Is Amos 8: 11 Right around the Corner?

 June 22, 2024

Saturday

Amos 8:11 (NASB 2020) ¹¹ “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the Lord.

There are many questions I have about the above scripture. Why would the Lord stop giving us His word? I wonder if it isn't that He makes it unavailable or that people just quit listening. I am finding that many people in our church are longing to hear God's word. I watch them lean forward as the Word is read. I see their attentiveness as I preach. I believe that is why God has enabled me to preach His word. I am not special in any way. The Spirit has enabled me to preach His word because there are people who are listening. It isn't because I am a great preacher for I am not. (I wish this was humility but it isn't.)

If there is a famine of hearing God's word will it occur everywhere at once? Will there be no place that God's word can be heard? The next verse indicates the desperation that people will have to hear God's word.

Amos 8:12 (NASB 2020) ¹² “People will stagger from sea to sea And from the north even to the east; They will roam about to seek the word of the Lord, But they will not find it.

There are times when God seems to be absent. (He isn't absent, but it seems that way.) People would depart from the Lord. He would withdraw His grace toward them and they would be oppressed. They cried out to Him for years before He delivered them. The Word of God was rare.

I know I see people roaming from church to church to get the message they want from the Lord. They want the Lord to bless them so much while they are on earth that heaven will be a downgrade. They want all that they can want and believe there is some means of getting the Lord to give it to them. They just need to know the magic words, the magic gift, the magic act or whatever magic they can perform so that the Lord will dump a load of money on them. Every time they hear what they want to hear they claim it is the Word of God. The problem is that they don't know what God's word actually says. How can they recognize it if they just want to hear what they want to hear?

Will this famine come even if there are some people seeking God's word now? The Old Testament certainly recorded prophets who suffered along with the people who had rejected God's word. These prophets never deviated. They held onto God's word. Elijah thought he was the last of the prophets as he stood before King Ahab. He did everything at God's word. Even he was in great peril because of the evil of Jezebel. It appears that God has a tipping point in which a nation is declared apostate.

Is this a prophecy that will occur again and again? It appears so. Human nature has not changed. The fact that mankind is fallen should never escape us. We all get close to God and lose our focus if we aren't careful. We hear God's word and depend upon it. It works upon us. We are grateful for it. Then, we go about our business forgetting God's word. This is why the habit of having a daily quiet time is essential. We need to come to our sense daily.

Is this prophecy coming soon? I don't know. Maybe that's why we should make sure that we are hearing and doing God's word now.