11 "Oh yes, Judgment Day is coming!" These are the words of my Master God. "I'll send a famine through the whole country. It won't be food or water that's lacking, but my Word. 12 People will drift from one end of the country to the other, roam to the north, wander to the east. They'll go anywhere, listen to anyone, hoping to hear God's Word - but they won't hear it. 13 "On Judgment Day, lovely young girls will faint of Word-thirst, robust young men will faint of God-thirst, 14 Along with those who take oaths at the Samaria Sin-and-Sex Center, saying, 'As the lord god of Dan is my witness!' and 'The lady goddess of Beer-sheba bless you!' Their lives will fall to pieces. They'll never put it together again."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Amos 8:11-14
Commentary on Amos 8:11-14
(Read Amos 8:11-14)
Here was a token of God's highest displeasure. At any time, and most in a time of trouble, a famine of the word of God is the heaviest judgment. To many this is no affliction, yet some will feel it very much, and will travel far to hear a good sermon; they feel the loss of the mercies others foolishly sin away. But when God visits a backsliding church, their own plans and endeavours to find out a way of salvation, will stand them in no stead. And the most amiable and zealous would perish, for want of the water of life, which Christ only can bestow. Let us value our advantages, seek to profit by them, and fear sinning them away.