Feast or famine?

Many factors have conspired to bring about this drop in supply. Drought in Australia, bio-fuel production from former feedstock resources in the United States and Brazil, and increased tariffs on the export of grain from Argentina and Russia have choked the export of grain. And now, agro-scientists are dealing with a strain of black stem rust known as Ug99 spreading across Africa. It now looks set to sweep eastwards toward Pakistan. First discovered in 1999 in Uganda, this wilting disease threatens to spread around the world.

Consider the rider of the third of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse seated upon the black horse of famine. He carries a set of scales in his hands. A voice in the midst of the four living creatures is heard to say, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine” (Revelation 6:6). A denarius is equivalent to the wage of a worker for one day.

Could we soon be paying more than $100 a quart for our wheat?

For decades, “doomsday” prophets have talked about the time when the world will run out of basic foods. Just when it all looked so dire, a new strain of high–yield wheat or rice came along. Will there be another “miracle” solution for the world?

The answer is found in your Bible. It is this: There will at some point be a time of sudden and devastating food scarcity. It will be accompanied by disease, war and religious confusion. The good news, however, is that this terrible time will give way to a new era of prosperity and peace for all who live on the earth.

Jesus Christ, in person, will return to this earth to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. It will not be set up in heaven, as so many religious people think, but on the earth!

Speaking of the resurrected saints who will rule with Christ, we read that they will sing a song, “… and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:10).

The millennial reign of Jesus Christ over all nations is celebrated in type during the Feast of Tabernacles. Jesus kept this feast (John 7:10, 14), which was originally given to the Israelites to remind them that their sojourn on earth is fleeting. Just as they had wandered for forty years in the wilderness, living in tents, so our human lives are spent dwelling in our mortal tents (2 Peter 1:14). God is building in His people during their physical lives, the character of His spiritual mind. Then the immortal “new man,” made in the image of Jesus Christ, will be manifested “in the twinkling of an eye” as a spirit body. We will be resplendent in all the glory that God will give us as Sons of God.

“‘Behold, the days are coming’ says the Lord, ‘When the plowman shall overtake the reaper’” (Amos 9:13). There will be no poverty or starvation. All children will sleep soundly and not wake with the gnawing pain of hunger.

This year, thousands of members of the Living Church of God all over the world will travel to keep two of God’s annual Festivals— the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day—from sunset on Wednesday, October 12 to sunset on Thursday, October 20. As they meet, they will rejoice before their God and with their brethren. It will be a physical and a spiritual Feast, picturing this coming time of prosperity and peace under Christ’s direct rulership.

Do you want to know more about the Feast of Tabernacles and other Holy Days given by God? Then request your copy of The Holy Days: God’s Master Plan.