Amos 8:11-12
11"The days are coming," declares the Sovereign LORD, "when I will send a famine through the land - not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. 12Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it.
In this chapter of Amos, God is pronouncing judgment on Israel.
• The merchants were keeping religious festivals, but not in the spirit. They couldn’t wait for the holy days and Sabbaths to be over so they could go back to making money.
• All they were really interested in was doing better for themselves, even if it meant cheating others; if it meant being immoral and deceitful; taking advantage of others.
• Their heart was not in worship. They put on a religious front for others, but God knew their hearts, and He was not pleased.
• The people were not keen to listen to what God has to say.
The days are coming, the Lord says, when they will not hear from Him.
• It will be a famine of the Word of God; not be a famine of food or water. It will be a famine of hearing the words of God.
• The people staggering from sea to sea; wander from North to East, searching for the Word of God.
They will be longing for the Word of God.
• They are longing for God to say something that will give them hope.
• They are craving for an assurance from God that things are fine.
• They are searching for answers. They want to know why. They want to know what to do.
There will come a time when we realise what we need is not food and water, but the Word of God.
• We may be well-fed but spiritually malnourished. We are looking for hope in a crisis, we are looking for comfort in our pain, and we are searching for a way out of our problem.
• These are the times that we do not want food and water; we have no appetite to eat. We want to HEAR from God.
• We want God to say something. “Tell me why am I in such a state. Tell me what I should do. Show me the way out.”
We will then appreciate the words of Jesus: “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" (Matt 4:4)
• We need to hear the Word of God, more than anything else.
We saw in the book of Acts, each time Paul was in a difficult situation, God spoke:
Acts 18:9-10 (Corinth) “One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: "Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. 10For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”
Acts 22:17-18 (Jerusalem) “When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance 18and saw the Lord speaking. `Quick!' he said to me. ‘Leave Jerusalem immediately, because they will not accept your testimony about me.'”
Acts 22:21 “Then the Lord said to me, `Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.'”
Acts 23:11 “The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, "Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome."”
Acts 27:23-24 (Storm) “Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me 24and said, `Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.'”
Put a premium on HEARING the Word of God, as often as you can.
• If food and water are important to our physical growth and health, then hearing the Word of God is critical to our spiritual growth.
• Hear it not just once a week, but every day. Even a verse or two per day is better than hearing nothing from God.
Jesus said repeatedly in the Gospels: “He who has ears, let him hear.”
• The angel said to the churches in Revelation: “He who has an ear, let him hear.” (8 times)
We need to hear more of the Word of God, and not less.
• With the influx of smartphones and tablets, and tons of great multimedia apps, we are confronted with more distractions than ever.
• All these noises are clamouring for our attention. We end up reading and hearing LESS of the Word of God.
We need to MAKE AN EFFORT to hear it MORE. Rom 10:17 says, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”
• My faith is built up by the Word of God I listen to. My brother hears podcasts en route to work in the MRT. Find some good sermons and listen on weekdays.
• If I hear it once a week, that’s how ‘strong’ my faith is going to be. If I hear it every day, that makes the difference.
• Some can stand strong even in the midst of a hurricane storm. Others slip and fall because of a light drizzle.
What are you HEARING today? What are you FEEDING your mind with?
In the Parable of the Sowers Jesus tells us very clearly that the problem of barrenness is not with the SEED (God’s Word) but the condition of the grounds it falls upon.
• The seed can fall on the path, the rocky places, among the thorns and on good soil. They are the different ways we receive the Word.
• For all the first 3 types of grounds, the seed cannot take root.
Jesus says they listen but “does not understand”. He is not talking about the things in the Bible that we do not understand. Many things I still don’t understand today.
• He says those who hear but do not SEEK to understand. They did not even try. They did not bother to think about it, to ponder it, comprehend it, or study it.
• There is nothing wrong with the SEED. The problem is in its RECEPTION. Jesus ended with, “He who has ears, let him hear.” (Matt 13:9)
He said the seed that fell on the good soil is someone who is prepared to receive the Word and let it take root.
• Jesus says, “But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown." (Matt 13:23)
• He understands it because he takes time to think, to ponder, to learn, to study and to meditate on it.
The word MEDITATE is emphasized many times in the Bible.
• We have the same picture in Psalm 1. The psalmist says the one who meditates on God’s Word, day and night, is “like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.” (Psalm 1:3)
• Joshua 1:8 “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”
James 1:23-25 “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - he will be blessed in what he does.”
We tend to focus on the word DO, so be doers of the Word, which is not wrong.
• But the person is able to DO the Word precisely because he has been LISTENING well.
• He has been LOOKING INTENTLY at it, CONTINUES do look at it. He DID NOT FORGET.
• He remembers what he hears because he has been looking at it INTENTLY and CONTINUOUSLY. He is MEDITATING on the Word of God.
• James concludes, the same way the Psalmist and Joshua 1:8 concludes – HE WILL BE BLESSED IN WHAT HE DOES.
Receive the Word of God continuously, constantly and consistently.
• Don’t read the Bible occasionally. Don’t hear the Word sporadically.
• We will not realise how bad this is because the consequence is not immediate. But given some time, we will see that our life is not yielding fruit (like what the Psalmist says). Our leaves wither. We are not prospering in any way.
• When those signs show, we will understand. We have not been taking in the Word of God.
Don’t allow yourself to go through the famine of hearing the words of the LORD, prophet Amos warned.
• Saturate your mind with the Word of God. Listen to it every day. Read it again and again.
• Two days ago, on Friday, I received this text from one of you. “I’ve deactivated Facebook to focus on the Bible and studies. Recently I have been reading the KJV bible more on my phone app and looked up alot of my questions on Christianity and been closer to God ever since.”
Exposure to the Word of God will change us, mould us, inspire us, and bless us in ways beyond our expectations!
• Take it in and we will continue to grow healthy and strong.
In summary:
• HEAR THE WORD OF GOD, as often as you can.
• FAITH is built up when you HEAR the Word of God.
• MEDITATE on it, the Bible says.
• The one who is constantly exposed himself to the Word will be BLESSED.
• Not only that, you will find yourselves TRANSFORMED by the Word.
