But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream (5:24)
I've always associated Amos with calls for social justice, and certainly it's in there, loud and clear. The beginning slams the nations surrounding Israel for their mass-murder sprees and enemy bloodshed. As for the Israelites sins, they are personal, local, intimate. They do not take care of their own - and do not remember their history with the Lord.
Amos highlights injustice and social responsibility, but the central theme is the judgement of sin, and G-d's complete abhorrence for Israel's self-righteousness.
Israel's heart is unholy, their offerings are a disgusting insult to G-d's character. He despises them for their contempt, but He will not let them destroy themselves. What shocked me most when reading Amos was the salvific nature of the Exile.
Here is His threat to rip them from the Land - from the Promise, from the presence of the Lord Himself, all intricately connected. Because all other attempts to get their full and undivided attention have failed:
I gave you empty stomachs (4:6)
I also withheld rain from you (4:7)
Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards (4:9)
I sent plagues among you as I did in Egypt (4:10)
Yet you have not returned to me (4:6, 8, 9, 10, 11)
The Exile served to take the Israelites away from the very things that had once served as signs of their chosenness. The Land, the Temple, their community as the People of G-d. He tells them point-blank: Seek me and live (5:4), because all else are now sources of false righteousness, separating them from G-d through sin.
He scatters them from the Land of promise, cutting them off from their vain house of worship and each other. But just as He promises to destroy, through His holy and just providence, a remnant is declared. Both the Exile and the Remnant are provisions of Grace under the Law. The Exile is deserved (if not merciful) and necessary; the Remnant is a testament of His relentless and passionate pursuit of His people.
The Israelites did not warrant this provision any more than you or I deserve to be made righteous through faith by Grace.
5 comments:
Whenever I hear the words "social justice" I recoil involuntarily, mostly because of the unneccessary accretions the word has aqcuired, but you're right I think. And listening to MLK, Jr. read that verse is quite an experience.
By the way, I hope you bought a copy of Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth, if you're listing it in your library.... tsk, tsk, tsk.
Sensei says the book is mine!
:)
You are a bad person.
Well, then it's a good thing I'm saved by grace.
Meanie! :P
Nathan,
Just out of curiosity, what do you see as unnecessary additions to the term 'social justice,' and what should it really mean? I'm assuming from your perspective, social justice should be implemented on an individual or community level, not at the national level (or even state?). But do you draw any lines - are there some issues that are just too complex to be dealt with at the local level?
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