Today's Devotion -- Amos 8:11-13
11 "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.
12 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.
13 "In that day
"the lovely young women and strong young men
will faint because of thirst. (NIV)
taken from www.biblegateway.com
It is really hard for me to imagine not having access to the words of the Lord. In Biblical times people were able to hear snippets from the reading of the Torah at the Temple or they could listen to the prophets (if there happened to be one). Beyond that they had to rely on memorized words and guidance passed down through the generations.
Today in many countries it is illegal to have a copy of the Scripture. They sometimes tear a single Bible into many shorter sections to memorize and pass along to others. All while we may have multiple copies (best as I can count, we have at least 9 copies in our house, not counting the internet), but we often don't find time to read any of it until we open them on Sunday.
With such easy access to God's Word, how could we have a famine in our country? What if people no longer heard what was in the Bible, or even had a clue that God's Word held the key to fulfilling the emptiness in their souls?
When I was in high school, I heard a story about a conversation between God and Satan. God was proclaiming the ease with which we could all access his Word. Satan laughed and said that he believed that people owned God's word but wouldn't miss it if it were gone. God allowed Satan to steal Bibles and he could keep the ones that weren't missed by their owners. How many do you think he could collect today?
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