The Present and Coming Famine

Amos Chapter 8 is fairly substantial and it is important to read it now to make sense of the rest of this writing.  Essentially it is time for Israel to be judged by God. Amos heralds this time as imminent for the people at the time.  As with the prophets generally, the content applies also to the first coming and second comings of Jesus.  It is just a simple fact that the dynamic between God and mankind has patterns.  There are the unbelievers who are doomed.  There is the faithful believers and the unfaithful believers.  It is generally unfaithful believers the Lord directs judgement towards whilst we know the unbeliever is hurtling towards the White Throne of Judgement anyway.  

Today we have a situation where believers are going ahead with practices that defy the scriptural boundaries for walking with God.  Christ-professing people are behaving more like Baal worshippers in some charismatic circles.  There is always consternation about interpretations of God's word but these days we have people who deny fundamental doctrines.  There has always been those who see 'ministry' as an opportunity to make money and it is the people who have little to start with that get sucked into the error.  This is something I feel is a pertinent for this exact time we are in.  Amos 8:4-6

  “Hear this, you who are swallowing up the needy,
    who intend to make the poor of the land fail,
5 and who are saying,
    ‘When will the New Moon fade
        so we may sell grain,
    and the Sabbath conclude
        so we may market winnowed wheat?—
shortchanging the measure,
    raising the price,
        falsifying the scales by treachery,
6 buying the poor for cash,
    and the needy for a pair of sandals,
        selling chaff mixed in with the wheat.’ ISV

Grain and Wheat is the word of God.  Amos indicates this in verse 11 onwards.  Today we have people who lead believers and they sell the word of God and market it.  Not only that but the quality of the word of God is diminished.  They sell the chaff... the degraded bits that bulk up the content.  I remember sitting in on sermons that are devoid of the exegesis of the Word of God.  They are speeches aimed at keeping the attendance and as a by-product, keeping the cash flow.  It is usually people who are poor that buy into the false gospel that promises multiplied returns for a generous investment by rote.  The leaders feel they are doing God's will by building 'ministry' when the whole idea of God's people assembling is to build the people up.  Judgement is here for those who, as the KJV version tells us in v 5 are: making the ephah small, and the shekel great. That is, the word of God is reduced but the cash is increased. 

The famine we have for Gods word will only increase and a sign of the judgement upon these is scratching around for God's word.  While you do hear some standard preachment from the money preachers they really have nothing to say.  The 'payload' that comes from a believer who is walking with the Lord is absent yet they can fill the seats with people.  God opting out of something is the scariest thing judgement-wise.  I want a bolt from the blue so I can see my wretchedness!  But if God has 'left the building' and everything goes on as normal... that is worrying.  Yet this is the mark of the famine.  When God leaves an endeavour it is reduced to a mere religious festival yet many see the numbers, slick and shiny productions, as a mark of God's signature.  The blind lead the blind.  

When a famine occurs everyone has to endure it.  However, before Jesus' first coming there had been about 400 years of silence.  No Prophet had spoken even though much was occurring politically in and around the Land of Promise.  Then John the Baptiser starts heralding the coming of Messiah.  His voice was, as John reminds us of Isaiah 40:3 a 'lone voice crying in the wilderness.'  The characteristics of John the Baptiser are a pattern that could earmark those who are sent to provide food in this famine.  There are those raised up who bear the characteristics of John to herald the second coming of Jesus.  Don't be surprised if you see unknowns emerging from obscurity speaking out strongly to return to God's word in repentance.   It will be no shock to see counter-culture utterances coming from believers who are 'scruffy' like John the Baptiser was, compared to the 'rock-star' religious of his time.  You probably wont like the accents of those sent to speak forth God's word or their straightforward delivery of truth.  Like the religious cohort in Jesus time you may want to shut them up!

Is there any good news?  Of course!  Chapter 9 tells of further misery by Gods hand on sinners but again we see the idea of a remnant saved from the whole.  Let's get before the Lord, ready for his sifting hand, a Holy audit of our walk and what we party to.  Let's be about His word and watching for anything that bends us towards love of this world.  Let's cast off all the things that make any of this about us.  It's all about Jesus and Him glorified.  

Gary Ward