Hunger!

According to Oxford language dictionary meaning of hunger, it is said to be a feeling of discomfort or weakness caused by lack of food, coupled with the desire to eat. Now I want to explain deep what hunger could do, starting for the Bible aspect of it down to the present day of our lives. 

According to exodus 16;2-4,12-15, the people of Israel cried because of hunger, they shed tears because they were in the wilderness, they left Egypt and were heading to the promised land, they left their land of slavery, for the first time in 420yrs they became free. They were happy that they were leaving and they saw the mighty works of God, on their way something happened, they started to feel hungry, when they became hungry they forgot everything God did for them, they forgot how God brought them out from the hands of the mighty pharaoh, they forgot how God killed the first borns of Egyptians, the first sons in Egypt were killed in order to bring them out, they forgot how God divided the red sea and they matched and crossed the dry land, they forgot how God gave them water from the rock and they murmured against God, They murmured against Moses and they said; why did you bring us out of Egypt? You would have allowed us to be there to continue being their slave than to bring us here to kill us with starvation in this wilderness.

You can imagine Israelites chose slavery because of hunger to freedom, at a time they had a meeting and said to themselves, let us go back to Egypt, we can not continue like this, we need food to eat. You can see the importance of food. Smiles, I am not talking about spiritual food rather physical food. God didn't get angry with them for lamenting due to hunger rather he looked at them and had pity on them because God understood their plight and gave them manner from heaven to eat.

In the new testament Jesus Christ saw that the multitude that gathered to hear his teachings were hungry and he asked his disciples to look for food and they saw five loafs and two fishes which he blessed and gave them to eat, they were filled and there were remains.

At that time in Palestine there was severe famine, people were hungry, you could imagine when one work from morning till night you are paid 1 dinars for a whole day just like the parable of the workers in the new testament. From this 1dinars they bought food for their families and seriously you could see the hardship then in Palestine. The Romans were living like kings, they over powered and conquered the Palestinian and they paid their taxes to Caesar the Roman emperor, they laboured for Caesar and when they are paid, 2dinars were taken from the 3dinars paid to them to Caesar and 1dinars will be given to the worker. There was hunger everywhere and so when Jesus Christ gave them food to eat during the feeding of the five thousand men, the scripture said in John Chapter 6-23 that early the next morning a huge crowd came and were looking for Jesus Christ because they saw that he was able to feed them yesterday, they searched for him and saw him, when they saw him they said "Master we have been looking for you, where have you been?" And Jesus Christ replied to them saying, "I know why you are looking for me, because you ate bread and had your fill that is why you are looking for me."

Jesus Christ didn't undermine the importance of Food, Jesus Christ never encountered a hungry man and walked his way, when Jesus Christ healed the daughter of Jairius, he told them to give her something to eat.

Let me explain more to you what hunger can do with these histories I will be sharing with you.

In Catholic church history mother Teresa of Calcutta happened to be one of the fastest saints ever canonised in Catholic church because she gave food to the hungry. source

In the Iraq history, Kuwait was one of the oil rich states, Iraq invaded Kuwait and wanted to take over Kuwait but the United Nations refused and gave Iraq 4days to leave Kuwait. After 4days passed Iraq refused to leave Kuwait, on the 6th of August 1990, United Nations placed a ban on Iraq  and they said, no more supply of water, food or anything except medicine. Iraq could not feed her own citizens and within a short while Iraq lost about 3.3milion persons to hunger including 750 children who died of hunger. Source

In Nigerian/Biafran civil war, if you read the book of Chinua Achebe titled "There was a country" source you will understand what the Biafrans passed through during the civil war, Biafrans never surrendered to the Nigerian weapon rather they surrendered to hunger.

When Gen. Ojukwu Odumegwu declared Republic of Biafra on 30 May 1967 and took the oat of office on June 10, 1967 source: the American soldiers came down to over power him but couldn't, it was like an impossible task, they more they came the more they were resisted, they were killed in their hundreds and thousands, infect the Biafrans soldiers were so powerful that the then military head of Nigerian state Gen. Yakubu Gowon said within three days they will conquer the Biafran soldiers, he tried for one year he couldn't conquer the Biafrans from 1967-1969 he couldn't conquer the Biafrans, towards the half of that year, after haven fought the war for a year and six months, 30th of June 1969, Gen. Gowon Yakubu placed a sanction on Iraq and said no external body, agency or any person from outside Nigeria should supply food or water to Biafra land, the Red cross organisation did all they could to cross but they were resisted, when they tried to move through Portharcourt, Rivers state in then Biafran state, their plane was bombed down, the Red Cross from South Africa lost their 3 members during the incident,  Miserere in Germany did all they could to send food to Biafra but couldn't get through, the Vatican had to supply food to Biafra but couldn't.

The Nigerian soldiers now left the Biafran soldiers and used their jets to go to farm lands to bomb their farmlands, they went to Rivers state to bomb the pipe lines making the rivers to be contaminated with poisonous substances so they could not drink front the rivers again, they could not get food from their farms again, hunger and starvation came in, there was no salt to use in cooking food. People started dying of hunger,  Biafrans begged for food to eat , soldiers could not fight again, some became so hungry according to Chinua Achebe in his books that they couldn't lift their guns to fight the war any longer and when Gen. Ojukwu saw that the soldiers were no longer strong to fight because of hunger and 1million children have died of hunger he said that he can't continue to fight when the Biafrans are dying of hunger.

Chinua Achebe said that the Biafran soldiers did not surrender to weapon, arms, guns and bomb  surrendered to hunger and that was the end of the war. Biafrans lost the war not because they couldn't fight,they had gallant soldiers, they had good scientists that produced bombs and weapons, Biafrans had scientists who refined the oil during that period but hunger brought them down and they couldn't do anything anymore so everything collapsed.

Without food one's body becomes very vulnerable to diseases and other illness. Without food one can not survive and this is why we must do everything within our power to make sure we have access to food through agricultural mechanisation to reduce hunger.

LESSON TO LEARN

The greatest charity on earth is to give someone food to eat. Never deny someone food no matter the condition.

God gave you your body to take care of it, not for you to kill your body so therefore, you must take good care of your body by giving it food.

I wish you a pleasant week and Thank you so much for reading🙏 Rafd9828