In ancient Israel a sheepherder from Tekoa named Amos received the word of the Lord telling him that future days would come, in which there would be a famine, but not for food, but a famine of the Word of God.

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,
      “when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread, nor a 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

In our time, can we possibly admit this is true, considering that tens of thousand churches in America read the bible from their pulpits every Sunday, and on Saturdays for traditional Sabbath-keeping congregations, and Jewish synagogues? As difficult as it may be to admit, we are living in times such as Amos portrayed.

The words of the Bible are read aloud, proclaimed, studied, discussed, written about in commentaries, but people are simply not hearing the words of the Lord, YHWH. There is an altered teaching, a different spirit, which blocks the transmission of the truth of Yah. There are towers that need tearing down, fortifications which block the knowledge of God. And we should be destroying all speculations (2 Corinthians 10) and destroying fortresses. Without that we will remain in the famine.

It is just as Jesus proclaimed to the churches in Revelation, under the words to Pergamum, you must stop eating the foods of Babylon if you are to receive the hidden manna. Which do you want? Do you want the ear-tickling spiritual foods of Babylonian religion, even Babylonian Christianity? Or can you renounce the Nicolaitans, and the false prophecies akin to Balaam and Jezebel, so you can be admitted with the white stone to enter the Treasury of Christ and eat of His flesh, the veil wherein lies the Hidden Manna? We are in a famine of the Word,

But surely, you will say, this occurred in ancient Israel, at the time of the diaspora, with the exile of Israel. There has frequently been a famine of the hearing of the Word of God. But since Christ said not one word of the Scripture would pass away before Heaven and Earth (Matthew 5:18). In fact, not even one stroke of a letter will pass away before everything should come to be that is written. So, yes, there is another famine for hearing God’s teaching.

What do we have instead, from Ephraim, from ‘the first fruits?’ We have the ‘Babylonian captivity of the church,’ as Martin Luther called it, and much regurgitated speculation from partial and fragmentary reading of God’s Word. Listen to the stinging rebuke YHWH delivered through Isaiah.

Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim,
and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine!

Isaiah 28:1

These also reel with wine

and stagger with strong drink;

the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink,

they are swallowed by wine,

they stagger with strong drink,

they reel in vision,

they stumble in giving judgment.

For all tables are full of filthy vomit,

with no space left.

Isaiah 25:7-8

“To whom will he teach knowledge,
and to whom will he explain the message?
Those who are weaned from the milk,
those taken from the breast?
For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little.”

Isaiah 28:9-10

And the word of the Lord will be to them

precept upon precept, precept upon precept,

line upon line, line upon line,

here a little, there a little,

that they may go, and fall backward,

and be broken, and snared, and taken.

Isaiah 28:13

No matter how much regurgitation of the literal words, there is no reception of the Living Word possible from a leadership drunk on strong wine. What is missing is the true wine – in Hebrew yayin, or ’embodied spirit.’ Without that there is no life.

The inner meaning of the text is clear: priest and prophet are intoxicated with their own visions, and the meaning of God’s Word is hidden from them. They have generated unclean foods, and unable to digest what is not healthful, it has come back up, and is clearly recognizable as Lo-Debar, not the Word. So while the priest and prophet speak words, they are not words of God, and thus are not testimony to Jesus which is the Spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19), but they are testimony to the speakers, to their visions.

All of this self-righteousness and self-glorification is unclean and testifies to the intoxicating spirits they have consumed in their own heady self-adulation. It is a mere vanity, a mere breath.

To put it in other terms, if there is only intoxicating spirits, and NOT the Spirit of the Living Word, then there is a Famine.

We can retrieve some of the hidden manna here as well as the tremendous irony of the situation, by looking at the shadow and type recorded in the scriptures. Joseph in Egypt is the physical shadow and type of what is a spiritual reality functioning in the body of God’s people. They had seven years of good harvest followed by seven years of drought and famine. Joseph planned ahead by storing grain in the storage areas of the temples and underground. We too, ought to lay up stores of the good, pure food of the Word so those of the true Israel that come in from the world’s vacuum of healthful proclamation will have True Bread to eat.

In so far as the scripture was written for our benefit (Romans 15:4) and not to advance the world by appropriating physical meaning to the words, but that the spiritual application of the physical type might obtain. Joseph stored physical grain so that the people would survive the coming years.

We are charged in these final days to secure spiritual bread, when there is a dearth of knowledge of God, so that people might not perish spiritually. (Hosea 4:6)

We could go on and speak of Elijah and the famine in Israel, and the fall of Ahab, who is shadow and type for the man of lawlessness and the pollution of the faith by the religion of Baal. But rather, let us return to Amos to complete our circuit in this journey. It is true that many wander to and fro and cannot find the true doctrine of Christ, growing parched and famished. Others sit in comfort having made their covenant with Sheol (Isaiah 28:15-19).

1“Woe to those who are at ease in Zion,
and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria,
the notable men of the first of the nations,
to whom the house of Israel comes!
2Pass over to Calneh, and see,
and from there go to Hamath the great;
then go down to Gath of the Philistines.
Are you better than these kingdoms?
Or is their territory greater than your territory,
3O you who put far away the day of disaster
and bring near the seat of violence?

4“Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory
and stretch themselves out on their couches,
and eat lambs from the flock
and calves from the midst of the stall,
5who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp
and like David invent for themselves instruments of music,
6who drink wine in bowls
and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!
7Therefore they shall now be the first of those who go into exile,
and the revelry of those who stretch themselves out shall pass away.”

Amos 6:1-7

8The Lord God has sworn by himself, declares the Lord, the God of hosts:

“I abhor the pride of Jacob
and hate his strongholds,
and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.”

Amos 6:8

The covenant with death will fail! As Isaiah 28:18 records it:

Then your covenant with death will be annulled,
and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through,
you will be beaten down by it.

The future of the eminent drunkards, the shepherds who feed themselves without fear (Jude), the fat sheep who devour the skinny sheep. They have created a famine — not exalting the Living Word of God, but exalting themselves, and they, with all the arrogant, shall be brought low (Isaiah 2). Death will not release them from their debt.

But there is good news in the midst of the famine. Joseph has stored away food. It has been hidden for the days of want. It is, as it were, ‘hidden manna.’ So put on the mind of Christ, that you may be able to receive the hidden manna and be fed in the Spirit. We must be the Josephs of today, ruling over Egypt (the flesh), and exalting the One True God, and not ourselves.

Our next blog will speak to this rich and lavish topic, a feast that goes beyond all of the dainty foods of Egypt and Babylon. In face, we will discover that the Hidden Manna can only be received when one has repented or turned away from the false foods of the princes of the earth. False prophecy, immorality, and self-glorification over others keep one from this life-giving food.

The words of Hoshiyah 4:6 (Heb. God is Salvation) are as ox goads (Eccl. 12:11). It is a truth that humanity simply cannot handle; much as the words of God to Adam in Genesis are held in denial: “in the day you eat of it, you shall die.” Thus, bible interpreters have gone to extraordinary lengths to prop up their denial with some good arguments. The only problem is this: scripture is not susceptible to its own interpretation:

20knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from its own interpretation. 21for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

2 Peter 1:20-21

Notwithstanding ingenious reasoning by human beings, one thing remains certain: these words are as true today in our context as they were in Israel in the 8th century BC. Nuancing the word “perish” or refocusing the word “knowledge” on knowledge of the physical world do not remove the sting of death.

We are destroyed, cut off, for our lack of knowledge – knowledge of God. We cease to be. And it is not knowledge of the world or the universe that is our problem. It is knowledge of God. Hosea begins this chapter and then reiterates in verse 6 that we are dealing with knowledge of God. No science of longevity can alleviate this primal cosmic wound. Christ Himself turned this statement around, thus confirming it and also pointing out the remedy:

And this is eternal life (aeonial life), that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent.

John 17:3

The deeper question now presents itself – Do we believe this?

After all that the Lord did in the wilderness coming out of Egypt, did His people really believe His word? And with all that the Father manifested of His Name through Jesus Christ, and the further miracles of the early church, do His people believe?

The global pandemic is a perfect test of belief. There are dozens of scriptural pronouncements that are related to this set of events, and yet there are no strident voices supporting them in the Church. People would rather engage in conspiracy theories — contrary to the Lord’s express will in Isaiah 8:12-13 — than to look to the One who struck them, and return that they might be healed (Isa. 9:13). Believers on the right do not ascribe the plague to the right source — Amos 3:6 says that if there is evil in the city has not the Lord done it? Remaining in denial they do not recognize the judgment as the gift it is to correct our path, and thus they deny their Sin and are unable to return and be healed.

Believers on the left do not understand God’s way with evil and the mystery of iniquity, and they take refuge in the State and its science to deliver them. In so doing, they too, may succumb to the plague by refusing the offer of the One who has the true power to protect. Consider the following words of the psalmist and all they entail:

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!” . . .

For you have made the Lord, my refuge, Even the Most High your dwelling place. No evil will befall you, nor will any plague come near your tent.

Psalm 91: 1-2, 9-10

Really? Does anyone believe this? No one is talking about it, even though without faith it is impossible to please God. But the answer is: Yes! The anointed of Christ, His chosen ones actually do! They do Not retreat to Egypt to protect them.

But if anyone in the body of Christ says I take refuge in the Lord, I dwell in His shadow, and he will not allow a plague near my tent, well then both in the church and without, that person will be considered disconnected from reality. Because he or she will not retreat to the medical authority of the world and simply rely upon a Higher Power that can ACTUALLY heal all things, they can be declared mentally unstable or incompetent. That is how far the apostasy has gotten in the church — rebellion against the authority of God and His Anointed, and supplanting Him with another authority or power!

But can we get a confirmation on this truth? Isn’t a matter established at the mouth of two witnesses? It is indeed.

And I heard another voice from Heaven, saying, “Come on out of her, that you may not participate in her sins, and that you may not receive of her plagues.”

Revelation 18:4

And not knowing what Babylon is, and not knowing what her sins are, is precisely a function of not knowing God, and what He means by these Words, some of which are spiritual realities and some of which are metonyms. But the common denominator is that there is not much belief in the truth of the assertion.

If we take our heart and mind out of the homogenized polytheistic religion of this world, aka Babylon, we can be spared participating in her plagues. Believest thou this? Is God the author of hollow promises?

In fact, physical death, which is a shadow of perishing spiritually, can come to those who, by lacking in knowledge of God, are not able to listen to the Almighty, or to hear what He is saying. Listen to Hosea once more:

Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us. He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, That we may live before Him. So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord.

Hosea 6:1-3

We are called to return to the Lord. To believe Him, to know Him, so that we may return and be healed.

This gives us a more biblically correct understanding of the purpose of the Lord’s judgement in the earth, and how the global pandemic, as one of his 4 sore judgements (Ezekiel 14), will be instrumental as the wounding that can lead to our healing.

God delights in knowledge of Him, rather than burnt offerings (Hosea 6:6). And to love Him, is to begin to know Him. To know Him is to believe Him and to believe in His Christ. It is to trust in His Word, and to live by it — not to say it is impractical; that we need science to supplement His power. To understand God, we must begin with trusting Him and taking Him at His Word that His thoughts are beyond our thoughts.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9

We cannot understand by reason alone the thoughts and ways of God. It requires the mind of Christ, the Spirit, to compare spiritual with spiritual. (1 Cor. 2:10-16) Apart from that Mankind cannot see how and why God works.

We are in a global pandemic, a plague. By God’s own disclosure, it is His responsibility.

Does evil come to a city, unless YHWH has done it?

Amos 3:6

But this confounds man’s natural sensibilities and understanding of God. The nations, and even the Israel of God does not comprehend the message we hear in Isaiah.

The people did not turn to him who struck them,

nor inquire of the Lord of hosts.

Isaiah 9:13

This way of the Lord is clear, He disciplines all whom He would receive as children. He brings about judgement that we would learn righteousness. The people do not inquire. Of the Covid crisis, are the people inquiring of the Lord? Are they asking why it has come upon us, and what is asked of us?

We know what is asked. Repent and turn back so He might heal us and mold us into His righteousness.

He is the Lord our God;
his judgments are in all the earth.

Psalm 105:7

My soul yearns for you in the night;

my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.

For when your judgments are in the earth,

the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

Isaiah 26:9

Yes, it is cystal clear, God’s thoughts are as the Heavens to the earth, with His being spiritual, and humanity’s largely focused on the material. The Divine Mind sees physical judgements as instructive, corrective, bringing back the wayward. Human beings see judgements as condemning and guilt producing and final, with no yield of righteousness.

Without this elementary knowledge of God, people will spiritually perish. They will not turn to the One who is striking them and be healed. They will not understand God’s ways and why he must chastise all whom He receives.

So the remedy for the problem which Hosea lays out, the dearth of knowledge of God, and its consequent wounding, is very simply given in chapter 6 by the same prophetic voice. We take these words from Hosea 6 cited above and take them in:

Come, let us return to the Lord. Let us press on to know the Lord. And He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth. We only know God when we seek Him, listen to Him, and trust His Word. Then we may indeed lay hold of His promises, and no plague will come near our tent. Amen