Starving for Truth (1)

“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord GOD,
“That I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine of bread,
Nor a thirst for water,
But of hearing the words of the LORD. Amos 8.11

A famine of hearing
The prophet Amos foresaw a day in which the absence of any hearing of the Word of God would wreak tragic effects on the people of God. The people of God would be starving for truth, and every aspect of their lives would suffer.

In the grim scenario painted in Amos 8.11-14, people weary and spent stagger in every direction, looking for some sure word to which they might cling, yet without success. The best and brightest of them are at the point of wasting away. Meanwhile, all around, pagan peoples dutifully serve their false gods and made-up deities, yet without any evidence of lasting satisfaction or hope.

Amos casts a vision of spiritual desolation, desperation, hopelessness, and despair. The cause of this tragic situation, as Amos foresaw it, was that there was no hearing of the Word of the Lord in the land.

A vision for our times
We hardly need persuading as to the relevance of this dour vision for our times. The characteristic features of Amos’ prophesy are visible on every hand. We recognize them in the ills and confusion that beset us in these days of spiritual shallowness, relative truth, pragmatic ethics, and the tyranny of taste.

Our youth are wasting the prime years of their lives on pop culture and social networking. The gods of comfort, convenience, and material abundance rule in the souls of many of our contemporaries, and a persistent unease about the economy makes people more anxious about these elusive ideals. The nation is divided politically, morally, economically, and ethnically. There is little evidence of anything other than fleeting happiness throughout the land, and on every hand a sad and lonely people look for someone to blame for their misery, and someone or something to deliver them from their hopeless condition.
And where, in the midst of all this, is that Word of truth that brings life, and sets people free from fear and the tyranny of false hopes (Jn. 8.32)?

Awash in the Word?
In one sense we might be inclined to think ours the most Biblically enlightened of times. After all, there is no shortage of Scriptures and Scripture versions. The Bible remains the best-selling book, year after year. Churches by the scores of thousands dot the landscape, and, week-in and week-out, ministers of the Gospel proclaim Biblical messages to millions of worshippers. Throughout the week supplemental opportunities for additional exposure to the Word of God are available through Bible study groups, radio and television, websites and online learning opportunities, and individual study.

In the United States, evangelicals, that is, Christians in all denominations who profess to believe in the authority and supernatural character of the Bible, “now constitute the largest and most active component of religious life,” comprising as many as 30% of the population, as Mark Noll reported two decades ago (The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind), a statistic which remains essentially unchanged.

We are 100 million people, awash in the Bible, flush with opportunities for reading and studying God’s Word, and in communion with like-minded people who regularly avail themselves of such opportunities.
How, then, shall we account for the spiritual malaise which hovers over our nation, and has left the Church of Jesus Christ a marginalized, ineffectual community?

If the Word of God is truly alive and powerful, able to penetrate the souls of people, to bring real and joyful life, and to transform us into the image of Jesus Christ (Jn. 6.63; Heb. 4.12; 2 Cor. 3.12-18), then why is it, for all our Bible-opportunities, the nation languishes in a spiritual, moral, cultural, economic, and political malaise?

We are a people and a nation starving for truth, languishing in a famine of hearing the Word of God. Is it possible that the terrible, vision which the prophet Amos saw as coming, has descended upon us in our own time?

For reflection
1.  What’s the difference between a famine of truth and a famine of hearing the truth?

2.  Why do you think the Christian movement is becoming increasingly marginal and ineffectual in our society?

3.  Why is it important that Christians feed regularly on the Word of God? How can we tell when that feeding is producing real spiritual health?

Next steps – Preparation: How many different Bible teaching opportunities exist in your church each week? See if you can find out. Ask some of your church leaders, study the weekly calendar of your church, visit your church’s website. How many people participate in these opportunities? How many churches like yours are there in your community?

T. M. Moore

This week’s series, Starving for Truth, is available as a free PDF download, for personal or group use. Click here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.