We typically understand a famine as a lack of food or water, but Amos 8:11 speaks cryptically of a famine of the hearing of the Word of God: “‘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.’”
To better understand a difficult message, it’s often helpful to understand the messenger. Amos, along with Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah, prophesied during the eighth century BC. The Jews had split into two nations, the northern kingdom, Israel, and the southern kingdom, Judah. It is interesting to note that Amos had no formal theological training; he was a farmer who raised livestock and sycamore figs (Amos 7:14). Interesting, too, is the fact that Amos, who resided in Judah, was sent by God to preach in the northern kingdom. As is often the case among a rebellious people, Amos’s calls for national repentance were met with hostility (Amos 7:12). Let us begin by examining the eighth chapter of Amos in its entirety:
Just as the harvest marks the end of the season, the basket of summer fruit signifies the coming judgment in which the rebellious people reap the bitter harvest they have sown (Amos 8:1–3). Ensnared by economic prosperity and fueled by greed, dishonest merchants added to their coffers by making merchandise of the poor (Amos 8:4–6). Rather than honoring the Lord, these dishonest merchants considered acts of worship as unwelcome business interruptions. None of this had escaped God’s attention. He had witnessed their deeds, and He knew the hardness of their hearts.
As is always the case, the unrepentant who refuse God’s mercy must face His wrath (Amos 8:7). Verse 9 tells of cosmic signs that indicate the dawning of the day of the Lord. The day of the Lord occurs before the millennial reign of Christ Jesus; this is the dark time in which God pours out His wrath upon the earth. The prophet’s graphic imagery of death and destruction reminds us that God’s wrath is a terrible spectacle to behold (Amos 8:8–14).
Among the judgments of those days, God will send a famine: a famine of hearing God’s Word. This is surely a severe judgment, as people will seek the Lord and not find Him. Those who rejected the prophets will no longer be able to find a prophet. Those who despised God’s Word will have God’s Word hidden from them. They will hunger and thirst for a message from God, but too late. Like the virgins in Jesus’ parable, they will come to the door of the wedding feast and find it closed. “Lord, Lord,” they will say, “open the door for us!” (Matthew 25:11). The only word they hear will be, “Truly I tell you, I don’t know you” (verse 12).
To some degree, the famine of God’s Word is with us now. A growing number of pastors are abandoning sound biblical teachings and the message of the cross. Rather than telling people they are lost sinners in desperate need of salvation, these false teachers proclaim glowing messages of prosperity, self-esteem, or political activism. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the apostle Paul warned, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:3–5, ESV). Bible study bathed in prayer is the believer’s best preventative against spiritual famine.