"A Famine, Not for Bread"

Disobedience to Jehovah results in mental darkness.  (Ephesians 4:17, 18)  In a spiritual sense, the people of Judah have become blind, without understanding.  (1 Corinthians  2:14)  Isaiah describes their condition:  "Each one will certainly pass through the land hard pressed and hungry."  (Isaiah 8:21a)   Because of the nation's unfaithfulness-particularly during the reign of King Ahaz-the survival of Judah as an independent kingdom is threatened.    The nation is surrounded by enemies.  The Assyrian army assaults one Judean city after another.  The enemy desolates the productive land, making food scarce.  Many are "hard pressed and hungry."  But another kind of hunger also afflicts the land.  Some decades earlier Amos prophesied:  " 'Look! There are days coming,' is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah, 'and I will send famine into the land, a famine, not for bread, and a thirst, not for water,   but for hearing the words of Jehovah.' " (Amos 8:11) Judah is now in the throes of just such a spiritual famine!

Will Judah learn her lesson and return to Jehovah? Will her people turn away from spiritism and idolatry and return "to the law and to the attestation"?   Jehovah foresees their reaction:  "It must occur that because he is hungry and has made himself feel indignant, he will actually call down evil upon his king and upon his God and will certainly peer upward."  (Isaiah 8:21b) Yes, many will blame their human king for leading them into this situation.  Some will even foolishly blame Jehovah for their calamities!  (Compare Jeremiah 44:15-18)  Today, many respond in a similar way, blaming God for tragedies caused by human wickedness.  

Will calling down evil upon God bring peace to the inhabitants of Judah?  No. Isaiah foretells:  "To the earth he will look, and lo! distress and darkness, obscurity, hard times and gloominess with no brightness."  (Isaiah 8:22)  After  raising their eyes to heaven to blame God, they look back to earth, back to their hopeless prospects.  Their turning away from God has led to calamity.  (Proverbs 19:3)  What, though of the promises that God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?  (Genesis 22:15-18'  28:14, 15)  Will Jehovah default?  Will the Assyrians or some other military power bring to an end the royal line promised to Judah and David?   (Genesis 49:8-10; 2 Samuel 7:11-16)  Will the Israelites be forever condemned to darkness? 

Next time: A Land "Treated With Contempt"

From the Book Isaiah's Prophecy Light for all Mankind