FAMINE
Food in many forms is one of the most common symbols found in the Bible. Bible readers must therefore be careful to understand this symbolism. That is why God makes a point of teaching about clean and unclean food. 

God uses the concept of good spiritual food to represent his spoken word. And he uses the concept of evil, soulish food to represent the words of Trees of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The concept of famine, therefore, represents the condition of religious people who, having consumed a steady diet of evil, soulish food, are hungry, or famished for lack of good spiritual food.

Perhaps the best way to adjust our idea of food from natural food to spiritual food is to look at the issue of famines. Scripture also clearly tells us that famines are not physical but spiritual:

There are several incidences of famine in the Bible where we find that God actually creates it:

We might be surprised that God would actually send a spiritual famine until we learn that he does it to discipline Israel for its sin:

1 Kings 8:30-40: And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant and of thy people Israel, when they pray toward this place; yea, hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place; and when thou hearest, forgive. 31 “If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath, and comes and swears his oath before thine altar in this house, 32 then hear thou in heaven, and act, and judge thy servants, condemning the guilty by bringing his conduct upon his own head, and vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.

33 “When thy people Israel are defeated before the enemy because they have sinned against thee, if they turn again to thee, and acknowledge thy name, and pray and make supplication to thee in this house; 34 then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again to the land which thou gavest to their fathers.

COMMENTARY: This says that Israel is not able to defeat its Religious Enemies because of sin. The scripture also prescribes the cure that will lead to forgiveness:

35 “When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against thee, if they pray toward this place, and acknowledge thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou dost afflict them, 36 then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, thy people Israel, when thou dost teach them the good way in which they should walk; and grant rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people as an inheritance.

COMMENTARY: The clear message here is that God uses famine to discipline people who sin by practicing religion. When applying this truth, it is important to remember that this principle is applied to individuals — not just to groups of people like Israel.

God restates what the sinner must do to receive forgiveness:

37 “If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence or blight or mildew or locust or caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in any of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there is; 38 whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by any man or by all thy people Israel, each knowing the affliction of his own heart and stretching out his hands toward this house; 39 then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and render to each whose heart thou knowest, according to all his ways (for thou, thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men); 40 that they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest to our fathers.

God uses the imagery of food famines to convey spiritual famines. Thus we should interpret the famine in Canaan as a spiritual famine because Canaan was occupied by pagan nations whose religious practices were not spiritually nourishing. They fed the flesh and the soul but not the spirit. They are the substance of religion.

Only the spirit of God can nourish the spirit of man. But, because people have great difficulty distinguishing between spiritual food and soulish food, they are confused by what is good for them and what is not. This is another example of the difference between Old/First Covenant and New Covenant. Old/First Covenant religion appears to be good and appears to be nourishing, but it is not the same as the New Covenant. These differences are explained further in Two Covenants.

The challenge to differentiate between the two covenants is the same problem that Adam and Eve had in the garden. There were two trees from which they could eat: Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Both trees were pleasing to the sight and good for food. But, although they were free to eat from both trees, they were told that they should not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

STUDY TIP: See Wood (trees), Gold, Silver, Stone for understanding of the symbolism of trees.

The two trees represent sources of spiritual food or soulish food. The power of the tongue can lead to either life or death. Trees of Life (i.e. New Covenant disciples) speak words (i.e. tongues) that are life-giving spiritual food. Trees of Knowledge of Good and Evil (i.e. Old/First Covenant religionists) speak words (i.e. tongues) that lead to death. These two kinds of tongues describe true prophets and false prophets. They also describe the basic differences between the Old/First Covenant and the New Covenant. 

When we understand the two covenants, we begin to see the symbolism of famine:

Essentially, Old/First Covenant religious people eat from trees of knowledge of good and evil while New Covenant disciples eat from trees of life. Religious people put their trust in men (i.e. trees  of knowledge of good and evil, while New Covenant  disciples exercise faith in God’s voice.

STUDY TIP: See Wood (trees).