A Famine of Hearing

“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. Men 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.” (Amos 8:11–12, NIV 1984).

My Musings – The days did come. There were 400 years of “silence” between the Testaments, Old and New. There were no more prophets to speak. It was “a dry and weary land where there [was] no water.” (Psalm 63:1, NIV 1984). God had gone silent.

Until that one day. “[Jesus] went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.'” (Luke 4:16–21, NIV 1094).

My Advice – “He began by saying,” and He has been speaking ever since. Although it was believed that the crucifixion would silence Him for good. “[But] if [His] purpose or activity [were] of human origin, it [would have failed]. But…it [was] from God, [they were] not…able to stop [it]; [anyone else who tries] will only find [themselves] fighting against God.” (adapted from Acts 5:38–39, NIV 1984).

Despite this, today people “stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord [in all the wrong places], but they will not find it.” Because anything else is “of human origin.” O worse, originating from the lies of Satan. Trying to silence what “is from God” by outright denial, contradiction, or reinterpretation. But instead of finding God they are in truth “fighting against God.” Fighting alongside the evil one.

The result? “[The] very word[s] which I spoke will condemn [them] at the last day. For I [Jesus] did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So, whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.” (John 12:48–50, NIV 1984).

Listen to the Son. He broke four hundred years of the Father’s silence saying, “just what the Father has told me to say.” After four hundred years it had to be a pretty important message. A life and death message. “This is my [God] Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5, NIV 1984).