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Famine
The word hangs like an awful omen in our heads.
Mentally, we picture a brutal, grotesque image. Cow’s hips protrude. Babies’ eyes are hollow. Bloated stomachs growls angrily. Skin stretches across faces tight as a trampoline. The outline of the skull slowly emerges. Joints swell. Grim, despairing stares replace smiles. Hope is gone…life is reduced to a harsh existence as famine takes its toll. Those who have seen it cannot forget it. Those who haven’t cannot imagine it.
We are told it is coming. “It’s only a matter of time,” declare the experts. There was a time when such predictions appeared only in science fiction books and novels, but no longer. Prophets of doom are now economists, university profs, and official spokesmen for our government, not to mention those authors who interpret our times “threatening” or “terminal.” Of greatest concern is the enormous population explosion that grips our globe. The statistics tell their own tale.
Our world reached the one billion mark by 1825. About one hundred years later we had doubled in population—two billion by 1925. By 1975 (only fifty years later) we doubled again—four billion. Should the trend continue we’ll have eight billion by the year 2000…and sixteen billion a short twelve years later, if by that long! The supply of food required to feed eight or more billion people in unbelievable. Worse than that, it’s unattainable in light of our current agricultural system. The gaunt shells of humanity that now populate East Africa will some future day cast their shadows on North America, we’re told. One reputable authority predicts that there will come a time when the world’s big cities will be living on bacon bits, fruit in a tube, recycled foods, protein pills and cakes, and reconstituted water.
For us who are so well fed, the idea of famine is foreign—almost a fantasy. It’s something that plagues India or Biafra or China, never America! Fear of famine doesn’t square with our “amber waves of grain,” our “fruited plains,” certainly not our streets lined with MacDonalds, thirty-one flavors, and innumerable shops bulging with every conceivable type of food.
My first rude awakening to the reality of hunger occurred early in 1958 when our troop ship full of U.S. Marines pulled into the harbor of Yokohama, Japan. We were so thrilled to see land, having been at sea for seventeen days, we were initially unaware of the barges full of Japanese men and women that encircled our ship. I later discovered that this was a common occurrence. They had come to paint the ship while we were at the dock for several days. Their pay in return? The garbage from our tables! The thought stunned me. There is another kind of famine equally tragic…but far more subtle. God spoke of it through the prophet Amos. Listen to his words:
11 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God, “That 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. 12 They shall wander from sea to sea, And from north to east; They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, But shall not find it. 13 “In that day the fair virgins And strong young men Shall faint from thirst. (Amos 8:11-13 NKJV)
We may find physical famine almost impossible to believe, but how about a spiritual famine? You don’t have to wait until the year 2000 for that! Take a trip across these United States. Or pick a country—any country. Talk about a famine! It’s easy to misread the words of Amos. He didn’t predict a lack of churches or chapels or temples or tabernacles or seminars or sermons. He spoke of “a famine…of hearing the words of the Lord.” Remember, a famine does not mean an absence of something… but a shortage of it…a scarcity that creates a scene of starvation.
In our enlightened, progressive, modern age, an ancient, dusty prophecy is fulfilled. Hearing the unadulterated truth of God is a rare experience. How easy to be spoiled…presumptuous…sassy… ungrateful…usually want more. We belch out increased demands rather than humble gratitude to God for our horn o’ plenty.
Tell me, when was the last time you thanked God for the sheer privilege of hearing more of His Word than you could ever digest? And when did you last share just a crumb from your table? That’s why there’s famine.
Deepening Your Roots
Nehemiah 8:1-12; Mark 12:41-44; Acts 13:44-48
Branching Out
- Write a relief agency this week and request information on how you can care for someone in need.
- Now, do you see a famine for the Word of God close to your home? How can you relieve that desperate need—in your family… across the street…at your church?
