“Desire God’s pure word as newborn babies desire milk. Then you will grow in your salvation.” (1Pet. 2:2)
The people who Peter was addressing in his letter were newly born-again believers. The Jewish sages frequently referred to proselytes as ‘newborn babies.’ Paul similarly used the illustration of a baby’s milk to refer to someone who is spiritually immature: “ I give you milk not solid food because you were not ready for it.” (1Cor. 3:2)
But here, Peter is saying something different. A closer look at the text reveals Peter making a beautiful comparison of a newborn child’s total dependency upon his mother’s milk for survival as an illustration for how we need to thirst after His Word uncompromisingly, to build strength and character in our relationship with God.
Peter implied that drinking the milk of God’s Word is vital for everyone at every stage of maturity. And we need to ensure that it is not spiritually ‘homogenised’ or ‘pasteurised’ (i.e., tampered with or ‘sanitised’)!
In biblical times drinking from its mother’s breast was traditionally a matter of life or death for every newborn baby; so too for every believer who thirsts for the whole counsel of El Shaddai (“The many breasted One”) – who relentlessly pursues His very best irrespective of the cost as though our very lives depended on it? The Maccabees understand this clearly even though according to Antiochus Epiphenes, it was considered a defiant action worthy of death.
Herein lies a challenge for all of us at Hanukah easily ignored or avoided as we celebrate this feast with measured joy and commitment.
