Amos 8:11
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD...
The scarcity of good preaching is a judgment from God on the people of God who have chosen other gods over the God they claim to worship. When the LORD inspired these words through the prophet, they were in the future tense; but as we read these words we know that future is now. We are living in the age where hearing good solid Bible teaching is no longer the norm. These words were written during a time that there was an abundance of hearing the truth of God coming from the prophets, and there were an abundance of prophets whose main concern was crying out to the people on behalf of the God of Israel, speaking forth the prophecies that He had given to them. We now live in an age where there are an abundance of men in the pulpits of the world, but many of them have very little interest in preaching the Word of God. Many are in the pulpit for "filthy lucre" (Titus 1:11, 1 Peter 5:2).
It is true that we still have the Bible to read. The Word of God is available to access in various forms. More times than not, we do not have faithful men who will teach the Word line by line and precept upon precept. Many lack the desire, discipline and the skill to be faithful to the scripture. When the people have no one to teach them and explain to them what the LORD says, it leaves the church with a well full of water, but nothing with which to draw from that well.
I live in an area where there are churches on every corner. Each Sunday morning, on my ten minute trip to my church, which is only six and a half miles from my home, I pass by exactly 12 churches. Only ONE of those 12 churches stands on the truth of God's Word. (I know this because I have either visited or done research on the church/denomination to find out what their beliefs and/or mission statements reveal.) It is amazing to think that there are that many churches, and only one of them, on any given LORD's Day, is teaching what the LORD actually said. Talk about a famine...