Mark Twain once wrote that foretelling wars and famines “was not so hard, for there was always a war, and generally a famine somewhere.” For Westerners who have grown up in an age of unrivalled abundance, that “somewhere” has always been “somewhere else” – never “here” and never closer than the television screen which could be switched off conveniently. The very idea of worldwide famines of “biblical proportions” has seemed to be more appropriate for a fictional drama series than the reality of everyday life in Europe and North America, but those days may be over.
The experts have been wrong on many aspects of the Corona Virus and its fallout, but the warning from the UN’s World Food Programme that the economic upheaval from the health pandemic could result in a hunger pandemic is not necessarily an exaggeration. Countless masses in many nations already lack the resources to feed themselves properly, and the situation continues to deteriorate. If society continues to unravel in America and other nations, the previously wealthy could soon be preoccupied with basic survival as well. Hunger is coming, and it will not be a game.
The worldwide wave of hunger will not be a pleasant sight, but we were forewarned and given instructions on how to respond. Jesus predicted that famines would be part of the events leading to the Last Days. In the same Olivet Discourse, the final parable promises that whoever feeds the least of these would be rewarded as though he had done it for Jesus himself (Matthew 24:7; 25:31-40). This care is not limited to those considered friends: “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink” (Proverbs 25:21).
There is a passage in Ecclesiastes that speaks about times like these: “Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a serving to seven, and also to eight, for you do not know what evil will be on the earth… He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap… In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not withhold your hand…” (Ecclesiastes 11:1-6). Now is not the time to recoil in hesitation. A hungry world will soon be at the gates, and the fact that we do not know how much evil will be on the earth is an even greater reason to serve as much as possible now.
The empty stomachs of the masses may lead millions to their first taste ever of the Bread of Life. “Behold, the days are coming… that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD” (Amos 8:11). Physical hunger for a season can even be part of the God’s plan to satisfy the hungry soul for all eternity: “So he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:3).
Evening shadows are falling all across the world, and it can be tempting to “withhold” our hands in fear, despair or apathy as the humanitarian and spiritual disaster approaches. However, it is written: “If you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday” (Isaiah 58:10). If you are a true believer who has tasted of the Bread of Life, this is your job description for as long as you are still on this earth. The hungry will soon be knocking, but the bread is already in our hands.
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