“AND the famine was sore in the land.” The land of Egypt was smitten by God with famine. Yes, it was a terrible famine. It lasted for seven years, and took place in the country of all countries which is the least subject to such calamities, on account of its extreme fruitfulness. Yet God brought it on this land, and at the same time He raised up a deliverer. When they cried out to Pharaoh in their distress, he was helpless, and could point them to only one person who could relieve them, “Go to Joseph,” was his answer.
What a picture of this world, its pleasures, its vanities, and its idols! Today the famine is “over all the face of the earth,” and nothing can satisfy but going to Christ.
But let us pass on to another famine even more terrible than this one. What is it? you ask. The sacred pages of Scripture shall supply the answer, “And there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want.” The younger son had spurned his father’s love, turned his back on him, left the warmth and happiness of his home, and had plunged into the cold, dreary world, with all its false glitter and glamour. He “took his journey into a far country,” and then made the most of the world. Lured on by Satan, he indulged in every pleasure and every excess that this poor world can give, until “he had spent all.” And we read, “there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want.” “No man gave unto him.” What a famine! How desperate his need! He was perishing!
My unsaved reader, you have spurned the love of God; you have turned your back on Him; you have chosen the hard, cold world, and a life without Christ, instead of the joys and the happiness of the life with Christ. You may not have gone to the same depths of sin that the prodigal did, but you are living without Christ, and are surrounded on every hand by famine. What a famine! How desperate your need! My reader, you are perishing!
Why not turn to God as the poor prodigal did? You will get the same welcome. How He longs for you, how His heart yearns for you! He is looking out at this moment for your return as a repentant sinner. Why not join that happy band of whom it says, “in the days of famine they shall be satisfied”?
Before your eyes pass from this paper, just pause and consider one more famine. Yea, a terrible famine, more terrible than the seven years’ famine in Egypt, or the famine in the heart of the Christless prodigal in the far country, “Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.” Oh! my reader, beware lest you neglect God’s offer of mercy and pardon, despise the Saviour’s love, and resist the strivings of the Holy Ghost once too often. “They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.” Yes, you may have to live the rest of your life without Christ, die without Him, and spend eternity without Him. “Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke, then a great ransom cannot deliver thee.”
P. C.