One of the interesting, and devastating, judgments of God on Israel was a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD (Amos 8:11).
Perhaps this is the “blindness” and “deafness” promised in Isa. 12:9-10: And He said, “Go, and tell this people. ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed” (a promise/ prophecy noted in the NT (Mt. 13:14-15; Mk. 4:12; Lk. 8:10; Jn. 12:40; Acts 28:26-27; Rom. 11:8).
Note, from Amos 8:12-13, that they shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD, but shall not find it. “In that day the fair virgins, And strong young men Shall faint from thirst. They will go to great lengths in the search for God’s word, and yet will not find it. The reason for this inability to find the word of God, as 8:14 indicates, is because in their hearts they have committed themselves to the sin of Samaria and the god of Dan: i.e. the golden calves.
The New Testament talks about such a situation in 2 Tim. 4:3-4: For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. This involves the falling away of the Church. And the heart issue is the same: their search for the word of God is actually a search to satisfy their own lusts.
It seems to me that we can see this in the church today, although my purpose in this post is not to point out some sin in the body of believers. I am rather concerned with the shepherds, the pastor/teachers given by Christ to equip the body of believers (Eph. 4:11-16). Many years ago, early in my pastoral ministry, I came across The Preacher’s Portrait by the evangelical Anglican brother John R. W. Stott. This was life changing for me. It was not the totality of the book, where Stott used five NT words to describe the preacher’s calling (steward, herald, witness, father, and servant). But it was the first concept, that I was a “steward” of the word of God. A “steward” was a servant in the house who had some particular task involved in the care of the family. He had to do his part of the Master’s loved ones would be missing some necessity.
The “steward” idea fits all believers, as each has a gift to be used in the household. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God (1 Peter 4:10). Perhaps the Apostle Paul was an illustration of this, in 1 Cor. 4:1ff. Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Although Paul also told us what the bottom line responsibility of a steward is: Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful. But the specific command for pastors is in Titus 1:7: For a bishop (overseer, elder) must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money.
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