REFLECTION: Corn in the Land

The need to find good spiritual food…..

 

 

“Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt” (Genesis 42:1)

 

 

 

 

 

 While reading through Genesis, I was struck by the above verse. After seven years of plenty, a severe famine was being experienced “in all lands” (Gen.41:54). God had already revealed His purposes and had His man – Joseph – in a position of authority in Egypt. Jacob and his sons, feeling the effects of famine in Canaan (Gen.42:5), heard that there were ample stores of grain in Egypt. Simple logic dictated that the sons of Jacob should go to Egypt where there was food – otherwise death by starvation stared them in the face.

 

Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones once said, “All the troubles in the Church today, and most of the troubles in the world, are due to a departure from the authority of the Bible.” How right he was! Many of the Lord’s people in Britain today feel very much the same as Jacob did. There is a famine in the land – “a famine …. of hearing the words of the Lord,” (Amos 8:11). The world has nothing good to offer. As in the days of Elisha, poisonous wild gourds abound (2 Kings 4:39-40) leading only to spiritual death. Many books and magazines on sale in secular stores today promote the New Age and encourage a sinful lifestyle. It has to be said that books written by Christian authors sometimes provide little real help. Sadly, an ever-increasing number of churches are now failing to provide true spiritual nourishment and in the name of Christ can only offer a diet of worthless chaff – with copious helpings of amusement and entertainment. Those who recognize the authority of Scripture seem few and far between. This is a shallow age with plenty of levity and very little depth.

 

 

FINDING REAL CORN

Thankfully some of the Lord’s people today are concerned by these trends.  Their hearts long for true spiritual food – the real corn. In their immediate locality they may find plenty of chaff but no real wheat. Like Jacob’s sons they find themselves compelled to travel further than they used to in order to hear sound Bible teaching and to meet with like-minded believers who reject today’s carnal, fleshly, light-hearted alternative “Christianity”. The Lord Himself asks, “What is the chaff to the wheat?” (Jer.23:28). There is no comparison between the two! When we have tasted good Bible teaching, we are not interested in the “rubbish” (entertaining though it may be) that is spouted from many pulpits today. The Lord still wants His people to enjoy “the finest of the wheat” (Ps.81:16) – but, like Jacob’s sons we may need to search it out.

 

The trends that we are witnessing both in the world and in the church surely point to the fact that the return of our Lord is near. Many nowadays, sadly, have lost the appetite they once had for that which is God-glorifying, sound, and spiritually edifying. Our faith will only be built up by Bible-based teaching that remains true to His Word and has not been adulterated by the trends of fashionable society. The challenge we face in these difficult days is, like Jacob’s sons, to be prepared to go to where the real “corn” for our spiritual nourishment can be obtained.