Famine

This morning four of us met on Skype on the Kingdom of God study we have been doing for the past several months.  During the conversation one of the men shared Amos 8:11.  Famine is a harsh word.  It conjures up extremely harsh and difficult images (do a quick Google image search).  Famine is how God describes through Amos what was going to happen to the Northern Kingdom.

I have been re-reading Galatians: The Charter for Christian Liberty, by Tenney in the preface he states:

In the sixteenth century, during the Reformation, interest in Bible study revived; and. Through the commentary of Luther, Galatians came into prominence once again in the literature of the church.

Later in chapter one Tenney states:

It is not an essay, written merely to entertain or to instruct complacent believers.  It was written to stimulate theological thought and to rouse an endangered church to action.

In these statements Tenney seems to capture two elements from which famine for the Word of God springs.  On the one hand we have the dark ages.  Ignorance, illiteracy reigned, the clergy refused to engage the members of the parish in Bible study, they knew that they were incapable of understanding without professional help.

On the other had we have apathy, complacency, people who cannot be troubled with the work of study.  Those who would rather be entertained and stimulated rather than plough through the hard soil of personal study themselves.  Those who would rather read, listen to, or watch the work of others rather than meet personally with God through His Word.

It is good, is it not, that we do not have either of those attitudes present in our churches today.