NOTES for Amo 8:9-12
Here is the hunger that the Lord sends: a hunger for the word of God. A moment comes in every person's life when His word becomes vitally necessary. Of course, one cannot say that there is ever a time when someone does not need it, but what matters here is that there are special moments when He sends an intense hunger.
But He says that people will seek the word and not find it. Why? Does an unkind God send hunger and refuse to satisfy it? No. This concerns a people who have once again forgotten God. And this is often exactly what happens to people: yes, the Lord gives them a hunger to hear His word, but a person has moved so far away from Him and turns away so persistently that he simply does not understand where to seek that for which his soul hungers. Often this hunger remains unsatisfied, while the person convinces himself that he has already satisfied it with something very, very useful and proper...
Yes, the Lord can send hunger, but He respects our freedom and does not impose on us the way to satisfy it. In fact, there is no need to wander throughout the world, because we already have His word, just as the people of Israel had it in the days of Amos.