“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.” (Amos 8:11)

The dearth of the word of the Lord does not merely result from the absence of those preaching scripture. Many come in the name of the Lord, declaring, “The Lord has said.” Most of those who come are not His, nor did He send them. The result is that those who pervert the words of the Lord turn people from the truth; truth becomes scarce.

Jeremiah spoke of the false teachers of his time, saying, “Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord.” (Jeremiah 23:1, 2)

Likewise, the prophet Joel foretold of the corruption that would befall the people in the latter days. Addressing the husbandmen of the Lord’s vineyards, who drink the fermented wine of heresies and serve it to their congregations, he rebukes them, saying, “Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.” (Joel 1:5)

The new wine being withheld is the unfermented word of the Lord spoken in spirit and truth. Jesus said, “Men do not put new wine into old bottles; else the bottles break, and the wine runs out, and the bottles perish; but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.”

The old wine of generational heresies passed down for ages has filled many bottles with fermented wine; the bottles are full; there is no place for the new wine. The bottles must be emptied; the fermented doctrines received from tradition must be poured out, lest the bottles burst and both the new wine and the bottles be lost.

Unless those set in their ways awaken to the inherited falsehoods of their religious beliefs and repent, the Lord will raise another generation to revive the truth of his word. Revivals and revolutions are more often spread by youth seeking change. Change hardly comes from the establishment or traditional institutions, secular or religious.

Presently, Christianity is in a spiritual state much like that of the Jews at the time when Jesus overturned the tables and cleared the temple of the money changers. Corruption precedes overthrow; as it is written, “the first shall be last, and the last will be first, for many are called but few are chosen.”

The religious hierarchy during the time of Christ taught traditions of men; they rejected the teachings of Jesus. Therefore, Jesus chose his disciples from among the common people, fulfilling the scripture, “The stone which the builders refused is become the headstone of the corner” (Psalm 118:22).

Often referred to as the “400-year silence” after Malachi, Israel faced a dearth of the word of the Lord. Malachi rebuked those over the house of the Lord for turning the service of God into a for-profit enterprise.

In Malachi, the Lord chided the priest of Israel, saying, “I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand. For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles.” (Malachi 1:10, 11)

Malachi closed the writings of the Prophets with a declaration stating, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord,” the same declaration the Gospel of Mark opens with.

Four hundred years of spiritual famine followed after Malachi; the Prophets ceased in Israel. Then John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way of the Lord. However, when Christ appeared, the religious leaders were hostile to him; he threatened their power.

Except for a remnant, those unto whom Christ was sent failed to recognize his lordship; their branches were removed from the olive tree (Romans 11). The remainder who did believe went out to the whole world and preached to the Gentiles, as Malachi had prophesied. Among the Gentiles, many did believe and were grafted into the olive tree with a warning that they too would be cut off if they failed to continue in the ways of the Lord.

As the end of the ages comes to a close and the dispensation to the Gentiles is coming to its fullness, many Christians have fallen in the same manner as Israel before the destruction of the temple.

Not laying to heart the warning that their branches also would be cut off from the olive tree, many Gentiles have departed from the faith to follow the teachings and traditions of men rather than the truth of the gospel. If Israel abides not still in unbelief, they will be grafted back in again as prophesied.

The famine that followed Malachi was broken by John the Baptist and the coming of Christ, his death, resurrection, and the gift of the Holy Ghost that followed. The Lord has given us great hope of deliverance from the current dearth of truth in the world. Speaking through the prophet Joel, the Lord proclaims,

“Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.” (Joel 2:12-13)

Then will the Lord pity his people, and as he sent the former rain, so also the latter rains shall be poured out upon the land, as it is written,

“And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.” (Joel 2:24-25)

The Lord is assembling a great army, Joel’s Army—not to reform religions but to restore the word of God as it was first given. And as the word of God is restored, the Lord will send the latter rains in the power of the outpouring of the Spirit, and great things shall be done that will be seen by the world.

“You shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God that has dealt wondrously with you, and my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else; and my people shall never be ashamed.” (Joel 2:26-27)