Matthew 5:6

‘Blessed ones, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled.'

We must here first consider what hunger and thirst in these terms signify. It must be remembered that these words were spoken to people, many of whom could only afford at the most one good meal containing meat a week, if that. And what they had then had to be shared with the whole family, while during the remainder of the week they subsisted on what they could afford, which was often very little. Hunger was what happened when even that failed. So they regularly knew what real hunger meant. For some it was a constant experience.

Furthermore many of them constantly knew what it was to be out working in the hot sun and be some distance away from water, meanwhile having to carry on until the opportunity came to struggle through the heat of the sun to find a well, which might well contain little water, which they would share between them. Thus for them being what we would call really thirsty and panting for water was a regular experience. And even in the good times they knew what it meant to have to depend on water from a distant spring and having to share any available water collected with their families and friends. But that was everyday experience. They would not think of it as thirst. Thirst came when they were caught in a sandstorm in the wilderness, having to wait, kneeling down with their faces covered and their backs to the wind, until the storm died down, sipping any water that they carried and then having to survive until they could find more, with their lips cracked and dried, their throats parched, and their thirst constantly growing worse and worse.

So they regularly knew what real hunger and thirst meant. To them it was not just a matter of feeling a little peckish and a bit parched, but of real hunger and thirst. And this was what they would think of here, a craving and desire which had to be satisfied.

‘After righteousness.' Verbs of hungering and thirsting are usually followed by the Genitive indicating the desire for a part. The use of the accusative here signifies the whole rather than a part. Thus the idea here is of seeking total righteousness.

In its central place in the chiasmus, this beatitude sums up all the others. And it is the speaking of the ones who are genuinely ‘hungry and thirsty for full righteousness'. They long for it and they crave it. And because of this, and because it is what God has worked within them, they will all be filled. For they had been made aware of their lack of righteousness, and they have repented, and they are aware that Jesus has brought them forgiveness, and so now they are hungry and thirsty have more of it and to be more like Him (Psalms 42:2; Psalms 63:1; Isaiah 41:17; Isaiah 55:1), and the promise is made that they will finally be ‘satisfied', their hunger and thirst will be satiated, and they will have all that they need.

Basically they had been made aware of their sin and spiritual need, and in their hunger and thirst they had turned to look to the source of their salvation, to Jesus Christ (compare Matthew 1:21; John 4:10), Who had saved them from their sins. They had been made righteous in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). And this had now given them an even greater hunger for righteousness. They ‘seek first the Kingly Rule of God and His righteousness' (Matthew 6:33). That is their great desire. And so they now look for that work which God has begun in them to continue until they are themselves fully righteous in practise in the sight of God, until God wholly approves of them, until they are unblameable before Him. They want His Kingly Rule to be made real in their lives. So nothing is more important to them than to seek His righteousness, and to be like Him (1 John 3:2). And they do this because God has blessed them, and given them this hunger and thirst, and because they are confident that He will continue to bless them. How different these people are from modern man's picture of the ideal man, confident, overbearing, selfish, and spiritually bankrupt, or even the self-righteous. But these latter are hardly likely to be blessed.

We should note here that in Isaiah, ‘righteousness' regularly equates with vindication and deliverance. It is active righteousness, God's righteousness in action. Through the work of the Anointed Prophet His new people are to be given a garland of rejoicing,the oil of joy and the garment of praise and this in order that they might be called ‘trees of righteousness', (as a result of) the planting of the Lord, so that He might be glorified (Isaiah 61:3). Thus they will be able to say, ‘He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness' (Isaiah 61:10), indicating by this that He has not only accepted them as righteous, but has been acting on them to make them righteous. The idea in both cases is that God has acted in righteous deliverance, so that, by His action, His righteousness, will not only revealed but will also surround them and be imparted to them, with the result that their own resultant righteousness, will be revealed. For when the skies open He will pour down righteousness as the rain (compare the drenching in the Holy Spirit - Matthew 3:11) and the earth will produce deliverance (Isaiah 45:8). And Isaiah 44:1 demonstrates that this very much has in mind spiritual blessing.

And again He says, ‘I bring near My righteousness --- and My salvation will not delay, and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel My glory' (Isaiah 46:13; see also Isaiah 51:5; Isaiah 51:8; Isaiah 56:1). Here again God's work within them is in mind. So when God brings near His righteousness to those who are hungry and thirsty after righteousness, they will enjoy His deliverance and salvation, while the Mighty Warrior, ‘the Redeemer Who will come to Zion and to those who turn from transgression (repent) in Jacob', will also be upheld by salvation and righteousness, and He will wear righteousness as a breastplate and the helmet of salvation on His head (Isaiah 59:16; Isaiah 59:20). The idea in all this is that the Righteous One, through His Redeemer, will act in righteous power producing righteousness and salvation in His people. This is the righteousness for which those blessed by God will be hungering and thirsting.

And along with a personal desire for righteousness we may see here the thought of their longing for the deliverance and vindication of all God's true people, something which is to be revealed as a result of His powerful activity. They long for God's salvation to come about in themselves and in all His people, as they long for the Messianic deliverance. They look for the establishment of righteousness under God's King (Isaiah 11:1) and Servant (Isaiah 42:1). This combination of personal aspiration and corporate hope is a full part of the Gospel. The individual is important, but the individual is also part of a larger body of which he or she is a member. Each is the Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), and yet so are the whole body (2 Corinthians 6:16). And it is the presence of the Holy Spirit that will produce righteousness.

‘They will be filled.' The word indicates that their hunger and thirst will be fully satisfied. They will enjoy something of His righteousness even now in all its aspects as He moves in saving power among them, but in the end they will be even more fully vindicated, being made fully righteous, and enjoying righteousness to the full when they are presented holy, and unblameable and unreproveable before Him. They will in the end gorge on true righteousness, enjoying to the uttermost extent the righteousness of God in Jesus, both imputed and imparted, and sovereignly exercised on them as in Isaiah. And they will not just enjoy it as individuals, they will enjoy it as part of God's true people. They will see God's purposes come to their full consummation with themselves being a full part of it. God's King (Isaiah 11:1) and Servant (Isaiah 42:1) will have been finally established in righteousness and justice, and His people will all be one in it together with Him.

So while the emphasis in the first three beatitudes is on men's attitude towards God because God has blessed them, and on God's resulting response to them, although it would certainly be an attitude that made them responsive to their neighbour, now in this fourth beatitude the full significance of His righteousness and salvation on behalf of His people has been made known. And then finally in the last three beatitudes Jesus will turn His thoughts more specifically towards their attitude towards others. For they must love both God and their neighbour. In these beatitudes they reveal something of what is in the heart of God.