Babylon came against Israel, and now God is going to come against Babylon. One of the punishments they face is that God will cut off the sower and the harvester.

Of course, this is referring to something along the lines of a famine, that food won’t be planted or harvested. But I can’t help but see words like that in a spiritual sense.

God can send on His people a famine for the word of God. God can send on His people a lack of sowers, teachers, those teaching God’s word. He can send on His people a drought of harvesters, those who know how to share the gospel and bring people into the kingdom.

Can you see the famine and drought in our land, in our time?

Is there a lack of sowers? In America we have too many teachers, how can we say there is a lack? We have many teachers who teach their own thing, the doctrine of man, their own version, their man-pleasing words.

We have a lack of sowers who preach pure seed, instead of a mixture of wheat and tares. We have a lack of sowers who will teach people to obey what Jesus commanded.

We have a lack of harvesters. We no longer hear a real gospel message. It’s been lost. We hear a gospel of God’s promises of good things for us to make our lives better instead of hearing about how we are children of wrath and will be judged by a holy God.

We have a lack of sowers and harvesters. The Scriptures are lost in a sea of marketing, trying to get people into church, convincing ourselves of the deception that if people come into church, then the kingdom is growing and we’re doing our duty of sowing and harvesting.

We’re not.

There is hope. There is always hope. There is a promise of a remnant that is pardoned, in whom no iniquity is found. “Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is his name. He will surely plead their cause.” Jesus intercedes for us. Our Redeemer is strong to save.