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Famine in Our Times

So many times, the warnings that are clearly laid out in Scripture are the hardest things to bring. It's so awesome to be redeemed and saved from the wrath of God — there is so much good to talk about, so much we can focus on. It's not all bad for those of us who are saved.

But we do need to hear the reality of what God is saying and take it seriously in the day-to-day flow of our lives.

Someone might ask: Why do you have to get so serious? Why so intentional with warnings?

Because the times are perilous right now. And sadly, many times we don't see the slide. We don't see the spiritual slide — even in our own lives. People who have a form of godliness, yet they deny the hard truth of what it means to actually be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

And so they slide.

What a Slide Looks Like

Let me describe a slide so you can really get in on the front end of what this is all about.

In January, there was a real investment made — B12 shots and a lot more. Menus, supplements, a workout plan. Dr. Dan was putting things back in place so the exercise could keep going. The idea was to be intentional — to look and feel better for some filming scheduled for April. In the first 30 days, twelve pounds were gone. It was going to be successful.

Then a major family issue hit, and it hit hard. Fatigue and apathy set in. The journey didn't stop cold — it just slightly altered, day by day.

That's the slide.

It wasn't a quick turn. It wasn't a slam-the-door-shut kind of thing. It was day by day, same excuse: I'm going to eat this unhealthy thing that I absolutely love, and tomorrow I'll pick it up again. Or instead of 100 reps, do 20 reps and call it good for the day. I'll pick it up again tomorrow.

And tomorrow never comes.

When it does come — when you do have a great day or two in a row — it doesn't last. The same slide happens again and again and again, until you're not really on the program anymore. Now you're just faking it and lying to yourself. The self-loathing begins because you know you're lying to yourself. Then the feelings of inadequacy arrive and that black dog chases you around in your head all day, every day.

How do you go from the path of success with huge motivation to sloppy execution — worse off than when you started?

Can you see the parallels?

Someone walking with Jesus — and then the shortcuts begin to happen. You start to consume bad doctrine, take on a false idea, and before you know it you're as far away from your Savior as you've ever been. And we're not talking about losing salvation. We're talking about opening yourself up to deception and consuming bad spiritual food that leads to bad spiritual health.

Less joy. More stress.

Now you start to seek comfort in everything, and any hard things that don't go along with your now-deluded state of what walking as a true disciple of Jesus actually is — you sit back, you pick at it, and you find fault.

Many people want the positive, easy way of the gospel. Many people want to be fans of Jesus and what He has done. But then when the Scriptures hammer us with the truth that some stuff is actually required of us — then we get selective.

When you hear deny yourself and pick up the cross, what exactly are you hearing?

Jesus tells us in Matthew 16 and Mark 8, but Luke tells it most strongly in Luke 9:23:

"And he said to all, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.'"

Luke adds daily — emphasizing ongoing surrender, not a one-time thing.

And in Matthew 6:33, Jesus is speaking:

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

It's amazing how deceived we can actually be. That's the setup. That's the lead-in to what Amos has to say to us — a famine in our times.

A Disaster Proclaimed

The prophet Amos prophesied during the final days of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. It was a time of great military power, great economic prosperity, peace and joy and happiness for most of the folks.

Then Amos arrives with a massively sobering message — one of judgment and condemnation.

His message lifts the lid off their hypocrisy. It exposes the true spiritual condition of the nation. They are wealthy and powerful, but they are spiritually destitute. They are enjoying peace, safety, and prosperity — but they are in the midst of a spiritual drought and they don't even recognize it.

When you read the book of Amos — and by the way, you can do it in one sitting pretty easily — the parallels between the condition of Israel then and the condition of our world today are hard to miss. In the United States of America, we are still richer than 99% of the rest of the world. We are the world's only true superpower. Yet in the midst of our peace and our prosperity and our endless pursuit of personal happiness, we still live with this pursuit of personal contentment — this personal reality of me, me, me.

And so many of us don't even see the spiritual drought we're in.

God says there will be a famine in the land. Here is the text:

"Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord God, "when I will send a famine on the land — not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it. In that day the lovely virgins and the young men shall faint for thirst. Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria, and say, 'As your god lives, O Dan,' and, 'As the way of Beersheba lives,' they shall fall, and never rise again."

— Amos 8:11–14

And here is the brutal part — never rise again.

Famines throughout history have taken the lives of untold millions. In 1846, the great potato famine in Ireland claimed between one and two million people. In 1932, the consistent failure of communism showed up in the USSR — between six and ten million people starved to death. In 1943, the Bengal famine in India claimed over four million lives. In 1959, a famine in China killed over forty-three million people.

It was a famine that caused Abraham to leave Canaan and go into Egypt in search of food. It was a famine that caused Isaac to do the same. Into Egypt went Jacob and Joseph. That's famine. It's all throughout the Bible.

Now, everybody says they want the last days to be here. Do you really? Have you looked and seen what really happens?

Revelation 18:8 says:

"For this reason her plagues will come in a single day — death and mourning and famine — and she will be burned up with fire, for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her."

When a famine comes, disease runs rampant as immune systems are compromised. Sanitation systems are overwhelmed. When there is no food, there is no life. When the food fails, life is not far behind.

Famines are terrible times of death, deprivation, and destruction. And what does God say? Behold. Pay attention. Listen up. A famine is coming — and there will be no reprieve. There will be no second chances.

Most of us have food enough to spare. We are strangers to physical famine. And there are a few among us who have had that time where food was truly scarce — and if you've ever had that experience, it changes you permanently. Your value system is altered forever.

But that, my friends, is still not famine.

The Lord has more to say about this famine.

The Attribute Defined

Staying in verse 11 — God tells us the nature of this famine. It will not be one where there is a lack of food or water. The people will have food. They will have water. They will not, however, enjoy the great blessing of hearing the Lord speak to them any longer.

Amos is not talking about a physical famine where there is a lack of material things. He is talking about a spiritual famine in which the Word of God cannot be found.

You can read this verse two ways — and stay with me now — because either way, what we have here is a catastrophic situation.

Either God is saying to Israel, I will no longer be speaking to you — or He is saying, You will no longer be able to hear me when I do speak. Either way, these people are going to be unable to hear from God.

Israel might not have thought this was too much of a curse when they heard it. Whatever. After all, they cared little for the Lord's ways anyway. Back up to Amos 8:5–6 and it tells you the true spiritual condition of those people. They were involved in the feast days and in the sacrifices — but they were bored with the things of God. They could not wait until they were free to pursue their true love: money. The do-ray-me. Duckets. That was their focus. They endured with impatience the demands of God, waiting only to be free from the yoke of His bondage so they could do as they pleased.

Sounds familiar?

God's response is to give them exactly what they want.

• They are sick of the law — so He withholds it.
• They are fed up with His words — so He feeds them silence.
• They no longer desire to hear His truth — so He obliges them by taking it away.

That is a terrifying thought.

The great awakening preacher George Whitfield said this:

"As God can send a nation or people no greater blessing than to give them faithful, sincere, and upright ministers, so the greatest curse that God can possibly send upon a people in this world is to give them over to blind, unregenerate, carnal, lukewarm, and unskillful guides."

About a bang. About a bone.

And so it is — when a people refuse to heed the Word of God, God is going to take it away from them. Jesus said it this way in Matthew 13:12:

"For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away."

And when Satan came to tempt Him at the mount of temptation, Jesus answered in Matthew 4:4:

"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."

If any people are going to survive and thrive, they must be able to get a word from the Lord.

When people refuse to hear the Word of God, God will give them His silence as judgment. In America, we have the Word of God. You can have God speak to you every day by reading the Scriptures. You want to hear God speak audibly? Read it out loud. And yet we do not have to read it. We ignore it. We just let it sit there on the shelf.

That is a different kind of judgment. Some say greater than any other.

Paul warned Timothy that such days were coming. This is what we are up against in America today — 2 Timothy 4:3–4:

"For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths."

We are living in those days right now.

The Word of God is being preached, but people would rather listen to fables. There are men of God in pulpits across this land preaching the Word in power and in glory — and people are turning a deaf ear to what they are saying. And when that happens, God will allow them to go their own way. He will allow them to reject His Word. He will allow them to starve to death spiritually.

If they reject the truth, there will be no more words from God. And they will shrivel up and die spiritually while the Bible is sitting right there on their end table.

Unopened.

Isn't that exactly what we are seeing across this land? Not talking about the world at large — talking about the visible church. The Jesus fan clubs who are moving the cross off their property because it offends.

When there is a famine in the land, pulpits and churches dry up. Doors close. Congregations wither and perish on the vine. Hope, blessing, joy — they vanish. Preaching becomes an empty exercise devoid of life — nothing more than a weak TED talk. Praise bands sing without joy in their voices, nothing more than a performance and an ego blow. The Bible becomes a dead book, and the people are left without direction, hope, peace, or joy.

It is a time of deception. And in the end, it is absolute devastation — and you don't even see it coming.

The Cause Declared

It is worth noting that this famine does not have a natural cause.

God declares the cause. In fact, He takes full responsibility for it.

"I will send a famine on the land."

The direct cause of the famine is the wrath of God. He is fed up with their disobedience. He is tired of their failure to heed His voice and the voice of the prophets. So God sends them silence — judgment. He stops speaking to them, and even when He does speak, they will not be able to hear.

We seem to have the idea that people are just walking around in the world waiting for God to speak to them, and when He does they'll respond to His voice and run right back to Him.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The fact is, man cannot hear God unless he is given ears to hear. Notice the words of Jesus in Matthew 13:13–16:

"I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand... For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."

The ability to hear from God when you open His Word is a gift from God. We hear when He opens our ears, and not before.

Paul broke it down this way in 1 Corinthians 2:14:

"The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."

So God is the instigator of the famine. He sends it upon the people because of their sins. They were wicked at heart. They were dishonest in business. They were guilty of exploiting the poor. They were guilty of idolatry. And God judges them. They were all these things and more.

This passage stands as a warning to our generation.

We are blessed in our day to have an abundance of good biblical preaching. There are still preachers all around this land who are preaching the truth to the people of God. When that truth is heard and heeded, God blesses His people in great spiritual ways. When that truth is rejected, God will abandon them to their choice.

Please understand that.

That is why so many believers are spiritually weak and anemic. That is why there is very little power in the average church. That is why the modern church sometimes feels empty, worship that is often cold, stiff, and dead. And in another place there is enthusiasm, lots of it, but many times it is nothing more than the energy of the flesh. Not enthusiasm based on the Word of God. It is excitement produced by music or a message that caters to the flesh.

When people refuse to hear the Word of God, that Word will be removed from them. Either God will stop speaking to that people, or He will take away their ability to hear Him when He does speak. He will give them silence. Or He will be speaking to those around them while they themselves sit in the midst of a divine famine, hearing nothing from the Lord.

The Result Made Known

When this famine comes, it will produce restlessness and weariness.

The people will run from place to place looking for a substitute for the Word of God they are no longer hearing. They refused to hear the Lord when He spoke to them, and now His silence has left them spiritually famished. We are spiritual beings — created that way in the image of God. So they run from here to there looking for some substitute to fill the void in their heart.

And they are not looking for truth.

They are looking for a placebo. They are looking for some sort of spiritual juice to replace the sweet voice of the Lord. They become spiritually restless, from place to place, from activity to activity, from this thing to that thing, always looking for something new. When all they really need is to stop and pay attention to the Word of God that has already been given to them.

This restless activity produces weariness — verse 13. The strongest in the population will become discouraged and quit. They get so fed up with searching for substitutes that never satisfy that they simply stop looking. They fade. They give up spiritually.

Do you know anybody like that in your life?

This is an accurate picture of our modern world. Many have turned a deaf ear to the actual Word of God. Because of that, God has stopped speaking to them too. They go to church but they can't hear His voice. They become disillusioned with the deadness of it all and they drop out. Maybe they saw their parents confess one thing and live another and they just got fed up with it all. They got tired of the staleness of the way things have always been, and they closed their ears and their hearts to the voice of God.

But there is an itch in the world — so deep that they cannot seem to scratch it. God has written eternity on the hearts of all men and women. So they are not satisfied.

So they run.

They run to the church where there are no standards. They run to the church where the preacher only tells them things that are culturally relevant. They run to the church where the sermons do not challenge them to a deeper spiritual walk with God. They run to a place where they can come as they are and leave just like they came — a place that doesn't really care about leaving changed. A place where everything is about them. Their needs and their feelings.

They run themselves to death running away from the very thing that will give them exactly what they're looking for.

The Word of God.

We are living in a time when true Bible-believing churches are dying. Churches that exalt the Word of God are seen as dinosaurs in our world — out of step with the times, out of step with the true needs of the people. People want to be entertained. They don't want to be preached to. People want to feel good. They don't want to be challenged about their spiritual life. Most people don't want to be bothered by all that Bible stuff.

So God obliges them.

He sends them exactly what they want. He sends them a famine of hearing His Word. He closes His mouth and He stops their ears and they receive nothing from Him at all.

That's a horrible place to be.

That is where we are across this land. It's a catastrophe, but it's true. The average church attender does not know the books of the Bible, the Ten Commandments, or even how to share the gospel with an unbeliever — yet they know how to argue against everything that is said from any pulpit that goes against their feelings.

It gets exhausting.

Because there is a famine in this land.

We Don't Have to Starve

We need to pray that God will help us to have ears to hear — ears to hear Him as He speaks to us through His Word and His Spirit.

There is a famine in the land. But we don't have to starve to death.

There is plenty available for those willing to reach out and take it. The Word of God is still being preached faithfully. Men and women who stand on that Word, who preach it without apology, who care whether people leave changed, they are still out there. We are living in desperate times spiritually, but the Word of God has not gone silent. The famine is real, and it is spreading. But for those with ears to hear, the voice of the Lord is still there, and it is more than enough.