Amos Chapter 8: Verses 11-12 (NIV)
“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign Lord,
“when I will send a famine through the land—
not a famine of food or a thirst for water,
but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
People will stagger from sea to sea
and wander from north to east,
searching for the word of the Lord,
but they will not find it.”
2 Timothy Chapter 4: Verses 3-4 (NIV)
For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
A famine is an extreme scarcity of something, usually food. We have seen the devastation that such disasters have made in third world countries when there has been a crop failure, perhaps caused by drought. When there is a lack of something basic, prices go up, and people go out of their way to get hold of whatever is available. In a particular way we saw what happened during the covid pandemic when people began to panic and stockpile certain things.
But the verse in Amos really struck me today because I don’t think I had ever really appreciated that what God was talking about – not a famine in its usual sense, but a famine for the truth of God’s word. I realise just how true that is today, so people are unfamiliar with the truth that is found in the bible. Many are unfulfilled and unhappy, and although, certainly in the western world, we can be considered as materially well off, there are plenty pf folks who are spiritually starving, and they are trying all sorts of ways to find that spiritual food. Sadly, they are not all looking in the right place. They are reluctant to accept the spiritual food that is readily available for those who do. Did not Jesus teach that He is the bread of life? (John Chapter 6 verse 35)
When we see appeals on tv to provide food and funding during disasters such as famine, we are often quick to respond if we have the means to do so. But what about spiritual hunger? This verse in Amos makes me think that those of us who know how to find spiritual truth and feeding, in God’s word, and through the benefit of sound teaching, need to become just as active in reaching out to the spiritually hungry, and pointing to God’s word. We wouldn’t stand by and watch someone starve from hunger if we had the means to feed them. We need to be as diligent when it comes to those who are spiritually hungry. Its true that not everyone will listen, but there are those who will, and everyone at least deserves the opportunity to respond.
Dear Lord,
Thank You that You provide the nourishment we need to live the life that You intended us to. Thank You for the ease of access we can have to Your word and to the teaching that helps us to spiritually grow. Help me to point others to You who are hungry and thirsty for the truth that is found in You. I ask in Jesus’ Name. Amen.