“‘Behold, the days are coming,’ declares the Lord God, ‘when I will send a famine on the land. Not a famine of bread, nor thirst for water. But of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east. They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.'”
– Amos 8:11–12
Oh, this is the worst famine of all. Worse than a famine of bread, or a thirst for water. The worst famine of all is silence from God in his word. We need the word of God more than we need bread every day, more than we need water for our bodies. We have no salvation, no hope, no promises to stand on, no truth to cling to, no light to lead us on the way in a world of darkness and lies and deception.
Amos 8:11–12 Shows us the Importance of God’s Word
We are desperate for the word of God, and praise God in a way that’s different from Amos 8. Most of us have access to his word and can open up a Bible. We have 66 books that are inspired by the spirit of God as the word of God. So let’s take full advantage of this. Let’s meditate on it, Psalm 1, day and night. Let’s feast on it, eat of it, drink from it more than bread, food during the day, water that we drink. May we see God’s word as far more important than anything else in this world. And, at the same time, doesn’t this passage just give us a perspective on unreached people we pray for all the time on this podcast? People who have a famine of God’s word. Many of these unreached people who don’t even have the scripture in their language, they don’t have God’s word. They live without light and promises from God, hope in Jesus.
God, we praise you for your word. We praise you that Amos 8 is not a reality for us that we do not have. Because of us listening to this, we don’t have a famine of hearing your word. We have an abundance of your word. God, we praise you for your word and for your revelation to us. We praise you for the life we find in your word and the strength and the joy and the wisdom and the peace and the hope that we find in your word. Your word is a rock. We love your word. Lord, we stand on your word and we trust in your word. We need your word. God, we pray that you would make us a people who meditate on your word day and night, who hide it in our hearts, who read it and study it and memorize it and digest it and live according to it and spread it.
Amos 8:11–12 Leads Us to Pray for the Spread of God’s Word
God, we pray that you help us to spread your word. We think about so many people around us who don’t know the goodness of your word. We pray that you would help us to spread the goodness of your word today, to encourage others with your word, to give others a copy of your word, to lead others to know your word. And God, we pray for people around the world who have no access to your word right now. Unreached people, and particularly people who don’t have your word in their language. God, we pray for your blessing on all those who are working for Bible translation to erase the famine of your word among people and people groups all around the world.
Praying for the Pattani Malay People of Thailand
God, we pray for people groups, and God we pray specifically for people groups to be reached with your word, like the Pattani Malay people of Thailand, over a million and a half of them. No known followers of Jesus among the Pattani Malay. God, we pray that you would raise up the Thai church to make the gospel known among the Pattani Malay people, that you would raise up other men and women from your church around the world to get the gospel to the Pattani Malay. God, we pray that there would no longer be a famine of your word among the Pattani Malay. We pray that they would be reached with your word, they would find it and be satisfied in it, be saved by it.
Lord, we pray that over them. We pray that over thousands of people groups in the world, billions of people who right now have a famine of your word. Help us, we pray, who have your word to be faithful to do all that you call us to do, to spread your word, all that you call us to do to know your word and spread your word right around us and far from us, until your word goes literally to the ends of the earth, to all the peoples in all the nations. We pray in Jesus’ name, according to Amos 8:11–12. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
