Tag: famine in the land
Famine in the land!
Scripture reading for September 16th: Amos 8-9
“The days are coming,” declares the 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
We are so blessed in America! We have nearly 360,000 churches across our land. In our city of Owensboro and surrounding area, there are nearly 200 churches to choose from for a population of about 110,000. About 12-15% of those attend a church each week, a high number compared with other parts of our nation. We have services broadcast on television, cable, internet, and radio each day of the week. Christians should be out in the community sharing their faith and the word of the Lord each day. Access to Bibles is not restricted here either, and, indeed, most households have more than one.
Amos lived and ministered among a people who were religious and went to church each Sabbath day to hear God’s word! They had prophets who spoke to them regularly. To come into the adult world of that day, children had to memorize the Books of Moses before their thirteenth birthday. How can a person or people have the word of the Lord and still have a famine?
When we ignore the Lord Himself and disrespect the light that we have from Him, we go into darkness that is deeper than before! These people had the truth and willfully rejected it! This brought God’s wrath and judgment on them. This should be a strong warning to us today in America! To whom much has been given, much will be required!
God’s mercy was evident even in the dire prophetic writings of the prophet Amos. (Amos 9:8-10) God promised restoration after the shaking of judgment. He promised to restore the nation again and plant them in the land that He gave to them. (Amos 9:11-15) God’s goodness to a stubborn people is amazing! It should draw us to repentance and faithful love again! (Romans 2:4) Take advantage of the blessing of having God’s word as your living bread! Eat and be satisfied!
A Root Cause of Famine
Scripture reading for April 2nd: 2nd Samuel 21-24
Have you ever felt like the heavens were brass and your prayers were not being answered? Have you gone through a time of famine when you suffered want and lack? King David and Israel suffered for three years under a severe famine. Finally, the king decided to seek the Lord! (Did it come to that?) (2nd Samuel 21:1) The Lord answered with the root of the problem: innocent bloodshed of Saul’s house against the Gibeonites had not been atoned for.
The Gibeonites had been spared by Joshua as he entered the land of Israel. (Joshua 9) Israel had made a treaty of peace with them and swore their protection. They had been made slaves in Israel because they had deceived Joshua in order to spare their own lives. We do not have a biblical record of what Saul did to the Gibeonites but God tells David about this sin as a cause of the drought. We do not know if Saul’s children were involved or not, but know that God is always just and does what is right by each person.
King David went to the Gibeonites and asked them what could be done for them. They asked for seven descendants of Saul to be handed over to them to be put to death. David granted their request but spared Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan his friend. These were slain and laid out before the Lord. Rizpah, Saul’s concubine and mother of two of those slain covered herself with sackcloth and stayed with the bodies for many days. She drove away the birds by day and wild animals by night. King David heard about her bravery and had the bones of Saul, Jonathan, and these who were slain put away properly in the tomb of Saul’s father. After this, the Lord answered prayer!
What do we learn from this account? Sometimes answer to prayer is hindered by unresolved conflict and hatred. Here a whole nation was under a drought because of the shedding of innocent blood that had not been dealt with. God gave revelation when King David prayed. The drought was broken by taking action to repent of that issue and deal with those responsible. God is a God who demands that His people take responsibility for their actions and deal justly with sin!