A Famine of Hearing Yahweh’s Words

This passage deals with how the people of Israel let their chance to repent slip away and in the end came under God's judgment. Through Amos, God shows the vision of ripe summer fruit and declares that they have reached a state in which they can no longer be forgiven. The people kept only the outward form of the feasts and the Sabbath, while exploiting their neighbors through deceit and greed and giving themselves to pleasure. Because of this pride and sin, God resolves no longer to answer when they call.

The sermon points out what the spiritual famine Israel would face really is. It warns that what is coming is not a physical famine in which people die for lack of bread or water, but the drying up of the soul because it cannot hear Yahweh's words. The people will stagger from the north even to the east seeking the word, but once the door of judgment has closed, they will not be able to obtain the word of truth. Formal religious rituals and false faith cannot quench the soul's thirst; true life and satisfaction can be found only in Jesus Christ.

The sermon asks how believers should prepare their souls now, while God's word can be heard so easily. Seeing God fall silent once the opportunity he gave has been missed, it leads us to reflect on what true repentance and a life centered on God's word are.