Can You Survive a Famine of Hearing God’s Word?

Learn From a Famine of Food in Order to Prepare for a Famine of Hearing God’s Word

Oh, how I love God’s Word! I have really enjoyed focusing on it throughout the last four months and sharing with you the many things we can learn about it. We started this series by learning what God’s Word is, what it does, what we can do with it, and the consequences of how we handle it. We focused on His Word to help us recognize the power of it in order to more confidently apply it to our own lives and unlock the power of Jesus’ name (see God Magnifies His Word Above His Name – Confidence in God). I hope you have grown in your love for His Word and in your confidence in God by finding Him in His Word and applying His power in your life and in your prayers.

As we wrap up this series about God’s Word, let’s consider the prophet Amos’s foretelling of a famine in Amos 8:11-12. Although this famine would not be a famine of food, but a famine of hearing God’s Word, we can learn a lot about the famine and how to prepare for it by looking at the causes and consequences of famines of food.

FAMINE

A famine is a drastic and wide-reaching shortage of food. It can be caused by several factors, including crop failure, population unbalance, or government policies. The effects of famine are regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality.

People who suffer from a famine generally have no control over the circumstances that caused the famine. Crop failure is generally caused by environmental issues, such as lack of water or quality soil, pests that destroy the crops, and harsh weather. Population unbalance occurs when the population rapidly expands in an area and the food supply cannot keep up. Government policies also cause famine. As an example, governments may choose to invest in weapons and war when investment in agriculture is needed.

In addition to not having any control over the famine, the people who suffer from them did not cause them.

I won’t share in this post pictures of the results of famine because I find them so disturbing. But I am confident that you can envision in your mind’s eye the ravishing effects of famine on the human body. We all have likely seen pictures of people suffering from malnutrition during a famine. People suffering from extreme famine have bones protruding, bellies distended, and flesh sagging over their bones.

Self-Imposed “Famine“

We’ve considered widespread malnutrition caused by famine that is beyond the control of the people who suffer from it. Now consider individual choices that may lead to malnutrition.

Many people impose upon themselves restrictions on what foods they eat. There are many popular diets, most having their own critics. The one diet program I have never heard anyone criticize as being unhealthy is Weight Watchers™. Weight Watchers™ seems to be a reasonable program that does not eliminate any major food group but emphasizes healthy eating in moderate amounts.

Some people follow diets that eliminate entire food groups in order to control their weight. As examples, the Atkins Diet eliminates or severely restricts the eating of simple carbohydrates (flour and sugars). The Paleo diet excludes dairy and grains. The Cabbage Soup Diet requires eating a very limited diet primarily made up of cabbage soup for a week, in order to achieve a quick weight loss (10 pounds in 1 week). The Fat Flush Plan combines weight loss and detoxification into a low-carbohydrate, restricted-calorie diet. The caloric intake and types of foods allowed are so difficult to follow that it makes eating out impossible.

There are certainly many more diets available to people who wish to lose and control their weight. Some are so restrictive in the types of foods that a person can eat that the use of food supplements is recommended throughout the diet period because the diet itself leads to malnutrition otherwise.

This dieting can start out in a healthy fashion. However, it may start a process that changes the person’s thinking, feelings, and behavior.

Healthy dieting as an attempt to control weight may develop into an attempt to control the person’s life and emotions.
A healthy self-esteem based on more than just weight and body image may develop into a self-esteem based entirely on how much the person weighs and how thin the person is.
A healthy view of weight loss as a means to improve the person’s health and appearance may develop into a view of weight loss as a way to achieve happiness.
A healthy weight loss goal may develop into an obsession of being thin without any concern about health.

Each diet consists of a self-imposed lack of food that can lead to unhealthy results, including developing into eating disorders that leave the body malnourished and suffering similar effects as the widespread famine (bones protruding, distended bellies, sagging skin). In fact, the appearance of two people standing next to each other, one having suffered from famine and the other having suffered from dieting that developed into an eating disorder, is not appreciably different. It is difficult, if not impossible, if you know nothing about the people to know which person suffered from which of these two circumstances.

Now, let’s transition from the physical famine of food to the spiritual famine of hearing God’s Word.

AMOS’S PROPHECY

The Lord declared through the prophet Amos that there will be a time when people will wander “from sea to sea, and from north to east” seeking the word of God, but will be unable to find it (Amos 8:11-12). Amos called this a famine “of hearing the word of the Lord.” (Amos 8:11.) Remember that a famine is a drastic and wide-reaching shortage, in this case, of hearing the word of God.

Some theologians think this famine will occur during the great tribulation just prior to Christ’s return. However, others note that the Book of Revelation describes the Two Witnesses that will be proclaiming God’s truth and a warning message to the world with great power for three and a half years before Christ’s return (Revelation 11:3-12). These theologians would agree that the time-frame of Amos’s prophecy covers the end of the age, but they explain that the prophecy also covers many centuries prior to the end of the age. And we may be living in that time period.

The English word for “hearing” in Amos 8:11 is translated from the Hebrew word “shama,” which means “to hear intelligently (often with the implication of attention, obedience).” (Strong’s Definition: 18085 – Bible Truth Library (bibletruthpublishers.com).) So, the famine of hearing God’s Word in the context of this prophecy connotes a barrier that will not allow an understanding of it.

What are the effects of not hearing, understanding, and obeying God’s Word? The Psalmist Asaph explains the consequences of hearkening (“shama”) to God’s Word in an “if/then” statement. If we hear the Lord and hearken unto Him then no strange god will be in us and we will not worship any strange god (Psalm 81:8-9).

We can so easily be consumed by strange gods in our lives, such as career, money, family, material comforts. Psalm 81:8-9 teaches us that we need only hear, understand, and obey God’s Word and we will not succumb to the consuming power of these things in our lives and will not pursue them more earnestly than we pursue God, thus elevating them to a level that they become “strange gods,” meaning more important than the One true God!

Conversely, the absence of hearing, understanding and obeying God is that we will succumb to the consuming power of these things in our lives and will elevate them to a level that they become “strange gods” to us. Moses explained more clearly that if we turn our hearts away so that we do not hear God’s Word, we will be “drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them.” (Deuteronomy 30:17.)

The Lord explained through the prophet Jeremiah that He had promised the people of Israel who Moses lead out of Egypt that if they would obey His voice, He would be their God, they would be His people, and it would be well with them (Jeremiah 7:23). But they did not hear and obey His voice and walked according to their own hearts, which caused them to go backward instead of forward (Jeremiah 7:24).

The effects of not hearing, understanding, and obeying God’s Word is that we will be drawn away from God, will worship and serve other gods, and we will go backward and not forward in God.

COMPARISON OF LACK OF FOOD TO LACK OF GOD’S WORD

Amos’s prophecy warns that God will bring about a famine of hearing God’s Word. He will, be it in the last days or in the centuries approaching the last days, bring about a time when man will not hear, understand, and obey His Word. This is like the famine of food. In that time, the people who suffer from the famine will have done nothing to cause it and will not be able to control it. They will merely be victim of it. The results will be visible in their lives by the way they live.

The people who have not prepared to withstand the famine will be distracted from the things of God. They will pursue the things of this earthly life more earnestly than they pursue God. They will spend more of their time, talents and resources on the things of this world than on the things of God. They will go backward and not forward in God. During this time the victims of the famine will not have caused it or be able to control the availability and understandability of God’s Word. But because God has warned us that this is coming, we can prepare for this famine of hearing God’s Word by storing up His Word in our hearts and minds similar to how Joseph stored up food in preparation for the famine in Egypt (Genesis 41). We can seek understanding now.

Consider the lack of hearing God’s Word which results from our own choices! There are seasons in our lives when even though we walk in God’s will we find it difficult to spend the quality time in God’s Word and prayer that is a part of our usual routines. Examples include when encountering an illness in our families, be it ourselves or someone else for whom we are the primary care giver, and when we have opportunities to travel recreationally or professionally. These seasons may be of varied lengths of time and remove us from our usual routines. This would be similar to when we begin dieting. These seasons result from healthy choices, caring for others, pursuing relaxation, honoring our professional commitments. This is similar to choosing to diet to improve our health by controlling our weight, making the choice from a healthy self-esteem based on more than just weight and body image, and striving to reach a balanced weight loss goal.

But what happens when we continue the scarce time in God’s Word and prayer even after the break in the routine? What happens when the lack of God’s Word and prayer in our lives becomes the routine? This is similar to developing eating disorders, dieting to control our life and emotions instead of improving our health, developing a self-esteem based on how much we weigh and how thin we are, viewing weight loss as a way to achieve happiness, becoming obsessed with being thin without any concern about health.

When we allow our lives to become too busy to fit into our days quality time in God’s Word and in prayer, then the effects of this chosen lack of God’s Word becomes evident in our lives just as they will during the famine of hearing God’s Word. Those things that are usually hidden inside us, those things that are part of our carnal nature but are controlled by the Spirit when we spend time in God’s Word and prayer, will become evident to others. This is when we are at risk of spiritual mortality. When we feel spiritually dead. When we begin blaming and accusing God for the harsh things in our lives.

TIME TO PREPARE

Now is the time to prepare for the famine of hearing God’s Word. We cannot sit back and take for granted the easy accessibility to it. We cannot constantly feast on it without putting it into action in our lives. We must seek understanding of His Word and hide it in our hearts that we will not sin against Him (Psalm 119:11). We must be doers of His Word and not hearers only (James 1:22)!

By doing these things, we will survive spiritually and physically the famine of hearing God’s Word. We will be able to continue walking in the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit will continue to be evident in our lives even during this famine.

We can have confidence that we will be able to endure the famine of hearing God’s Word if we prepare now, not only for ourselves but also for our children and our grandchildren. Now is the time to hide His Word in our hearts and seek to understand it better!