“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. People 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 that day “the lovely young women and strong young men will faint because of thirst. Those who swear by the sin of Samaria—who say, ‘As surely as your god lives, Dan,’ or, ‘As surely as the god of Beersheba lives’—they will fall, never to rise again.” (Amos 8:11-14 NIV)
An amazing thing just happened. Know what it was? We heard the Word of God! Isn’t that amazing? You’re like, “That’s not that amazing. It happens every Sunday.” I know. Isn’t that amazing? Week after week, day after day, the God who made the sun talks, and you understand his voice. Do you realize how special that is? Over the history of the world, not many people have gotten to hear the Word of God in their own language. No one has ever before been able to carry it around on a phone in their pocket. You heard the Word of God! Isn’t that amazing?
With Queen Elizabeth’s passing, tributes are pouring in. People describe getting to talk with the Queen—even if just for a moment. Here was a surprising one: Simon Cowell. Know him? The famous talent judge. He got to talk with Queen Elizabeth one time. He said, “She didn’t have any idea who I was, and it was just for a couple seconds, but I got to talk to the Queen! It was the coolest thing.” Do you think God is greater than Queen Elizabeth? If talking with the Queen for a couple seconds is that special, you get to hear God himself! Not for a second. Anytime you want to. Is this sinking in? Isn’t that amazing? Why don’t we get excited about the Word of God?
I think know why: We take the Bible for granted. I heard an interview with Michael Jordan’s daughter. Michael Jordan was a great basketball player, but do you know who didn’t know that? His daughter. Growing up, he was just her dad. In the interview, she said she would ask her dad, “Why does everybody think you’re such a big deal? You’re not that special.” It wasn’t until she got older and Googled her dad—“Who is Michael Jordan?”—that she understood. Familiarity leads us to take greatness for granted. Do you take God’s Word for granted in your life?
Then Amos has a big warning for us today. Amos lived in the 700s B.C. in Israel. Do you know what it was like in Israel in the 700s B.C.? It was awesome! That’s not what you were expecting, was it? Things were going great. Israel was experiencing a period of great success. The people had wealth like never before. There was peace and prosperity. Everything was going good. In fact, things were going so good that they decided they didn’t need God. They ignored God’s prophets. They worshiped idols like Baal and Asthoreth. They didn’t need God. Sound familiar?
So God was about to judge the Israelites in an unexpected way. Listen: “‘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.’” What was coming? A famine. But not a famine of food or water. A famine of hearing God’s Word. The Israelites had ignored and rejected God’s prophets over and over again, so God was going to give them exactly what they wanted. People were not going to hear God’s Word anywhere. A famine of the Word.
That doesn’t sound so bad, does it? Going without God’s Word? I mean, if we’re honest, we go without God’s Word all the time. What’s the big deal? It’s this: Can you imagine a world with no forgiveness for sin? Can you imagine a world with no promise of eternal life in the face of death? With no assurance of God’s presence when you’re all alone? With no Jesus? Wouldn’t that be awful? A famine of the Word of God? To walk through the valley of the shadow of death—alone… To deal with your sin—alone… To face everything—alone… Wouldn’t that be awful?
God describes it: “People 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.” Picture the word “stagger.” Without God’s Word, God says that human beings stagger around, looking for something they can never seem to find. Isn’t that a great description? People stagger around from one thing to the next. Never actually finding “it,” whatever “it” is. Martin Luther once said: “When the Word has been taken away, what else remains but the most terrible darkness of human reason.” People will stagger…
Here’s how dark it is without the Word: “In that day the lovely young women and strong young men will faint because of thirst.” Without the Word of God in your heart, even beauty and strength don’t mean anything. Can you see that? To be a beautiful woman, but to lack the Word of God, you will faint. To be the strongest man, but to lack the Word of God, you will faint. People who seem to be set up for success somehow crash and burn and fall. Another actress or athlete or singer dies from an overdose. The Bed, Bath, and Beyond CEO jumps out the window of a skyscraper. Because something is missing. Without the Word of God, something is missing.
Isn’t that where we’re at today? The Word is everywhere. At least, it’s accessible everywhere. But the Word is virtually nowhere. Not in hearts. Not in minds. Add this: Not in churches. Even Christian churches are focused on entertainment. The Word of God? Old-fashioned. Forgotten. What’s the result? Even the lovely young women and the strong young men are fainting. A generation of people is growing up with everything—phones, laptops, TikTok—with everything but the Word of God. And it’s showing, isn’t it? Why don’t people have purpose? Why don’t people have peace? Why is there so much depression and anxiety and suicide and overdoses? Because we’re missing something. We’re thirsty. There’s a famine of the Word of God.
Can you see that? When the Word is gone, you lose your foundation. Everything falls apart. We Christians see lots of problems in our world: Anger. Addictions. Sexual immorality. Apathy. Atheism. And we blame the president. Or “those people.” “They are corrupting the world!” But that’s not the real problem. Do you know the root cause? We’re missing the Word of God. Why two genders? Because God made male and female. Why does every life matter? Because Jesus died for every person. Why work? Because everything we do, we do for the glory of God. You take that away, what do you have? A society with no foundation. A famine of the Word of God.
How does that happen? Every famine is connected to a drought. We’re going through a drought. How does a drought work? Do you just wake up one day and everything is dry? No. It happens a little at a time. Each day without rain, the earth gets drier and drier until nothing grows. That’s what happens to our faith without the Word of God. Faith doesn’t die overnight. But just because we can make it one day without rain, doesn’t mean we don’t need rain. Without the Word, little by little, our faith dries up. Until there’s nothing left. Until we don’t even see the need for God.
And then God gives us what we want. It’s a terrible, but incredibly fair judgment from God. If we don’t want God’s Word, God gives us what we want. He takes his Word away. And we’re left to stagger around. To turn to whatever idols occupy our thoughts. To look to this religion or that religion. To this entertainment or that entertainment. Ultimately, to fall down and never rise up. When we repeatedly ignore or reject God’s Word, we’re in danger of God in judgment doing exactly what we request: Removing his Word with its promises from us. A famine of the Word.
But here’s the good news: That judgment hasn’t happened to you and me yet. How do we know? Because we got to hear the Word of God today! Remember how amazing that is? How special? God has not removed his Word from Tulsa, OK. What a blessing! We heard God’s promise from Isaiah: “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10-11).
It’s still raining. Don’t miss it! Don’t miss the Word. The Bible is full of promises about the Word of God. “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever” (Isaiah 40:8). “The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12). “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). “Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17). God’s Word with its promises is raining on us.
It gets better. The Word of God doesn’t just give us promises about Jesus. The Bible says that Jesus is the Word of God. Have you heard how the Bible calls him that? “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Jesus is the Word made flesh. He became a human being like us. He died on the cross for our sins. He gives eternal life to all who believe in him. We all need Jesus. And where do you find Jesus? In the Word. He is the Word!
I made a mistake last week as I was putting together the worship folder. Last Sunday, we sang the hymn, “Take the World, but Give Me Jesus.” As I typed the title, I missed the “l.” So what did it say? It said, “Take the Word, but Give Me Jesus.” Isn’t that what we’re encouraged to do today? “Just focus on Jesus, don’t worry about the Word. Just believe in Jesus, don’t get bogged down in the Bible. If you have Jesus, you don’t need all the rest of the stuff in there. Take the Word, but give me Jesus.” Right? No! So, so wrong. So shallow. No Word? No Jesus! Wordless Christianity doesn’t exist. Christians are people of the Book. People of the Word of God.
That’s what made September 1522 such a special time. For the first time in their lives, the people of Germany could read the Word of God. That first edition sold out. Can you imagine that? The Bible sold out, and they had to print it again and again. Within twelve years, 200,000 copies had sold. That Bible translation made the Bible not the church’s book. Not the theologian’s book. It made the Bible the people’s book. “I can read the Word of God.” That changed everything. People got to hear God himself speak. Luther famously said, “I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing…. I did nothing; the Word did everything.”
Friends, never before has the Word of God been so accessible to human beings. Don’t let this blessing slip away from you. Don’t ever take the Word of God for granted. Don’t miss every opportunity to hear God speak to you in the Bible. Make use of God’s Word and God’s grace while it is still here! History shows that God’s Word is like a passing rain shower which doesn’t stay in one place for long. Who knows how long we will be so blessed? In many ways it seems like the gospel rain showers are shifting out of the United States to Africa and Asia where people are soaking up the gospel. Before the famine comes, drink up all you can of the Word of God.
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