Amos 8:11-13, “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. Men 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. “In that day “the lovely young women and strong young men will faint because of thirst”
Destruction was to come upon the city of Samaria which would be the cause of bitter mourning. Amos described the event in terms of a funeral for an only son. He continued the use of metaphorical language as he depicted a coming famine. It was no ordinary famine but one of the words of the Lord (v.11). He pictured men longing and searching for God’s Word as starving people seek food or water (vv.12-13). But despite their search they received no word from the Lord. They had rejected the word, not realizing its great value, and had lost it forever (cf. Luke 17:22; John 7:34).
To illustrate the Bible and all it contains ponder on this. A young man once received a letter from a lawyer stating that his grandmother had left him an inheritance. To his astonishment, it was $50,000 plus “my Bible and all it contains” . The youth was delighted to receive the money. However, he knew what the Bible contained, and because he wasn’t into religion he didn’t bother to open it. Instead, he put it on a high shelf. He gambled the $50,000, and over the next fifty years he lived as a pauper, scraping for every meal. Finally he became so destitute, he had to move in with his relatives. When he cleaned out his room, he reached up to get the dusty old Bible from the shelf. As he took it down, his trembling hands dropped it onto the floor, flinging it open to reveal a $100 bill between every page. The man had lived as a pauper, simply because of his prejudice. He thought he knew what the Bible “contained.” The Bible has treasures, and spiritual nourishment you need for your survival.
Can you imagine having a famine of the Word of God? Imagine Bibles taken off the shelves of stores all around the world. It is illegal in some countries to own a Bible. What happens if and when that happens in this country? Which one book takes a definite stand against abortion, homosexuality, relativism, and a host of other controversial issues without compromise but the Word of God? With the way the USA is going, I can see the continual moral decay, and the word of man taking more and more precedence over the Word of God. Do you have the Word of God so settled in your heart, especially through Scripture memory (not memorizing the whole things)? that should the day come you know how to live God’s Word without the thin lined pages of your Bible so easily accessible? Imagine the worst famine the world has ever seen, “a famine of hearing the words of the LORD“. It certainly happened in the Scriptures, perhaps it will happen again. It’s interesting that the famine wasn’t one of food or water. Yet Job said, “I have treasured the words of His mouth More than my necessary food (Job 23:12),” and Jesus said in John 4:32-34, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about. Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” “My food,” said Jesus, is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” Furthermore in speaking with the woman at the well “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:14).”
You see when you have God’s Word in you the water and food for your spirit will nourish you. Just as the physical body would die without physical food and water, so will the spirit die without spiritual nourishment, the Word of God in you. C.S. Lewis said as a car is meant to run on Gas, people are meant to run on the Holy Spirit.
Be in God’s Word consistently and daily. The King has set the table, if you don’t sit and eat, you will be the one with a spiritual famine in your life. Read Matthew 5:6, and Psalm 1. Blessings Pastor Phil
He Has Magnified His Word 