Not
a famine of bread … but of hearing the words of the LORD – Israel has sinned
grievously and done some very wicked things to their own people. They even
proclaim: “The poor cannot pay their loans, so we will buy them as slaves.
We will buy those helpless people for the price of a pair of sandals. Oh, and
we can sell the wheat that was spilled on the floor" (vs 6, ERV). They
are oppressing the poor. God sees it and says: “I will never forget what
those people did” (vs 7, ERV).
God
promises that judgment will come down on them and a terrible affliction is
coming their way (vs 8-10). In their distress, they will call to God. But God
will not answer them. There will be no prophet around to relay to them the messages
from God. The people will not be hungry for bread. They will not be thirsty for
water. Instead, they will be hungry for words from the LORD. But God is SILENT!
Before
the invention of the printing press, only a very few could own their own copy
of even part of the Bible. Today the word of God (Bible) is so widely available
that it’s hard to understand how rare it was in the past. That there was a
period of dark ages in the history of the church in which the Bible was taken
away from the common folks. People then were ignorant of the word of God. There
was a famine of the word of God. But today, God’s word is so easily available
and accessible in every corner of the earth. There is no excuse for men to say
they have not heard about the Bible. The famine today is not of the word of God
being unavailable but in the people not hungry for it. God is not silent today
but men do not want to listen when He speaks.
Today,
elders have a problem getting every Christian to cultivate a daily habit of
reading the word of God. Why? There is simply no desire for it. Christians are
not hungry for the word of God. Christ told His followers to live by every word
of God (Matthew 4:4). The apostle Paul reminds us that the Holy Scriptures are
able to make us wise to salvation, and are given by inspiration of God to teach
us, correct us, instruct us and thoroughly equip us for every good work (2
Timothy 3:15-17). Yet, how many Christians are reading the word of God daily?
God’s
people have always loved God’s Word. We read how David and other psalmists
loved the word of God. “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the
day” (Psalm 119:97). “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea,
sweeter than honey to my mouth! ” (Psalm 119:103). “Thy word is a
lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105).
Even
if they could not own a copy, Christians throughout the ages found ways to hear
it read often and even memorised portions of it. It is a far cry from today.
Children do not want to memorise the word of God. God’s people do not want to
meditate on the word of God. There is a famine today not OF the word of
God but FOR the word of God.
If
Christians’ minds are not filled with the word of God, then, something else
will take its place. Our Lord warns: “When the unclean spirit is gone out of
a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then
he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is
come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and
taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they
enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the
first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation” (Matthew
12:43-45).
The
mind is either filled with spiritual things or the things of the devil. What is
in your mind? Is there a famine FOR the word of God in
you?
Jimmy Lau
Psa
119:97 Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment