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Amazing Facts

Doug Batchelor

Hoarding Food for the Storm


I'd like to take a few moments and talk to you about how to hoard food for the coming storm. That's right, we've all seen some of the very disturbing images in the news recently of people lining up outside the markets or the food warehouses like Costco and they go pouring in to try to get some of the basics to survive in case they can no longer get to the store. It's interesting that 1 of the first things people would grab is the toilet paper and the paper towels. Seems like the soda and the beer went flying off the shelves. Someone took a picture of the store where the sugary items were gone but the fruit and the vegetable pile was still well-stocked.

I can tell you something about what people's priorities are. But actually, there is a time when it is appropriate to hoard food before a storm. Let me read something to you from the book of Genesis, chapter 7, and a few verses 1 through 4. Thing of all flesh ye shall bring to you 2 of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you. 2 of every kind will come to you to keep them alive, and you shall take for yourself – listen – of all food that is eaten, and you shall Gather it to yourself, store it up, and it will be food for you and for them." So before the storm, not only did Noah take 2 of all the unclean animals and 7 of the clean animals, but he hoarded, stockpiled food in the ark to survive the coming storm.

They were on that boat for nearly a year. So obviously they needed to stockpile. Now, right now my message is not about stockpiling physical food. There is a time when you can do that. The children of Israel, when they went through the wilderness, God told them to gather twice as much manna on the sixth day of the week so they would have some to eat on the Sabbath because no manna fell.

But when they tried to stockpile the manna any other day, it would breed worms and it stunk. You know, in the book Maranatha, it explains that those who are trying to stockpile for the time of trouble, it will backfire. Listen to this quote from Maranatha, page 181. The Lord has shown me in vision, repeatedly, that it is contrary to the Bible to make any provision for our temporal wants in the time of trouble. I saw that if the saints have food laid up by them or in the fields, in the time of trouble when the sword, famine, notice, and pestilence are in the land, it will be taken from them by violent hands and strangers who would reap their fields.

Then will be the time for us to trust wholly in God and He will sustain us. I saw that our bread and our water will be sure at that time and that we should not lack or suffer hunger. The Lord has shown me that some of his children would fear when they see the price of food rising and they would buy food and lay it up for themselves for the time of trouble. Then in a time of need, I saw them go to their food and look at it and it had bred worms and it was full of living creatures and not fit for use. So for those who are thinking they're gonna stockpile food for the time of trouble, God will sustain us during that time.

When the children of Israel were in the wilderness, he miraculously provided for them. God provided for Elijah when he was fleeing through the wilderness. And even Jesus, after his time of temptation in the wilderness, it's his angels minister to him. God is gonna take care of his people. So what kind of food am I talking about hoarding?

Talking about hoarding the bread of life. Now, during these times, when a lot of people are sequestered in their homes, or they can't go to work, and they're maybe getting stir crazy, God is providing time for us now to be hoarding and feasting on the word of God, to prepare for another kind of storm that is coming, a storm that is gonna try the faith of every person. You know, this is what Jesus did. How did he prepare for the great temptation that came when he was in the wilderness? He had hidden the word of God in his mind.

And Every time he was tempted, he met every temptation to the devil by saying, It is written. You can read there in Matthew chapter 4, he said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So now is the time for us to store the Word. There's another great quote about this in the book Great Controversy from the page 494. "'None but those who have fortified their minds with the truth of the Bible will stand through the last great conflict.

Only those who are storing the Word of God in their minds are going to survive what's coming. You know, in the parable of the 10 virgins, before the cry went forth that the bridegroom is coming, it says all of the virgins went to sleep and their lamps began to grow dim. But when that cry came, the midnight cry, the bridegroom is coming, 5 of the wise virgins had stored extra oil. They survived that trying time of delay and were able to go into the wedding feast. Those that did not have a reserve of the Holy Spirit that had not stored away the Word of God in their minds and in their hearts, they were not prepared for that time of trial.

Now is the time. Psalm 119.11, Thy words I've hid in my heart that I might not sin. Not only is it important for us to be storing away the Word of God in our minds and in our hearts during this time to help us to resist temptation, but we want to be feeding on the Word of God so that we can be sharing the truth with others. Peter says in 1 Peter 3, 15, Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to any man who asks the reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. We need to know the word so we can share the word and defend our faith.

Jesus warned us the time is coming. In Mark 13, 9, you will be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony to them. We need to know what we believe so we can defend our faith. Sometimes it might be in a public venue and others will be converted by what we say. But now we need to be storing the Word of God.

2 Timothy 2 verse 15, Paul says, Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. We need to know how to compare Scripture with Scripture. And this is a wonderful time for us to be engaged in memorizing Scripture. Amazing Facts has a Bible promise book. You might start by memorizing some of the great promises in the Word of God.

You'll find a copy of that at the AF bookstore. And just be going through the Bible. Do a Bible study series at a time like this. But this is the time to fortify our minds with the truth of God's Word. There is going to be a famine, the Bible tells us, before Jesus comes.

But that famine is not so much for bread as for the word of God. Amos 8, verse 11 and 12, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, 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. And they will wander from sea to sea, and from north to east, they will run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but they will not find it, because it's too late then. Now is the time, especially now when so many people are self-quarantined, they're isolated. You might even get online with a friend and challenge each other to quote certain scriptures from memory.

But now's the time for us to be feasting on the Word of God. You know, hummingbirds are amazing little creatures. Normally they eat every 10 or 15 minutes. They've got an amazing metabolism. Their wings beat hundreds of times a second.

But there's 1 time in the year when hummingbirds in North America migrate 500 miles across the Gulf of Mexico to the Yucatan Peninsula. How do they manage that? 2 weeks before they do that migration, they gorge on nectar. They just go to every flower and they eat and they eat and they eat and they double their body weight so that they can survive that trip across the ocean. Sometimes they encounter storms along the way and then they make it to the beautiful paradise in the Yucatan Peninsula where they survive the winter.

Friends, now we need to be storing on the nectar of God's Word. The Word of the Lord is like honey, sweeter than honeycomb. Feast on the Word now to prepare for the storm that is coming.

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Hoarding Food for the Storm

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