Famine of the True Word of God — Introduction
When a society leaves God, many horrible things happen. Scripture shows us that the human heart was never meant to remain empty. A house doesn’t stay vacant for long. The devil is always looking for a void to fill, and when God’s Word is pushed aside, something darker rushes in to take its place.
Jesus warned of this very danger in Matthew 12:43–45, describing the unclean spirit that returns to a life once cleansed but now left empty—bringing with it seven spirits more wicked than itself. The end result is far worse than the beginning. Christ concluded, “So will it also be with this wicked generation.” His words echo through history and into our present moment.
Society Drifts Away from God
When the true Word of God is neglected, ignored, or replaced with human wisdom, a spiritual famine begins. Morality blurs. Confusion spreads. What once was clearly right or wrong becomes twisted. As in ancient Israel, when the people turned from the Lord, the consequences touched every part of life.
- 2 Timothy 4:3-4
- For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
- And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
False Teachers and Preachers Arise
Where truth is absent, counterfeits multiply. Smooth words, empty promises, and doctrines that soothe rather than save begin to flourish. People starve spiritually while believing they are being fed. This is the danger of a famine—not the absence of noise, but the absence of truth.
These teachers and preachers forgo teaching the truth in order to line their pockets with money. Paul referred to this in 2 Corinthians.
- 2 Corinthians 2:17
- For we are not like many, [acting like merchants] peddling God’s word [shortchanging and adulterating God’s message]; but from pure [uncompromised] motives, as [commissioned and sent] from God, we speak [His message] in Christ in the sight of God.
We have seen this with the various preachers of mega churches.
Children Suffer
Perhaps the most heartbreaking result of spiritual famine is the impact on the next generation. When God’s Word is removed from homes, schools, and communities, children grow up without the anchor their souls desperately need. Confusion replaces clarity. Fear replaces faith. And the cycle deepens.
When there is a famine of rain, crops don’t grow and people get hungry. When there is a famine of the Word of God Children likewise suffer the consequences. Children are generally speaking the weakest in any society. Today many people are putting their needs before that of the children.
- Deuteronomy 28:15
- “But it shall come about, if you do not listen to and obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
- Deuteronomy 28:53
- Then you will eat the offspring of your own body [to avoid starvation], the flesh of your sons and daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, during the siege and the misery by which your enemy will oppress you.
Look at the reason that is most frequently given for seeking an abortion. It is elective and unspecified. That means that women would rather have an abortion than have a child.
The U.S. birth rate in 2024 was at a historic low, with a total fertility rate of 1.599 children per woman and a crude birth rate of approximately 12.01 births per 1,000 population.
The total fertility rate in the United States measures the average number of children a woman is expected to have over her lifetime. In 2023, the TFR was 1.616 children per woman, declining 2% from 2022, and in 2024 it dropped further to 1.599 children per woman, marking a historic low comparable to many Western European nations. This decline reflects trends such as delayed childbearing, economic considerations, and changing family planning preferences among American women.
It is interesting to note that historically that as the Nation of Israel left God, children were sacrificed. As people have turned away from God, the birth rates have decreased.
There Is Good News
Even in times of famine, God has always preserved a remnant. His Word is still living, still powerful, still able to revive hearts and restore nations. The same God who warned of judgment also promised mercy to all who return to Him. No famine is final when God is invited back into the house.
It seems that the younger generation is trying to turn back to God.
Younger generations are attending church nearly twice as often as they did five years ago, researchers said, with Gen Z and Millennials averaging 1.9 and 1.8 weekends a month, respectively, in the first half of 2025.
Elders and Boomers both averaged 1.4 times a month in attendance January through July, researchers said, noting Elders’ drop from 2.3 times monthly in 2000, and Boomers’ decline from twice monthly. Gen X has remained steady, averaging1.6 times monthly.
Attendance for younger Christians is the highest it has been since they reached adulthood and became old enough to be included in Barna’s tracking, researchers noted.
We can only hope and pray that the rate of church attendance continues to increase among the younger generation. We also need to pray that the preachers and teachers bring the true word of God so that the famine of the true word of God completely ends and the people turns back to God.
It is also interesting that the birth rate in the USA for 2024 has made a drastic turn around.
U.S. birth rate for 2025 was 11.99, a 0.12% decline from 2024.
- U.S. birth rate for 2024 was 12.01, a 12.23% increase from 2023.
- U.S. birth rate for 2023 was 10.70, a 2.73% decline from 2022.
- U.S. birth rate for 2022 was 11.00, a 0% increase from 2021.
Cross Reference: Deuteronomy 28:53
Just as Israel faced devastating consequences when they abandoned God’s covenant, our world today experiences spiritual devastation when it rejects His truth. Deuteronomy 28:53 stands as a sobering reminder of how far a people can fall when they turn away from the Lord—but also how urgently we must cling to His Word.
More Scripture References
2 Kings 6:28-29
Then the king asked her, “What is the matter?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him, and tomorrow we will eat my son.’ / So we boiled my son and ate him, and the next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him.’ But she had hidden her son.”
Lamentations 4:10
The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Jeremiah 19:9
I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’
Leviticus 26:29
You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.
Ezekiel 5:10
As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’
2 Kings 6:25
So there was a great famine in Samaria. Indeed, they besieged the city so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter cab of dove’s dung sold for five shekels of silver.
2 Kings 25:3
By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food.
Jeremiah 52:6
By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food.
Lamentations 2:20
Look, O LORD, and consider: Whom have You ever treated like this? Should women eat their offspring, the infants they have nurtured? Should priests and prophets be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
Isaiah 9:20
They carve out what is on the right, but they are still hungry; they eat what is on the left, but they are still not satisfied. Each one devours the flesh of his own offspring.
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