I was thinking the other day how different the next great outbreak of persecution will look like. In the past people could hide. Not so easily anymore with highly trained sniffer dogs, heat sensors from drones and more.
What if we come to the point of portable lie detector tests and police come pounding on your door demanding to know if you have destroyed all known Bibles? You say you wouldn’t submit to such a test but in a time where law and order are one-sided, that may not be so easy. We’ve seen a lot of not good things in the last couple of years.
Do I think there will be a time that Bibles will be banned far and wide? Absolutely. And I don’t think it as far off as we think. We are still several years away to be sure. But we are setting up for this scenario. I believe within the next decade or so.
What would it look like if Bible were banned? Certainly the masses would put them in hiding. But what if there was a way to force biometric data on us that if they asked, we couldn’t get away with not answering the question. What in essence would we do if we did not have the Word of God?
In Israel at the time of Amos the LORD had enough. Their sin had come to its point of no turning back. And God’s judgment had come to the point of he would no longer keep relenting. A terrible day would come on the peoples.
- Their singing would stop and instead there would be wailing (v. 3)
- There would be bodies everywhere (v. 3)
- The days will be filled with mourning and bitterness (v. 10)
Why?
Because of their many sins. Winds such as
- Trampling the needy and doing away with the poor of the land (v. 4)
- Cheating people in business
- Worshiping the idols that led them to all sorts of sins
Then the LORD is going to send something that is surprising.
“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. Men will stagger from sea to seas and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it” (v. 11-12).
That’s an astonishing thing to think about. One of his punishments was going to be that they would no longer have access to the Word of God. They would then appreciate it and desperately long for it, but would not find it.
That’s a startling thought.
It makes me think of those places in the world where the Bible is banned. People have to pray for miracles to receive a Bible. They will often go to great lengths risking their lives to acquire Bibles.
It makes me think of the people during the reformation who were literally burned at the stake in order to get Bibles into the hands of the Bible.
It makes me think of a story in the Philippines. One guy was asking another guy why his village were claiming to be Christian but living in constant sin. The second guy told the first guy, “well, you have a Bible in your own language and we do not. How do you expect people to know how to live?”
It makes me think of the abundance of the word of God in my country, but how few people in the churches study the Scriptures on a regular basis outside Sunday. And now culture has taken precedence over Scripture.
It makes me think of the people who are committing themselves to march far and wide over the face of the earth to bring the Bible to peoples in distant places.
I get that this chapter is more about the LORD saying he had enough. Judgment was coming. And it was going to be awful.
But the fact that one of their judgments was a removal of His Word among them is astonishing to me. Because I can see that happening here. As has happened in so many other nations.
We must value His Word. Meditate on His Word. Memorize His Word. Love his Word.
It truly is a gift. He doesn’t keep us in the darkness, but give us His light.
Let’s keep the light burning in our lives.
