Amos the Prophet: Social Justice

The Book of Amos is only 9 chapters long, but its prophetic announcements are powerful and direct. When Amos was pronouncing his prophecies, the two kingdoms of Judah and Jerusalem were in peace, with little threat from external powers. 

Amos however describes a society which has lost its moral compass, and has forgotten what it means to be righteous before God: they have not honoured the covenant relationship into which they entered with Yahweh; they have forgotten how Yahweh saved them from the Egyptians, and subsequently they have rejected his laws. 

Amos declares that God’s judgment upon them will be swift and decisive; God will utterly destroy them. 

Flight shall perish from the swift,

And the strong will not retain their strength,

Nor shall the mighty save their lives; Amos 2:13

In what ways does Amos declare that they have failed to follow God’s laws? Amos’ understanding of what it meant to be in covenant relationship with God is centred on social relationships. Amos is primarily concerned with social injustice. Amos highlights:

1. Selling the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals (prob refers to the enslavement of people for the non-payment of debts
2. Trampling the poor into the dust of the earth
3. Pushing the afflicted out of the way - denial of legal due process in the courts
4. Father and son sexually exploiting the same girl- could refer to violation of incest rules
5. Religious corruption, economic exploitation and not honouring those set apart (the nazirites), i.e. dishonouring the holy

At the heart of all of these sins are:

1. Arrogance and rejection of God’s Lordship.
2. The desire to put profit and gain over the lives of human beings. 
3. Failure to honour God.

Amos describes a society in which the poor and the afflicted are not listened to; justice is not served and religion is simply another sphere in which the vulnerable are abused. These are all things which we can hear echoes of today in our current society.

The prophets of the Old Testament remind the people again and again to build a just society:

For I know how many are your transgressions,

And how great are your sins-

You who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe,

And push aside the needy in the gate. 

Seek good and not evil,

That you may live Amos 5:12-14

The result of the failure to follow God’s laws is to be cast away from God, to lose his protection, his care and his oversight. Historically, Amos’ prophecies that the peaceful, prosperous times would come to an end are true: 40 years later, after the long reigns of Uzziah and Jeroboam came to an end, a new and aggressive Syrian King conquered Israel and took the people into exile. It may seem peculiar and even perverse to us today to hear of the judgment of God being mediated through military defeat, but disobedience is connected to consequences in the Bible - if we don’t follow God’s law there will be a negative consequence. God’s ways are just and true; we ignore them at our peril. 

One of the ways in which we are being re-schooled in the consequences of sin is in the whole area of environmental destruction. We have happily consumed, wasted, thrown away, exploited and plundered the natural world to such an extent that we are experiencing the negative consequences. Prophets have been prophesying for decades about the destruction of our habitats, about global warming, about the extinction of species, but we are only just waking up to the reality. To change our behaviour, to turn again towards God, we must learn humility and obedience. 

At the heart of the call to be in relationship with God is the promise of God’s blessing, if we obey his commands. In a culture that has been schooled now for a long-time in the values of self-reliance, personal independence, self-determination, choice and certain types of freedom, the call to be obedient to God’s laws, is challenging and counter-cultural. But, we long for the blessings that only God can provide. 

God’s relationship to the whole of creation is one of free gift and blessing. God created the world and human beings as the crown of His creation and on the 7th day God rested. The rest which is a central tenet of God’s promise and blessing, is a rest that we and the whole of creation are desperate for. For we have forfeited the blessing of rest in following our own laws and desires; we and our land are crying out for that rest, to bring renewal and new life. Not only is the weekly sabbath built into God’s laws, but also the sabbatical year (for the people and the land), which is to occur every six years. Moreover this principle is applied to create a year of Jubilee, the 50th year (7x7). In this 50th year there is a returning; there is rest; there is grace in the cancelling of debts and there is renewal.

You shall not sow, or reap the aftergrowth, or harvest the unpruned vines. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field produces itself.   Leviticus 25:12 

God’s salvation is for communities, nations, for all the animals and for the land itself. We are connected not only to each other, but to the lands which we inhabit. Believing in God should result in us caring and advocating for the poor and vulnerable; it should mean that we always put people and justice before profit, and that we should be leaders in the care of the environment. In so doing God will bless us and we will be near to Him once more.