A Lesson in Justice
I work with children. While they are still learning many things, there is one thing children are not short on – a sense of justice. Kids are very quick to pick up on injustices in the playground, classroom and, I dare say, in the home. Most are so egocentric that they may not notice when they commit an injustice against someone else, but they certainly make it known when they are the victim!
My mind started wandering down this track after a quick reading of Amos, a small book towards the end of the Old Testament. A book to which I have not paid too much attention and thought it was time to dive into.
Amos doesn’t muck around. He goes straight into pronouncing judgement on Israel’s enemies. However, it doesn’t take long before Amos starts pointing out Israel’s own inadequacies which, seem to me, to be far worse than any of the charges laid against their enemies. It’s pretty terrible stuff – not light bedtime reading. Now it’s not rioting in the streets type of terrible, but rather lavish excess at the expense of anyone but themselves.
An example is given in Chapter 2:8 where the clothes are taken off of the backs of debtors as payment for unpaid debts and then used as bedding when they went to worship God. A direct contradiction to the instruction they were given regarding debtors (Exodus 22:25-27). I thought Amos had reached a crescendo with the iconic statement “prepare to meet thy God, O Israel” but Amos continues. He goes as far as calling “the day of The Lord” darkness for them. The Israelites always seem to think that they’ll be okay because they are God’s “chosen” people – but Amos plainly tells them that they will be judged along with their enemies.
This is the part of the text that stood out to me. In chapter 5 Amos points out how God despises their religious feasts, will not accept their burnt offerings and doesn’t want to hear their music. They are practising religion for religion’s sake, thinking it makes them superior to everyone else. But, while engaging in all of these religious practises, they were oppressing the poor, living lives of excess and thinking they were immune to God’s judgment. By their very lifestyles they had cut their relationship with God.
Now, I need to do a bit more study before I can summarise any more thoughts on Amos but as it stands in my mind at the moment, God’s justice is inescapable. But the reverse is also true. God’s love is inescapable:
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
– Psalm 139:7-10
