Famine of Hearing the Word of God

Are we in a famine of hearing the Word of God? As we know from the Bible, Israel was living in disobedience to God: they were violating His commands and forgot about God in their daily lives.

God sent many warnings their way, but ultimately, Amos (the prophet) was sent to pronounce judgment.

In Amos, We are only going to focus on two verses in Chapter 8: verses 11 and 12. So it says in

Amos 8:11-12, KJV says:

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:

And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

Amos is letting them know that a time will come when they won’t have the word of God with them.

And did you know that this has parallels with us today?

How are we in a famine of hearing the word of God?

It may be hard for us to believe this because many of us have multiple bibles in our homes, but let’s examine the evidence. Here are 5 reasons we are in a famine of the Word of God.

• 1. We are living in a time where moral corruption and disobedience prevails similar to the time of Israel.

• 2. We don’t look to the Bible as our main source of guidance. Many believers look to the pastors or to their social media for the Word or some feel good message that God has our back. Or believer look to government guidelines/standards on how to live, ignoring biblical principles. Or they look towards prophetic words for the year. The prophetic words we need for any year are in the Bible, not in a random online stranger.

Biblical illiteracy Barna findings:

Barna group reports that “One in Six U.S. Adults Reads the Bible Most Days During the Week” and “half (50%) of U.S. Adults read the Bible less than twice a year (including “never”)”

Barna.com State of the Bible 2021: Five Key Findings

• 3. Furthermore, children are not always taught biblical principles and their lives don’t really set them apart from other non-believers. I don’t want to go deeper into this, but I am sure you notice how far away children are from the word of God. Their focus is mainly on a phone/tv screen (even in church), now the virtual reality headsets, and the things of this world (such as vanity metrics/success).

1 John 2:15-17, KJV says…Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

Romans 12:1-2, KJV says…I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

• 4. Currently, there are efforts to make the bible appear as hate speech. As if it were discrimination. One example you can google is the Equality Act. (if you watch the video above, I pin-point this in the Equality Act so you save yourself some time.)

Biblical illiteracy in the church

• 5. The gospel message is being replaced by movements, ideas, feelings, or personal beliefs.

Some of these are

--progressive christianity (encompassing Critical Theory-social gospel movement),
--new age beliefs and practices,
--and motivational talks instead of Bible based teachings.

A famine is coming… A famine of the Word of God

As we see, we are not far from what Amos prophesied. We are living in a time where biblical illiteracy prevails.
Now is the time to examine ourselves and decide to hunger and thirst after righteousness (Matthew 5:6), hunger and thirst for the Word of God.

One way to do hunger and thirst for the Word of God is to pray often during the day. David and Daniel prayed multiple times throughout their day, not just in the morning or evening.

I will be working on some ideas on what to do when you don’t feel like reading the Bible.