(Please read the passage above before reading the commentary.)
Famines are horrendous. Some happens in nature, from natural causes. Others are man-made, as is happening now, when grain from Ukraine is blocked from getting to the world.
If famine from food is so horrible because we need the nutrition to carry on life, how much more horrendous when we have a famine of conversation. Families need to talk, to converse, with one another. Without conversation, family means turn upside down. I remember when I gave someone the silent treatment or received the silent treatment. I recall the frustration and the anger that resulted.
When happens when there is a famine on hearing the word of God? If we do not listen to God, why should God speak to us, and what consequences would this have on us? What if God were to speak and we not listen, what then, and with what consequences? The Scriptures speak of a famine of not hearing the word of God.
If conversation with other humans is our lifeline for growth in human relations and something we need essentially for our human life, how much more do we need God’s communication with us. If the faut lies with us, then we have to start listening. If the fault lies with God, then we have to beg him to speak to us. It is hard to grow in human relationships without sharing thoughts and ideas. It is much more difficult to grow in relationship with God if we do not have conversation with God. We listen by prayer; we hear by prayer; we receive from God by prayer.
We strive for peace to get the grain flowing to the world-wide market to prevent famine. We strive to listen and obey when God speaks to us so that the divine-human conversation grows between us and God in the world.