Famine

 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 8
 
Although one of the oldest of plagues, famine still menaces vast areas of the modern world. "Another great Bengal famine feared." "The famine bell tolls for the Nomads of Nigeria." "Present grain outlook a frightening world problem." News headlines such as these remind us that famine cannot be dismissed as a thing of the past. The threat of it is with us today. A U. S. authority has stated that today's shortages can be translated into as many as thirty million lives lost in the next year.
But while governments grapple with the problems of food shortages, how few people are concerned with an even more dreadful kind of famine foretold in the Bible!
"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: and they shall wander from sea to sea and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord, and shall not find it." Amos 8:11, 12.
How sad it is to see so many today who are closing their ears to the truth and turning to fables This is particularly so in so-called Christian lands so richly blessed with the Holy Scriptures. The Bible warns us that the day will come when the grieved Spirit of God will have left the earth, and the very Scriptures of truth shall, as it were, be taken from those who have esteemed them so lightly.
Then "shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst" (Amos 8:13), because the water of life which they refused shall no more be offered.
Thank God that in this present day of His grace, the word of the Lord still goes out to all.
"If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink." And "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." John 7:37. Revelation 22:17.