The Great Dearth - the death of a land

Amos 8:11-13

"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst."

O Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth, everlasting God, Prince of peace, King of kings, and Lord of Lords, our Sovereign Redeemer, have mercy upon this land, for there is a great dearth of hearing the Word of the Lord and great apostasy has overshadowed us. Surely our pastors have become brutish and have not sought Thy great Name, O Lord; they do not prosper and their flocks have scattered. Your people have gone a whoring after other gods, which are not gods. We have become a people of unclean lips, a people who are fat with the abundance of goods, and yet gaining the world, we are losing our souls and the souls of our children. Our shepherds say no more, "Where is the Lord?" and they that handle Your Word know You not. Our wise men are dismayed; they have rejected the Word of the Lord and there is no wisdom in them.

O Lord, mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake. For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right. For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, and in the house of God is their wickedness found. Our watchmen have become blind; they are ignorant, men of slumber who know not the way of the Lord, shepherds who cannot understand. They feed themselves, and not Thy sheep; the diseased have they not strengthened, and they have not sought that which was lost.

We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men. We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them; in transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey. We are poor, and we are foolish for we have not know the way of our God, and those who do have burst the bands and thrown off thy yoke.

When I saw all this, my heart trembled within me, for Thy great wrath is being poured out upon us for our iniquities which are great before you. But, though the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in Thee O Lord; I will joy in the God of my Salvation. Thou O Lord are my strength, and you shall make my feet as the hinds feet, you shall cause me to walk on my high places for the glory of Your holy Name. Therefore will I not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof, for you O Lord are my refuge and strength, a very present help in the time of trouble.

Surely, there is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. You are in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: You shall help her, and that right early.

O people of the living God, be still and know that He is God. He will be exalted among the heathen, He will be exalted in the earth. Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the LORD'S name is to be praised. The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens. Who is like unto the LORD our God, who dwelleth on high, Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth! For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory and dominion, both now and for ever, world without end.

Amen.