Famine of the Word of God - Amos 8:11

Question

Can there really be a famine of the word of God - Amos 8:11?

Answer

Amos 8:11 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.

This is a curse from the covenant (Deut. 4:28-29; Hos. 3:4; cf. Ezek. 7:26; Mic. 3:7). We see this throughout redemptive history. When sin abounded in the days of the judges (Judg. 21:25), the word of the Lord was rare (1 Sam. 3:1; cf. Luke 17:22).

How many people today really desire to hear the word of the Lord? How many really heed it?