As I write this, several American cities—including mine—are burning, some more literally than others. Minneapolis, Atlanta, Philly, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York. I’ve seen “I am tired” too often to tally. Protests over the needless deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and most recently George Floyd give way to rioters, looters, and opportunistic anarchists.
Reading through some Old Testament passages brought me to Amos, one of the Minor Prophets, thus named for their length not import, impact, or influence. Because of Dr King’s “I Have a Dream” speech delivered at the March on Washington, a sliver of Amos has made its way into the American cultural lexicon: “let justice roll down like rivers and righteousness like an everlasting stream.” The words echo in our minds.
But, there is a larger context for those picturesque words.
Amos wrote to convey God’s strong displeasure with his people. Despite repeated judgments they continued to oppress the righteous, take bribes, deprive the poor of justice, commit crimes and other, “innumerable” sins. The prophet writes in chapter 5:
Seek the Lord and live, or he will spread like fire throughout the house of Joseph; it will consume everything with no one at Bethel to extinguish it. Those who turn righteousness into wormwood also throw righteousness to the ground (6-7)…They hate the one who convicts the guilty at the city gate, and they despise the one who speaks with integrity. Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact a grain tax from him (10-11)…Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the city gate (15).
God further warns them that their longed for “Day of the Lord,” in which they might experience his full blessing was instead being turned into a day of judgment. “What will the day of the Lord be for you?” he asks, then answers:
It will be darkness and not light. It will be like a man who flees from a lion only to have a bear confront him. He goes home and rests his hand against the wall only to have a snake bite him. Won’t the day of the Lord be darkness rather than light, even gloom without any brightness in it?
Is there a better description of the Year of our Lord 2020?
“That ‘day’ which was to have ushered in the nation’s great era of glory would never be realized by those who worshiped through a heartless ritualism and lived by injustice, says David Garland. “That ‘day,’ when it came, would set justice and righteousness in their rightful places. Israel, lacking both, would find it a ‘day’ without hope.”1
It has come then to we Christians through the ages, that as we stare frequently at the world as the reason for God’s judgment, God is likely looking at his Church. “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God,” wrote the Apostle Peter.
And no, “just preach the gospel” is not what God requires in the face on systemic injustice. The solution to injustice is not more worship, preaching, or prayer meetings. The solution to injustice is to establish justice. That will be preceded by worship, preaching, and teaching, doubtless. But, God made it clear through Amos that where justice is ignored by his people, their feasts, offerings, and sacrifices, are hated and despised by him while he hears “noise” in place of their music. Jesus, of course, agreed: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, and yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law — justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These things should have been done without neglecting the others” (Matthew 23:23).
Before condemning rioters and looters in the same half-breath used to denounce George Floyd’s murder, remember hands that shed innocent blood rile the Judge of all the earth. When justice is ignored in the gates, traded for bribes, and trampled in the streets—with the acquiescence of God’s people—that same judge will do what is right. Justice will indeed roll down. But it’s rolling onto us.
1- D. David Garland, Amos, Lamplighter Books, 1966, 65.
