Saturday, July 19, 2014
Reading for today: Amos 6-9
"The time is surely coming," says the Sovereign LORD, "when I will send a famine on the land -- not a famine of bread or water but of hearing the words of the LORD. People will stagger everywhere from sea to sea, searching for the word of the LORD, running here and going there, but they will not find it. (Amos 8:11-12 NLT).
Have you ever had something that you took for granted until you didn’t have it anymore? Well, the people of Israel are about to experience what it is going to be like to not have God’s word spoken to them. He has pronounced a famine on the land – a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
Unfortunately, Amos’ warning to the people of Israel seems to be falling on deaf ears. They don’t see any problems existing in their lives of plenty. They are deceiving themselves in to thinking nothing is going to happen. But what they don’t realize is that God is going to remove even the opportunity to hear his word. They gave up their desire for God’s word and so now they will no longer have it.
Can you imagine a world without God’s word in it?
We are very fortunate here in the United States, just like the Israelites, we have the blessing of being God’s people (adopted as God’s own children), with easy accessibility to his Word. But the Israelites lost their blessing through indifference and apathy, through taking His Word for granted, for counting their privilege a burden. And if we aren’t careful we are going to experience what they did, when they refused to repent.
Hebrews 2:3-4 contains a severe warning for us:-
How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will? (Heb 2:3-4 NKJV)
Amos and Hebrews are essentially saying the same thing, if we despise the word of God, if we neglect it, if we want God to leave us alone and stop bothering us, he will give us what we want. He will leave us alone. We will no longer be able to hear His word. Our hearts will have become so hardened that they cannot hear.
I think the message for us today, is to not wait until it is too late and we realize just what we have lost. God’s Word is precious and available, lets continue to take advantage of the blessings we receive from having, experiencing and hearing God’s Word, daily.
Blessings
PK