Way of The Warrior- A Daily Devotional

The leech has two suckers that cry out, “More, more!” There are three things that are never satisfied—no, four that never say, “Enough!”: the grave, the barren womb, the thirsty desert, the blazing fire. – Proverbs 30:15-16 NLT

Warrior;
This is a great metaphor. God is SEMPITERNAL: eternal, unchanging, everlasting. GOD’S LOVE FOR US IS also SEMPITERNAL! However, God wants our LOVE FOR HIM, our DESIRE for HIM to be EVER-GROWING. God desires us, to desire HIM! God is a jealous God! God opens His list of 10 commandments with the most important: You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God. (Exodus 20:3-5a) In Revelation 2, where Jesus is addressing the church at Ephesus in His letter to the churches, He says: But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. (Revelation 2:4) God DESIRES our love for HIM to be insatiable, always growing, never subjugated to anything or anyone else. His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me”. (John 2:17) In the book of Deuteronomy this is what God meant when He said, “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. (Deuteronomy 8:3) How could they be fed MANNA, yet hunger? Because God met their physical need for food. He gave them what they needed, but they had cravings of the heart. They had sustenance, but they wanted the comfort of bondage, where not just their needs were met, but their wants as well. God wanted them to HUNGER and THIRST for more of Him. Instead they ‘hunger and thirst’ for their wants that were met in captivity. “Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed. “We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted. But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is this manna!” (Numbers 11:4-6)

Leader, the horseleech is an insatiable creature, sucking blood till it is ready to burst. It is never filled, but always craving, and ready to receive more and more. Many people have this feeling, this LUST for a mate, for their fame, for their personal kingdom, for MONEY: For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. (1 Timothy 6:10) Cupidity; greed for money or possessions, and avarice; Excessive or inordinate desire of gain; greediness after wealth; covetousness- are things we hunger and thirst for and that makes GOD JEALOUS. God tells us to only LUST after Him, HIS righteousness, HIS PRESENCE. He mentions this in the SERMON ON THE MOUNT, as one of the great BEATITUDES: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6) To hunger and to thirst for RIGHT STANDING before GOD- blessed are they! The sad reality is that most people never get to that place of hunger and thirst when their lives are going well! It is when my life is struggling that I seem to be the closest to God- it is at those times that I HUNGER and THIRST the most. Because of that our GOD will use those down times, those struggles to get us to DESIRE HIM at the level He wants us to DESIRE HIM!

Conduit, Proverbs 27:20 tells us Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied. The prophet Habakkuk said, “Wealth is treacherous, and the arrogant are never at rest. They open their mouths as wide as the grave, and like death, they are never satisfied. In their greed they have gathered up many nations and swallowed many peoples”. (2:5) “The closing of the womb,” as Genesis 20:18 and Isaiah 66:9 notes. The burning desire for children, characteristic of a Jewish wife, is here denoted, like the passionate cry of Rachel to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die”. The third insatiable thing is the earth that is not filled, not satisfied with water; the parched and thirsty soil which no amount of water can satisfy, which drinks in all that is poured upon it and is not benefited! The fourth is the fire that never says, ‘It is enough’! We see this in the massive forest fires in many states- they keep burning. The more you heap on fire, the more material you supply, the fiercer it rages. Septuagint, “Hades, and the love of woman, and earth not satisfied with water, and water, and fire, will not say, It sufficed.” “Fire is never satisfied with fuel; nor the ocean with rivers; nor death with all creatures; nor bright-eyed women with men.” These are METAPHORS, ways for God to let us know that HE wants us to have a NEVER QUENCHED desire for HIM. To know HIM, to DESIRE HIM, to put HIM ON OUR THRONE! Ask yourself these 3 questions today. 1- Do I DESIRE to have this DESIRE for HIM? 2- In MY past, when have I been the closest to this CRAVING? 3- Am I willing to PRAY to God for this DESIRE FOR HIM? The Lord is saying to us today, “I WANT YOU TO WANT ME!”