hungry sometimes and think that I just can’t make it. At a time like that I will eat real fast and take big bites. By looking at me you know I haven’t missed any meals. In fact, you know I have eaten some extra meals. May be a lot of extra meals. Oh well I digress, back to the subject. It says it is better to be slain with a sword than to be slain with hunger. Starving to death is a slow death and the people look a little ghostly. They don’t have the strength to do anything. I think some Primitive Baptist are like that. People that are starving do strange things. Verse 10 says "the hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children; they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people". You see on TV the street people going through the garbage to find things to eat or they are begging for food. Some people will do anything for food. I believe some of the stories I have heard. I think when the children of God are not feed spiritual food that they are starving and they do not always follow the way of God. They do strange things that make no sense at all.

Exodus 16:2,3 "and the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness; and the children of Israel said unto them would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger". Here we see the children of Israel not knowing where their next meal is coming from, complained against their leaders. When people can not see where they are going they get worried. It didn’t say they complained because they were hungry. I think they were worried about where they would get food in the wilderness. The children of God get worried when they are to walk by faith so they return back to their old ways. They kept looking back at where they came from [traditions and we have never done it that way]. It is easier to live like they use to than to live like a child of God. So we don’t grow and we won’t try anything new. We are like children that are afraid to try foods that are good for them just because they have never had it before. So what we do is just chew on old bones. In other words things that do not feed us.

In Psalms 34:9,10 it says "O fear the Lord, ye his saints; for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing". Have you ever been in a haunted house? You feel your way through it so you can find your way out of it. To a place that is better. We, the children of God, are on a similar journey, either we stay where we are, in the dark, till somebody finds us or we keep walking by faith to find the better place. There is a better place here on earth where we will never hunger. Psalm 107:9 "For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness".

Can we just eat cake? Deuteronomy 8:2 "and thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live". We see that the Lord feed the children of Israel with manna till they cried out for meat. It didn’t say manna wasn’t good it is just saying that they needed more than bread to grow. They and we need more than bread to get us through the wilderness.

What about feeding our enemies? Proverb 25:21,22 "If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: for thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee". It says here to feed my enemy yuk. I don’t like doing nice things to people I don’t like, but God said he would reward us for being nice to them. We do not want to lower our standard to theirs. So we should feed our enemies.

How about feeding others? Isaiah 58:6,7 "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?". We are not only to feed him but to help him in every way. It is not good enough to say the Lord will provide, you are to provide also! Verse 10 says " and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shalt thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy the soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not". If we feed others, if we help others there is a reward that we won’t be hungry. We will be satisfied in even the difficult times.

Proverbs 27:7 "The full soul loath an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet". Sometimes I have eaten so much that I just can’t eat anymore. I think I should not have to eat for another week, but when mealtime comes around there I am. When I have eaten that much I don’t even want desert. They say you should go grocery shopping just after you eat because you won’t be tempted to get more than you need and you won’t be tempted to buy just because you think you want it. But if you are hungry everything sounds good. You buy it just because you are tempted. When the children of God do not get anything but bread to eat for a long time every little thing is good to them even if it is not good for them. I have seen children of God eating lies. That should never happen.

But what happens if we do not help others, if we turn our backs to them? Isaiah 65:13_15 "Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed: behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit. And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for the Lord God shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name:". God is not going to turn his back on us because there is a reward [punishment] for doing evil. That reward is what will happen to us. We worry about what others are doing but we should be worrying about what we are doing and have done. Has all of our life been just talking or has it been doing? Ezekiel 18:8,9 "He that hath not given his hand from iniquity, hath executed true judgment between man and man, hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord God". So for feeding others, for helping others we will be able to live. I think that is a good thing. I think he is talking more about our spiritual life.

So feed the hungry soul, feed your enemies, feed others and you will be fed. Eating is a good thing and necessary for growth.