“The time is surely coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land…” (Amos 8:11) 

There are a lot of people who will read this and immediately think: “This is why I don’t like reading the Old Testament.  God is always throwing lightning bolts or sending disasters.”  Others would go further and say: “This is why I don’t believe in the made-up deity of a Bronze Age culture.”

I get it.  There are a lot of things in the covenant story of Israel that make me cringe and shake my head, and some which I just have to contradict.  But this isn’t one of them. 

This is the whole verse:

“The time is surely coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.”

Sometimes we just don’t want to hear God’s word to us, especially if we are hearing how negligent we’ve been to love compassionately and to act justly.  We’re inclined to avoid listening to words that sting our conscience with reminders of our selfishness and sinfulness.  So, we tune out the words we don’t want to hear.  We ignore; we avoid; we distract ourselves lest we hear these messages.

And then a funny thing happens: we get to feeling empty, depleted, hungry.  We become famished for the truth about the state of the world and the truth about ourselves.  We long to hear the word of truth that can set us free, even if it is a word of correction.  Fasting from God’s truth will leave us aching with hunger for a word of reassurance that our lives matter and that we are loved by the very Author of life.  Worst of all, if you fast long enough, nihilistic denial of truth will fill the empty places.

The thing about the famine: God doesn’t send it; we impose it on ourselves.  Feeling hungry?

Prayer:  Eternal Word, feed us with your truth.  We are ready to taste the bitter truth about our injustice and our indifference as well as tasty morsels about your love for us.  Amen.