“Let Justice Roll Down”

A friend of mine, an Old Testament scholar, has published a book in which he explores the relationship between the Old Testament, ethics, and the Christian Life. He has taken his title, Let Justice Roll Down, from the wonderful image of God’s expansive love and faithfulness, in the fifth chapter of the prophecy of Amos:

But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like and everflowing stream. Amos 5:24

If preachers had only to preach on verse twenty-four of chapter five, we would be pleased. How wonderful it is to tell our congregations about the justice of God. It is truly good news when we can proclaim that God’s justice and righteousness will reach into our lives like a stream that will never be subject to the vicissitudes of nature. Drought can never dry up God’s love and grace. In this epigram, Amos has captured the image perfectly, and thus the reason my friend chose that line as his title. But we are hardly fair to Amos the prophet, nor do we paint an accurate portrait of his message, if we merely treat him as an entry in Bartlett’s Quotations.

Taken in its entirety, the prophecy of Amos is harsh and uncompromising. It is a message that condemns those who enjoy the wealth of the world at the expense of the poor, and far from being a message of reassurance and consolation, this is a message that contains little, if any, hope. The justice and righteousness of which Amos speaks are more words of judgment and less words of comfort, and we ignore this at our peril. Furthermore, the prophecy of Amos is a word of judgement that is as applicable today as it was almost three thousand years ago.

Amos tells us that he was among the shepherds of Tekoa when he received his call to become a prophet about 760 B. C. E. Tekoa was near Jerusalem in Judah, yet this man of the southern kingdom went north to Israel, to pronounce God’s word of judgement. Was he a simple shepherd? Probably not. The sophistication of his oratorical skill would seem to indicate that Amos used this as a rhetorical device, much the same way an American politician did in the mid-seventies. During the Watergate hearings, one of the senators frequently began his questions by noting that he was “just a poor country lawyer.” That poor country lawyer would then proceed to outsmart and outwit any and all of the witnesses.

Amos, the “poor country shepherd,” began his message by pronouncing God’s condemnation on Israel’s neighbors. Damascus, Gilead, Gaza, Tyre, all had sinned, and all would be punished. Like children in school who delight when their classmates meet with punishment, the Israelites no doubt enjoyed hearing how the fire of God was going to rain down on their neighbors. Each of their neighbors were to experience severe, devastating retribution for their disobedience. Not even the strong walls of their cities would be able to stand up to God’s holy fire. Consequently, Amos drew in his listeners, lulling them with a false sense of superiority, readying them for the blow that was to come.

Suddenly the finger of the prophet was pointed at them, “Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment.” (Amos 2:6) Like all of their neighbors around them, Israel, too had sinned against God, and it was the mission of Amos to pronounce God’s judgement.

And what was it that they had done, or not done? Over the years of peace experienced by both the northern and southern kingdoms, the disparity between the rich and the poor in Israel had widened drastically. There were people in Israel who enjoyed great wealth and luxury. They ate well and lived in beautiful homes. And it was to them that Amos directed God’s message.

Their peace and prosperity had come from God, but in response they “trampled on the poor and took from them levies of grain.” (Amos 4:11) While they enjoyed God’s graciousness they “built houses hewn of stone,” (Amos 4:11) and reclined on “beds of ivory,” sang “idle songs,” drank “wine from bowls and anointed themselves with the finest oils.” (Amos 6:4-6) They were distracted by their empty celebrations, ignoring and forgetting the poor who suffered, because their wealth came at the expense of the weak and oppressed.

God had sent warnings: famine, drought, floods, blight, mildew, locusts, and pestilence, but the people ignored each of them. They seemed to think that empty worship would replace compassion, and sacrifices and offerings would compensate for a lack of justice and mercy.

More than any of the prophets, Amos declares a word of doom and destruction with little or no word of hope. While the end of the prophecy ends with the possibility of restoration, scholars now seem to think that this is a later addition by someone disturbed by such a message of condemnation and damnation. Amos is very clear. The people of Israel have sinned against God and they will be punished. They would suffer for their transgressions.

And the reality that was to come was indeed to be one of hardship and suffering for the people of Israel. A generation after Amos the northern kingdom of Israel was destroyed by Assyria, and about two hundred years later the people of the covenant were forced into exile in Babylon. Those who had known affluence and ease experienced the darkness and gloom of which Amos foretold.

Unfortunately the finger of Amos is also pointed at us. We, too, lie on beds of ivory and drink delicate wines. Those of us who enjoy great wealth do so at the expense of the poor, and God hears their cries.

I live in Washington, D. C., the capitol of the United States. I live in a pleasant neighborhood of old homes and tall trees. My neighbors are successful professionals – doctors, economists, and government officials. While our beds may not be made of ivory, we are probably the people to whom Amos was speaking for I do not have to go too far before I find myself in the midst of neighborhoods where joblessness, deprivation, and hopelessness are etched on every face.

The economic disparity is astounding, yet daily I must ask, what am I doing to change this? How is my lifestyle made possible by this deprivation, my success by their failure, my privilege by their poverty?

What are we to do?

The prophets are very clear that the lives of the children of God are not to be lived in spiritual isolation. Our God is a God of compassion, justice, and righteousness, here, in this world. Amos reminds us that God is our creator. God has given us life, and given it abundantly. Furthermore, God has, and is, and always will be faithful to that creation. But, in response to God’s graciousness and love, empty prayers and superficial worship are not enough.

Our thanksgivings must be voiced as care and concern for the oppressed and rejected of the world for they, as God reminds us, are God’s people:

You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien,
for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
You shall not abuse any widow or orphan.
If you do abuse them, when they cry out to me,
I will surely heed their cry; . . .
If you lend money to my people, to the poor among you . . .
you shall not exact interest from them
If your neighbor cries out to me, I will listen,
for I am compassionate. Exodus 22:21-23, 25, 27

We are called, by God, to respond to the world, not out of selfishness and greed, but out of compassion and generosity. We are to love our neighbor, not ignore them; to support and encourage, not neglect and scorn. But what does that look like? It can take the form of quiet acts of personal tenderness, but it may also be lived out on a global scale.

As the countdown to the year 2000 continues, many church and political leaders are engaged in an effort known as Jubilee 2000. Through their efforts they hope to restructure world debt. Developing countries are crippled by heavy interest payments to the powerful nations of the world. But, as God reminds us, we are not to exact interest from God’s people, the poorest of the poor.

The “Day of the Lord” does not, as Amos tells us, have to be one of darkness and gloom, rather, we have the opportunity to forgive those debts and allow those nations to enter the new millennium free to focus on their own people’s education, medical care, and economic development. The “Day of the Lord” can be one when justice will “roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.”

In reality the Day of the Lord has arrived. We, who are followers of the risen Christ, know that the reign of God has come near. We have been given the victory of new life in Christ Jesus. In response to that gift we are called to love, as we have been loved, to forgive, as we have been forgiven, and to share the blessings of God’s grace. Through our efforts to lift up the oppressed, comfort those who sorrow, and bind up the wounds of those battered by the storms of life, we help to remove the human dams that stop up the rivers of God’s justice and righteousness. May they be everflowing streams.