“‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You are the one I spoke of in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel. At that time they prophesied for years that I would bring you against them. This is what will happen in that day: When Gog attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign Lord. In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground. I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign Lord. Every man’s sword will be against his brother. I will execute judgment on him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’

• Ezekiel 38:17-23

Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

• Matthew 24:4-8

He replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.”
Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.
“But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. And so you will bear testimony to me. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. Everyone will hate you because of me. But not a hair of your head will perish. Stand firm, and you will win life.

• Luke 21:8-19

Here is the third quiz in a series of quizzes on the birth pains of the End Times – maybe not every week.  What Jesus says in Matthew 24 (basically the same words in Mark 13) gives some words that can be the focus of a quiz.  Luke 21 uses a slightly different expression of the same basic things.  For this quiz, I have added Ezekiel 38 above which has even more descriptive words.

But it is sad that so many people have their heart tugged by a war and suddenly think we are in the End Times.  Jesus also mentioned earthquakes, famines, and pestilence.  We have had those too.  But our short attention spans lose heart as we read through, before Jesus says the words “birth pains.”  And the admonishment to take heart.  Famines are mentioned as part of these birth pains.

So, this quiz focuses on the word “famine”.  Famine is mentioned 94 times in the NIV, 84 times in the Old Testament.  All the questions are in biblical order.

The Questions:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Where did Abram go when there was a famine?  This is the first mention of famine.
2	In the next mention of famine, where does Isaac go with Rebekkah, saying the same thing that his father said in the instance of question 1?
3	In Pharoah’s dream, there were seven fat cows (years of plenty) and seven lean cows (years of famine).  What happened to the fat cows?
4	After the rebellion of Israel is prophesied, they sing the song of Moses where it is said that if they worship other gods, God will send famine and four other things.  Name at least one other calamity that God will send against Israel when they worship other gods.
5	During the time of the judges, there was a famine and Elimelek took his wife and two sons to what nation to find food, and his sons married local women from that country.  Where did they go?
6	Why did Israel suffer a three-year famine near the end of David’s reign as king?
7	David held a census, and God gave David three options as to his punishment, three years of famine, three months of enemies attacking the people, or three days of a plague?  Which did David choose and for a bonus, why?
8	Sword, famine, and plague are grouped together in 25 verses in the Bible.  Which book of the Bible has the most references, and a bonus to name at least three of the five books?
9	A prophet from Jerusalem came to Antioch and prophesied there would be a famine in Judea, and the famine extended all across the Roman empire.  Who was this prophet who also bound Paul’s hands with his belt when Paul was going to Jerusalem after his third mission trip?
10	In Revelation, it says that in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine.  This is the last use of the word “famine” in the NIV, but who is “her”?

Question 8 only speaks of sword, famine, and plague being mentioned in the same verse, but what of the ten plagues of Egypt?  We will have a quiz on pestilence in the next installment of those End Times prophecies, but the work of those pests, especially the locusts, probably led to a famine in Egypt.  The first five plagues attacked those things that the Egyptians worshipped.  Probably all ten plagues did that, but in the sixth plague, Pharoah’s magicians were in so much pain from the boils, they could not even attempt to duplicate the “trick.”

But then in the seventh and eighth plagues set up the famine that is not recorded.  Why?  The Israelites had left already after the tenth plague, and before the stores of food had run out.  But the hail destroyed the existing crops.  The flax and barley were destroyed by the hail.  But the wheat and spelt had not emerged from the ground yet.  Thus, there is a time delay between the hail and the locusts.  The wheat and spelt comes up and Pharoah is less worried about the loss of the flax and barley.  But then the locusts come in the eighth plague to eat the fresh sprouts that emerged, destroying the wheat and spelt crops also.

With many livestock dead from the fifth plague, more livestock dead due to the hail of the seventh plague, and even more dead from the tenth plague, Egypt was short of livestock and missing an entire crop of their grain harvest.

But what of the End Times?

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Where did Abram go when there was a famine?  This is the first mention of famine.	Genesis 12:10
2	In the next mention of famine, where does Isaac go with Rebekkah, saying the same thing that his father said in the instance of question 1?	Genesis 26:1
3	In Pharoah’s dream, there were seven fat cows (years of plenty) and seven lean cows (years of famine).  What happened to the fat cows?	Genesis 41:4
4	After the rebellion of Israel is prophesied, they sing the song of Moses where it is said that if they worship other gods, God will send famine and four other things.  Name at least one other calamity that God will send against Israel when they worship other gods.	Deuteronomy 32:24
5	During the time of the judges, there was a famine and Elimelek took his wife and two sons to what nation to find food, and his sons married local women from that country.  Where did they go?	Ruth 1:1
6	Why did Israel suffer a three-year famine near the end of David’s reign as king?	2 Samuel 21:1
7	David held a census, and God gave David three options as to his punishment, three years of famine, three months of enemies attacking the people, or three days of a plague?  Which did David choose and for a bonus, why?	2 Samuel 24:13
8	Sword, famine, and plague are grouped together in 25 verses in the Bible.  Which book of the Bible has the most references, and a bonus to name at least three of the five books?	N/A
9	A prophet from Jerusalem came to Antioch and prophesied there would be a famine in Judea, and the famine extended all across the Roman empire.  Who was this prophet who also bound Paul’s hands with his belt when Paul was going to Jerusalem after his third mission trip?	Acts 11:28
10	In Revelation, it says that in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine.  This is the last use of the word “famine” in the NIV, but who is “her”?	Revelation 18:8

As mentioned above regarding the ten plagues of Egypt, there is more than 25 times that the Bible discusses sword, famine, and plague.  Those three words in the same verse 25 times, but the ten plagues set Egypt up for a famine and the opening of the first four seals (out of seven seals on the scroll), speak of four horsemen, sometimes called the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.

This story comes from Revelation 6.

The first seal being opened led to the first horse: the white horse.  The rider of the first horse was bent on conquest.  Nothing is mentioned of a bloody conquest.

The second seal being opened led to the second horse: the red horse.  This rider caused everyone to hate each other.  Anger and rage ruled the day, similar to what we see in the protests anywhere in the world lately.  The rider of the red horse was given a sword.

The third seal being opened led to the third horse: the black horse.  The rider of the black horse had a set of scales.  Any food that might be available after so much bloodshed was extremely expensive.  This graphically explains the famine where common folk had no money and would starve.

The fourth seal, leading to the fourth horse, a pale horse, with a rider named Death with Hades close behind.  They brought even more sword, famine, and plague.  A fourth of the earth was killed by the fourth rider, Hades, and the wild beasts of the earth.

I separate this discussion after the Bible References from the Answers to warn you that you are about to get the answers.  That is, if you had not already done the best you could on the quiz.  Thus, this is followed by three bars: a white bar, red bar, and black bar.  White, red, and black are ecumenical colors that some denominations recognize.

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The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	Where did Abram go when there was a famine?  This is the first mention of famine.	Genesis 12:10	Egypt, which is the first time he said that Sarai was his sister, and she was his half-sister.
2	In the next mention of famine, where does Isaac go with Rebekkah, saying the same thing that his father said in the instance of question 1?	Genesis 26:1	To the Philistine city of Gerar, Isaac said that Rebekkah was his sister.  Note that Abram used this ruse twice, with Egypt first and then the Philistines.
3	In Pharoah’s dream, there were seven fat cows (years of plenty) and seven lean cows (years of famine).  What happened to the fat cows?	Genesis 41:4	The seven fat cows were eaten by the seven lean cows.
4	After the rebellion of Israel is prophesied, they sing the song of Moses where it is said that if they worship other gods, God will send famine and four other things.  Name at least one other calamity that God will send against Israel when they worship other gods.	Deuteronomy 32:24	Consuming pestilence and deadly plague.  Then the fangs of wild beasts and the venom of vipers.  In the following verses another punishment – the sword.
5	During the time of the judges, there was a famine and Elimelek took his wife and two sons to what nation to find food, and his sons married local women from that country.  Where did they go?	Ruth 1:1	Moab, which led one of Elimelek’s sons to marry Ruth and she went back to Judah with Naomi when Elimelek and his sons died in Moab.
6	Why did Israel suffer a three-year famine near the end of David’s reign as king?	2 Samuel 21:1	Saul had killed the Gibeonites, who had a treaty with Israel, and they had not been avenged.
7	David held a census, and God gave David three options as to his punishment, three years of famine, three months of enemies attacking the people, or three days of a plague?  Which did David choose and for a bonus, why?	2 Samuel 24:13	The plague.  David would rather put his life in the hands of the Lord, who is a merciful God than any enemy.  And this was not long after they had already been through the famine from question 6.
8	Sword, famine, and plague are grouped together in 25 verses in the Bible.  Which book of the Bible has the most references, and a bonus to name at least three of the five books?	N/A	Jeremiah with 15 verses.  Ezekiel next 7 verses.  And with one verse each: 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, and Revelation.
9	A prophet from Jerusalem came to Antioch and prophesied there would be a famine in Judea, and the famine extended all across the Roman empire.  Who was this prophet who also bound Paul’s hands with his belt when Paul was going to Jerusalem after his third mission trip?	Acts 11:28	Agabus.  The binding of Paul’s hands illustrated how Paul would be bound if he went to Jerusalem.
10	In Revelation, it says that in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine.  This is the last use of the word “famine” in the NIV, but who is “her”?	Revelation 18:8	Babylon, the city, but also the harlot, and also the center of financial trade in the world.

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, for the first video, here is Oceans Music with David Ryan Cook singing No Famine.  This is nearly 8 minutes.

Here is Erik Neider singing Thank You (famine or feast).

Here is Gracie Binion (formerly MDSN, pronounced Madison, Madison Grace Binion) singing Hunger.

Here is Carman (Licciardello) singing Hunger for Holiness.

From whence cometh famine?  So, I was feeling a bit Old KJV.  But famine was a common Old Testament punishment for turning away from God.  Why?  Most of the false gods, like Baal, were bountiful harvest gods, or like Asherah, gods that were worshipped for greater fertility, in the home and in the soil.  When we turn away from God in the very thing that He proves time and time again to be in control of, we cut our nose off to spite our face.  Only our Heavenly Father can bring rain when it is needed.  And only our Heavenly father can hold back that rain.  In 1 Kings 17, Elijah told King Ahab that there would be a drought and only by his word, Elijah’s, would the drought end.  But that was God setting up the situation that Elijah was speaking the Words of God, and Ahab’s other prophets were false.  Elijah spoke what God told him to speak.  Only by turning back to God can the famine end.  But in the End Times, God is carrying out His judgment over a world that continuously thinks they can do it on their own.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.