The scarcity that swallows the residue of good.
To waste is to want, in things temporal and spiritual alike. Abuse is inevitably followed by deprivation, and the prodigal is one who is purveying for himself a suit of rags. God caps our "will not" with his "shall not," and the rude hand of change soon spills the cup of good we have refused to taste. Under the operation of this law the nation of Israel would now come. They had wasted the Word of God, neglecting it, despising it, and at last forbidding it to be spoken. Now they should "want" it as a penal result. It would, be taken from them in anger, and that at a time when even their inappreciation would long for it as for life itself. Observe here—
I. THE WORST OF ALL FAMINES. "Not a hungering for bread, nor a thirst for water, but to hear the words of Jehovah." This is a new form of disaster, and one that is specially severe. This follows from the fact that:
1. It is in the spiritual sphere. "Fear not them which kill the body." It is the least part of us. Whether it live or die, enjoy or suffer, is a question involving trivial interests, and these during a limited period. The soul is the man, and its well being, next to God's glory, the great interest. For its injury there is no compensation, for its loss no parallel. When it suffers, the worst has happened.
2. It is due to the loss of a necessary of spiritual life. The deepest need of humanity is a communication from God. "This is life eternal, to know thee the only true God," etc. Hence the Word which God speaks is the Word of life. Apart from it spiritual life is impossible.
3. This loss at a time when it would be most keenly felt. "The Word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision." The mere fact of the sudden withdrawal of the Word would create an immediate demand for it. In this case the demand would rest on a practical necessity. "Crushed by oppressors, hearing only of gods more cruel than those who make them, how will they hunger and thirst for any tidings of One who cares for the weary and heavy laden?" (Maurice).
II. THE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT PROVOKE IT. The unique rigour of the penalty suggests some special circumstances in the provoking crime. One of these would be:
1. Extreme heinousness. "There is a sin unto death." It will never be forsaken. It precludes the idea of penitence. It involves the perversion, or rather inversion, of character, which "calls evil good, and good evil." There is nothing for it but the extreme penalty of being let alone. And even that will be inflicted. Saul had provoked it when "God answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets." Israel had provoked it when God said to his servant, "Thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a reprover" (Ezekiel 3:26; Ezekiel 7:26). When a man sins on principle, he is not far off "a famine of hearing the words of the Lord."
2. Failure of other judgments to turn. "Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more." Other judgments bad been for reformation and had failed; this would be for destruction—the only alternative left. When "cure" is out of the question, what else is to be done but "kill"?
3. Chafing under and rejecting the Word itself. Israel had heard more of the words of the Lord than they wished. They had made an effort to get rid of them, or some of them, by forbidding his prophets to speak his message. More of the Word to men in that mind would have been thrown away, and God never wastes his gifts. If we shut our eyes, he will take away the light. If we close our ears, "the voice of the charmer" will soon be silent. The men who will not have the words of the Lord shall be treated to a dispensation of silence.
III. THE PERSONS IT ASSAILS. When judgment falls upon a nation, the righteous often suffer with the wicked. Yet here there are persons against whom the shock is specially directed. They are:
1. Those who put their trust in idols. The idolater would naturally feel the extreme of dislike to the Word of God, and adopt the strongest measures against his prophets. He was therefore in that moral condition which needed, and that opposing attitude which provoked, the heaviest stroke. God will not give his "praise to graven images," and he will give the man who trusts in them an early opportunity of discovering whether they will suffice for his needs. The more unreservedly he has chosen them, the more entirely will he be left to them.
2. The young and buoyant among these. (Verse 13.) Youth and hope are hardest to overcome. There is a buoyancy in them, and a recuperative energy, that rises above calamity to which the old and broken would succumb. Yet even these would not avail. Physical suffering, breaking down even youth and vigour, mental suffering, overwhelming the most buoyant hopefulness, were among the enginery of the wrath of God.
IV. THE EFFECTS IT PRODUCES. These are distressing as the calamity producing them is stern (verse 12).
1. They seek the Word in rain. It is sought as a last resource. In the extremity of trouble, and the failure of other help, men turn perforce to God. And then the quest is vain. It is made too late, and from a motive to which there is no promise given (Proverbs 1:24-28). It is sought in an extremity, as the lesser evil of two; and in abject fear, in which there is no element of loyalty or love; and, thus sought, cannot in the nature of things be found. The time for God to give it has passed, because the time has passed in which men might have received it to any effect of spiritual good.
2. They faint in the search. "They shall reel from sea to sea." The word [reel] is used of the reeling of drunkards, of the swaying to and fro of trees in the wind, of the quivering of the lips of one agitated, and then of the unsteady seeking of persons bewildered, looking for what they know not where to find" (Pusey) It is characteristic that search is made everywhere but in the South, where alone the true worship of God was, and where, if anywhere, his Word might have been found. Wrong seeking is wrong all round, and so is of necessity in vain. It is a less of effort, which is "a grievous labour won." It wearies itself out in aimless blind exertion, made out of season, and vitiated by the very ills that drive men to make it.
3. They fall and never rise. God will "make an end." The time for it had come. Sin had reached a climax. Evil character had reached a final fixity. Calamity had ceased to improve. The tardy anxiety for a Divine communication meant simply that every other resource was exhausted. "Cut it down" is the one process of husbandry for which the tree is fitted.