Amos 8:10-12 I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist, and baldness on every head; I will make it like mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day. “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. 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.
Context is very important when considering God’s word. Far too many preachers and lay people misunderstand or are entirely ignorant of the context of passages they seek to understand. This leads to false doctrine, which leads to confusion and apostacy.
Amos chapter 8 is a perfect example of this reality.
Written for Israel, Amos was a call to people who largely rejected God’s correction and call to repentance through the prophets. It is true there were times of limited repentance, but the overall tenor of the nation was to misunderstand the prophets, the holy men of God, and thereby let those words of God fall to the ground; or to reject them outright.
Amos 8:10-12 fits this overall context and quite literally was fulfilled in the 400 years of silence Israel experienced between the last prophet and the ministry of John the Baptist. Consider how the last words of the last prophet before John were words of encouragement, but words calling the nation to repent.
Malachi 4 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,” says the LORD of hosts, “That will leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; And you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves. You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,” says the LORD of hosts “Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
After this… SILENJCE!
When Christ did come He spoke at length about how most of the religious of Israel not only ignored the prophets, but led to their death and or removal form ministry and marginalization.
Matthew 23:29-31 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.
Matthew 23:37-39 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'”
Stephen, the first martyr, reiterated Jesus words in his testimony to the Sanhedrin, which led to his martyrdom.
Acts 7:51-53 51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”
Here is the point. Amos prophecy of a famine of hearing the word of God, arose from Israel rejecting God’s word, through His prophets. This led to 400 years of silence.
I never want to use a passage in a loose association or eisegetically. When that is the case, we do harm to God’s word, creating an error that can become a cultural doctrine. Therefore, let me say that Amos 8:10 -12 is not a direct prophetic reference to our day and age.
That said, I do believe the principal communicated in Amos 8:10-12 has potential impact in every generation, concerning those who follow YHWH. I believe the truth communicated is super relevant to this final age, where apostacy grows and the church appears to be shrinking numerically across the western world.
Let me say I do not believe that last statement to be faithless or despairing, but a reality, as we know that judgment has begun in the house of God (I Peter 4:17). We also understand that for those who produce fruit, as followers of Christ, pruning continually takes place, which makes the vine look diminished numerically.
I believe that we are experiencing a famine of hearing the word of God in America, specifically concerning the church. I believe this is due to a Christian population, which is looking for quick fix solutions to assuage guilty consciences and seeking teaching that offer easy equations of religion to gain life success.
Most pastors are glad to give whatever they believe will keep butts in the seats, and tithes in the money box, for pastoring is no longer a calling to most, but a gig or career; one which needs an ever-increasing salary.
This kind of nonsense has created the big and the small, in fellowships, across America. There is very little in between, but mostly feasts or famine. And where men of God do seek to make disciples, preach the word, teach the flock of God the doctrine of Christ, engage in prayer and biblical evangelism, there are few, in the flock committing to God’s program.
Consider some jarring statistics…
Every month 1500 to 1700 pastors leave the ministry.
Every year 7000 churches close and 4000 churches are planted (3000 net loss yearly).
In the case of churches closed and planted, it is quite simple. Planting more churches is not working, because something is off in the Christian culture. Most church plants are not aimed at making disciples, but branding the church in a way that will draw people to it. Where this is the case, it is about transfer growth, not new birth or deepening the growth of existing Christians.
Common sense tells us that a net loss of 3000 churches a year ought to signal that planting more is not the answer, but perhaps seeking to “strengthen that which remains, but is read to die” (Revelation 3:2).
Popular Christian opinion would declare, “There is not a famine of God’s word in the land, just look at all the bibles, bible studies, pod casts, phone apps, books and resources we have in America.”. Yes, there are plenty of options for a person to read God’s word, but Israel had much Old Testament biblical resource, in the synagogue, the temple and the prophets, until God made them silent.
The famine Amos speaks of was not in written word or spoken resource, but a famine “of hearing the words of the LORD”. Remember that biblically speaking, hearing the words of God is synonymous with doing what the word commands (James 1:22-24). Remember our Lord Jesus Christ declares “If you love me keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
It is my contention that the church in America is experiencing a famine of hearing the word of God; especially considering the statistics we covered earlier.
I do not believe the 1700 pastors are leaving the ministry every year because they suck or are immoral. It is possible that is true in some cases, but considering how many fellowships close each year, I am more inclined to believe the problem lies in people, who do not hear and obey God’s word. In fact, I believe that most Christians are carnally minded, bottle sucking babies, who cannot or refuse to hear God’s word they need to grow.
1 Corinthians 3:1-4 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?
With all the biblical word of God resource available, how can this be? Because ministers have been trained to preach to the sensibilities and spiritual desires of the flock, rather than preach the flock to where they need to be in Christ. The former creates Christians who are self-focused and need to feel good, having their preferences met.
The latter, those who preach the flock where they need to be in God’s will and how they need to be (in sanctified character) is the only way to truly make disciples, who hear the word of the Lord and respond to it. Although this is God’s way, in America, it often produces diminishing numeric returns.
When a man of God is determined to proclaim the doctrine of Christ, the call to holiness and sanctification, the need for perseverant prayer, the continuing need of repentance for the saint of God, the call to self-denial and cross bearing and the blessing of being persecuted, they experience a hard reality: many perceived to be Christian in the flock run away to find a more pleasant experience. Why?
2 Timothy 4:1-5 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
The time has come, in these last days of growing apostacy, that God is judging His church, pruning the vine and calling the bride to wash and press her wedding dress.
I believe that many so-called Christians refuse to hear what the Lord is calling His bride to, therefore, the good men, the prophetic men, the men who focus on the ministry of the word and prayer, are becoming more scarcely heard. They are still around and speaking the truth, calling the lost to repentance and the church to sanctification, but this is taking place less and less in what most think is the church.
If you are a minister of the word and have felt the disappointment of proclaiming God’s word, rightly divided and for God’s glory and see little movement in those who are supposed to hear and respond in faith, don’t be discouraged. Obey Paul’s command to II Timothy 4:2 “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching”
If you are in the flock of God, don’t be satisfied with listening to good preaching, ask yourself if you are feeling conviction from the Holy Spirit or agitation, when you hear the preaching from God’s word.
Remember agitation, if the word is rightly divided reveals a rebellious attitude. Repent of it. If you cannot levy consistent conviction, seek to understand if the preacher is really speaking the word of God, as God intended. If he is, ask the Lord to reveal how to break the hardened soil of your heart (Hosea 12:10).
There is a famine of hearing the word of God in American Christianity, that’s no reason for you and I not to feast.
