01/18/2009
Sunday School 9:45 a.m. Proverbs
29:20...speaking
in haste.
No Vesper’s tonight
Wednesday @ 7 – pp 124-130 (Paul: his
work, his theology, his ‘vehicle’)
Scripture
Trampling
the needy (Amos)
775-750 bc During the reigns of Uzziah,
king of Judah; and Jeroboam II, king of Israel.
Amos 5:6. Seek the LORD and live, or he
will sweep through the house of Joseph like a fire; it will devour, and Bethel
will have no one to quench it. 7. You who turn justice into bitterness and cast
righteousness to the ground
8. (he who
made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns blackness into dawn and darkens day into
night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of
the land-- the LORD is his name--
9. he flashes
destruction on the stronghold and brings the fortified city to ruin), 10. you hate the one who reproves in court and despise him who
tells the truth. 11. You trample on the poor and force him to give you grain.
Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them;
though you have planted lush vineyards, you will not drink their wine.
12. For I know how many are your
offenses and how great your sins. You oppress the righteous and take bribes and
you deprive the poor of justice in the courts. 13. Therefore the prudent man
keeps quiet in such times, for the times are evil. 14. Seek good, not evil,
that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say
he is.
15. Hate evil, love good; maintain
justice in the courts. Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph. 16. Therefore this is what
the Lord, the LORD God Almighty, says: "There will be wailing in all the
streets and cries of anguish in every public square. The farmers will be summoned
to weep and the mourners to wail.
17. There will
be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst," says
the LORD. 18. Woe to you who long for
the day of the LORD! Why do you long for the day of the LORD? That day will be
darkness, not light. 19. It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to
meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall
only to have a snake bite him.
20. Will not the day of the LORD be
darkness, not light-- pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness? 21. "I
hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. 22. Even though you bring me burnt offerings
and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship
offerings, I will have no regard for them.
23. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of
your harps. 24. But let justice roll
on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! (N.I.V.)
“But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like
a never-failing stream!”
The 20th Century
'Amos,' Martin Luther King, Jr., quoted Amos saying, "...let justice roll
down" in his "I Have a Dream" speech, 28
August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. “…No, no, we are not satisfied, and we
will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and
righteousness like a mighty stream."”
Amos
was talking about distributive justice. Amos was
talking about making certain that society's benefits and burdens are
distributed in an equitable manner. It’s a crucial matter of society’s
ethics. It's also the prevalent theme of Jesus' teachings (see His 'Sermon on
the Mount' - Matthew 5-7).
There are basically
three types of Biblical ‘justice’ with some variations (passive and active) forms of each: Distributive justice; restorative justice; and retributive justice.
It isn’t too hard to figure out what might be involved in a concept of
justice that involves ‘retribution’
(retributive justice). Nor is it difficult to figure out the concept of ‘restoration’ in justice (restorative
justice).
Too many people see justice in terms of vengeance. God addressed that very plainly, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” So much for any hopes of that
being a permissible form of justice for Christians…and yet we do that individually
and nationally.
Retributive justice must be very carefully understood and meted out
judiciously. Otherwise, it harms
innocents. It must be carefully applied to only affect the guilty. That is
the role of courts and sentencing guidelines.
Restorative justice assumes a loss. Distributive justice anticipates a
wrong or inequity, an equitable distribution of benefits, or in some instances
costs. Sometimes distributive justice requires that when one suffers, we all
suffer. Generally speaking, distributive justice requires that
blessings/benefits/opportunities – the good things in life, be equitably
applied to all God’s children.
This is the “justice”
that must roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream! Those two concepts – justice and righteousness,
are linked in more than 50 passages in the Old Testament.
There is no separating
justice and righteousness for the Christian! If our righteousness doesn’t carry ‘distributive justice’ then our
righteousness is as filthy rags. It is merely noise…a clanging cymbal.
And, even worse, if you are
guilty of trampling on the needy, IN ANY WAY, GOD WILL MAKE YOU CRY! (vs 16)
We are to: (vs 14) Seek good,
not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just
as you say he is.
That
is…we are to ‘seek good’ for everyone! It is to be as equally applied as flood
waters of a river. The power of that righteousness is to be like a might
stream! Let nothing stand in its way.
This passage in Amos (5:6-24), circa 775-750 B.C., was
prophetic of so many nations and people down through the centuries. Here we
are, more than 45 years after MLK quoted Amos in his "I Have A Dream" speech, still standing in moral condemnation
over our continuing failure to "do justice."
Most of evangelical Christianity seems so wrapped up in
'social justification' that they stand shoulder to shoulder with the Jews of
Israel during Amos' day. Even the High Priest of Bethel engaged in 'social
justification' in his letter to the King of Israel, defaming the prophet Amos.
I encourage you to move away from the High Priest. Move away
from the popular voices of hard-hearted Christians so frequently heard in
today's evangelical circles. Come and stand beside Martin Luther King, Jr., and
Amos. Come over to the side of the man from Galilee who was the embodiment of
Isaiah's prophesy: (Isaiah 61)
1. The Spirit of the
Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news
to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom
for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2. to proclaim the year of
the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
3. and
provide for those who grieve in Zion-- to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of
praise instead of a spirit of despair.