A Famine of Hearing

We are in a great spiritual battle but many of us have left our primary weapon, the Sword of the Spirit,at home

Four hundred years is a long time. Prior to John the Baptist’s emergence from the Wilderness of Judea, God’s prophetic voice had been silent since the days of the prophet Malachi back in the 5th Century BC. Silent they may have been, but those intervening years were certainly eventful: history went trundling on in its not-somerry way. They were violent years when great powers dominated God’s Land. The four generals of Alexander the Great had parcelled up his empire between them and the Seleucid dynasty based in Syria had had a particularly dreadful influence on Israel not only politically but also religiously.

It culminated in the power-crazed antics of Antiochus IV (a true type of Antichrist) who had declared himself “Epiphanes” (God made manifest) and who attempted to inflict perverse Greek religion on the Jewish people. Stamping his demonic power on Jerusalem, Antiochus raided the Temple of gold and silver vessels, banned Jewish worship and even sacrificed pigs on the altar.

Hammers!

In 167 BC, a Jewish priest named Mattathiah of the house of Hashmon, together with his five sons, became so incensed that they led the Jews in a successful revolt against Antiochus. This is known to history as the Maccabean Revolt. The family of Mattathiah had become known as “The Hammers” (in Hebrew, “Maccabee”). Just three years later the Temple was re-consecrated amid wild celebrations that are still acknowledged in the Feast of Hannukah.

Sad to say, Jewish independence was not permanent. In-fighting amongst later generations of Maccabees resulted in control of Israel passing to the Romans. The roller-coaster of Israel’s history had taken another nose-dive and those who still held to their faith in the God of Israel felt starved of the Word of the Lord. Was He no longer the God of revelation who spoke with His people?

Call and response

The silence of over four hundred years was broken by a voice crying in the Wilderness. The Voice of the God of Israel thundered through the Land again and was carried through the prophetic message of John the Baptist: “BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD, WHO TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD!” God’s final Word had now been given: there was nothing more to be said! The revelation of His dear Son – Jesus Christ and Him crucified – is the hope of the world and nothing can ever be added to it!

John came in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17) and electrified his hearers. His message of repentance and preparation for the coming Kingdom of God had profound impact on thousands of Jews throughout Israel. The famine of hearing the words of the Lord was over and the Bread and Water of Life had come into the world to save God’s people.

A famine of hearing

Elijah, John’s forerunner, had also exercised a ministry of relieving famine. In his case both a famine of hearing the words of the Lord and a literal famine too.  The famine of food was the direct result of the famine of hearing God’s Word. We are told in 1 Kings 17:1 that Elijah had confronted Baal-approving King Ahab with the dreadful sentence pronounced by the Lord through Moses
in Deuteronomy 11:16-17. 

“Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and He will shut the heavens so that it will not rain, and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you.”

Actual famine – lack of food – resulted from a refusal to hear and obey the Word of the Lord. It was lifted only when the people of Israel cried out, “The Lord – He is God!” (1 Kings 18:39). Tragically the people’s return to the Lord was short lived, but the famine was over, and the rains returned.

A famine of hearing the words of the Lord is the most grievous form of famine. But we note that the famine is not due to a lack of provision of the Word of God, it is caused by an absence of hearing the Word. God had not withheld His Word from His people, it was His people who had withheld a listening ear and obedient heart!

The days are coming …

Back in the days of the 8th Century prophet Amos, Israel was in a sorry state. Nobody could say the people were not religious, it’s just that they were devoted to the wrong deity! Invasive religions from East and West had offered the people choices and they made the wrong ones: preferring the gods that were no gods to the true God of Israel.

Israel deserved nothing but God’s righteous judgement and rejection, but He is a covenant-keeping God who loves to withhold judgement. Instead He elects to discipline His people that He loves in order to show His anger and displeasure, thus attempting to woo them back. He expressed His anger through food shortage and drought, diseased crops, plagues and raids from marauding gangs. Even the weather carried God’s warnings in the form of lightning strikes and finally a massive earthquake shook the land.

Amos saw it all coming, but was ignored. The final expression of God’s anger was Israel’s exile into Assyria in 721BC, thirty-years after Amos’ voice was stilled. The Lord never punishes without sending a prophet first to explain to the people what will happen if they carry on in their rebellious way.

Towards the climax of Amos’ devastating prophecy, Chapter 8contains this remarkable and chilling statement: “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.”

It is a prophetic statement of fact given by the Lord that demonstrates how things would be before the final collapse. One is bound to ask, is the present famine of hearing the Word of the Lord a final indicator of impending wrath?

A necessary embarrassment

One of the things that Lindy and I observe as we travel from place to place to bring the Word of the Lord is the remarkable number of true believers who seem never to bring their Bible to the meeting. Admittedly many have their faces buried in their iPhone, but actual Bibles appear to be on the decrease. Is it significant?

Then again, there appears to be an alarming reduction in the ability of believers to answer simple biblical questions when given.  And I am referring to Evangelical Churches.
Lindy tells me I shouldn’t ask a congregation questions because it embarrasses the people!  But why should it embarrass them if they are studying God’s Word with a view to living it? My observation is that even in reputed Bible-believing congregations the level of biblical understanding is very low. This can only mean that many Christians are less than serious in their approach to hearing God’s Word and living by it. It seems to me that it all points to a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. There is ample food, but the problem is that there is little desire to consume it.

In Matthew 7:24-27 we are provided with a timeless treasure of revelation in which our Lord Jesus says, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on a rock.” The converse is also one of the Lord’s great truths. We all know it and know it well, but its very simplicity can make us blasé about it if we’re not careful. When it comes to our approach to God’s Word, hearing without learning and doing is not really hearing at all.

Perhaps Amos’ powerful words need to be thundered out again. In the face of our crumbling Church life, where the form of religion appears to satisfy so many ahead of the reality of true biblical faith, is it not high time that we woke up to the appalling danger we are in?

I WILL build MY Church

My own testimony of recent years is that wherever I offer true exposition of the Scriptures – seminars expounding whole books – many hungry believers gather with surprising commitment and they tell me with regret that they get no such teaching in their churches. It seems that so many Pastors and Ministers are so busy they neglect the solid, systematic teaching of God’s Word.The result is that their people do not hear it and so are not encouraged to learn it and live it. THIS HAS TO CHANGE!

Three weeks ago, we were in the Golan Heights – standing in the very place where our Lord made His shattering claim regarding the Church He would build: “I will build my Church and the authorities (gates) of hell shall not prevail against it (or prove stronger than it.” (Matthew 16:18)

As I told the people who were with us, that is fighting talk and it clearly shows that as far as Jesus is concerned the primary work of the Church He builds is SPIRITUAL WARFARE in which true believers attack Satan’s forces and defend themselves against them. The Gospel brings freedom to Satan’s sinful bondslaves – do we imagine we can engage this enemy in ’peace talks’? But how can we wage war either in defence or attack if we neglect to get familiar with the primary weapon of our warfare – the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God?

All soldiers are trained to be familiar with their weapons. They become used to them. They not only know how to use them but they that are so familiar with them that they can take them apart and put them back together again! This determined approach means the difference between life and death.

Soldiers of Christ, arise and put your armour on! Let’s do it together and let’s do it NOW!