October 5, 2025 - Amos 8:11 - "A Famine in the Land"

Amos 8:11

"Behold, the days come, saith the LORD God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:"

When we open the Word of God to Amos chapter eight, it is as though we enter a winter season, an eclipse of the sun, when the LORD withholds His hand. We know the sun continues to shine even if we cannot see it, yet there are days of cloudiness, days when it seems that the sun is removed. And yet God is Who He is. He does not change, though He may, for a time, eclipse His glory and withhold the revelation of Himself from a generation.

Amos was one of those early prophets, some seven hundred years before Christ, who declared this most solemn Word of the LORD: “The end is come upon my people of Israel. I will not again pass by them anymore” (Amos 8:2). The vision of a basket of summer fruit was a symbol of the end. No more harvest. No more passing by. The LORD had set the time. And in the midst of such judgment comes the declaration of verse eleven: “I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.”

How solemn is this famine! It is one thing for the body to hunger for bread or thirst for water. It is another thing altogether for the soul to be starved of the Word of the LORD. Without His Word, there is no light, no direction, no comfort. Without His Word, there is no revelation of Christ, no message of His finished work at Calvary. And this famine is not imaginary. It is real. There have been many a candlestick the LORD has put out in His time (Revelation 2:5). The songs of the temple were turned into howlings. Dead bodies were cast forth in silence. Nebuchadnezzar came down and destroyed Jerusalem, just as the prophets foretold, though false prophets walked about saying, “It will never happen.”

So it is with false shepherds. They swallow up the needy, they make the poor of the land to fail. They care not for the sheep, but prey upon them. They falsify the balances of deceit. They are hirelings. And the LORD has sworn, “Surely I will never forget any of their works.” (Amos 8:7) Yet amid this famine, the LORD keeps His own. Every one of His sheep shall be brought to the great Shepherd (John 6:37).

Christ cares for His people, the needy sinners whom He has purchased with His own precious blood. False religion is no refuge. “They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth” (Amos 8:14), shall fall and never rise up again. False religion always ends in destruction. But for God’s people, the famine drives them to Christ, the Bread of Life, the true Water for thirsty souls. If we have Christ, we have the Word made flesh. If we have Christ, we are fed in every season.

How seriously then should we take our meeting together, as the LORD chosen and redeemed saints? What a privilege to gather and hear the Word of the LORD! We just assume there will always be another opportunity, another preacher, another message. But the LORD does not have to raise up another Gospel preacher. Often His blessing on a people lasts only a generation. Therefore, let us value every message of Christ the Living Bread and Water, every occasion to hear His Word, every reminder of His finished work.

At Calvary, Christ met our greatest need—the need of our sin. He paid the great price with His own precious blood, precious unto God, and now precious unto us. If He has so bought us, then He will also keep us. Though the famine may come to a land, yet the Spirit of Grace breathes upon sinful hearts of God’s elect children and gives them life to look to Christ and Christ alone. In Him, and in His finished work, there is rest.

So let us not chase the wind of this world, which is nothing but a vapor, but rejoice that the LORD has been pleased to teach us of Christ His Son. And may our hearts be drawn evermore to Him, who faithfully cares for us, even in days of famine.

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine… not of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.” May God keep us through such a famine, and keep us ever thankful for His Word, and for Christ, the Living Word, Who has accomplished all for His people.