Have you ever sat watching the news or scrolling down your screen and just shake
your head at what you hear or read? I’m not talking about natural disasters Earthquakes, floods and hurricanes…I’m referring to human on human carnage.
Injustice foisted upon one another. Ever wonder how can humans do that to each
other? Can it get any worse?
If you can imagine yourself feeling that way then you’ll get just a small piece of insight
into the way God looks at humanity. And you’ll understand some of the role of the OT
prophet.

Review Legacy X – Kings and prophets
o 350 year history when the people of God are split between two nations North and
South – ends with the fall of Israel in 722 and Judah in 586BC


With a few exceptions most of this era dominated by evil.
And that is why God sent prophets who demanded that God’s people cease their
evil ways and turn back to him
One of those prophets was Amos
Amos 1:1
1 The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa--what he saw concerning Israel
two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of
Jehoash was king of Israel.


Amos a shepherd/cattleman and a fig tree farmer – unlikely and reluctant
prophet - 7:14 – I’m no prophet type
Archeologists have uncovered signs of an earthquake in 760 BC
Amos’ focus – the northern kingdom of Israel - His message in a sentence:
2 He
said: "The LORD roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem; the pastures of the
shepherds dry up, and the top of Carmel withers."



God is angry and is about to bring judgment
Roars – either like a lion or in noise
Thunders = lit. gives his voice
o Frequently used when God was about to intervene in human history

His judgment would include something that would terrorize an agrarian culture
o For us: Your economy will go into a total meltdown.
That is the mildest thing Amos suggests will happen – here are some other threats God
makes:
The Sovereign LORD has sworn by his holiness: "The time will surely come when you
will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks. Amos 4:2
"In that day," declares the Sovereign LORD, "the songs in the temple will turn to wailing.
Many, many bodies--flung everywhere! Silence!"
Amos 8:3
Strike the tops of the pillars so that the thresholds shake. Bring them down on the heads
of all the people; those who are left I will kill with the sword. Not one will get away, none
will escape. Amos 9:1
What is God so mad about? Looking at the whole of Amos - He is furious
about injustice.
Injustice – the violation of another human’s rights; wrongs committed against another
human being

Amos was not calling out instances of injustice but systemic perpetual human
violations that had worked themselves into the fabric of society
That is what God was so worked up about – and still is!
Let me show you specifically what infuriated him:
Although Amos spends most of his time prophesying against Israel he does not spare
Israel’s neighbors:
1:3 This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Damascus, even for four, I will not
turn back [my wrath]. Because she threshed Gilead with sledges having iron teeth,


For 3 sins even 4 – metaphor for an indefinite number of sins
Sledges having iron teeth imply the injustice of genocide – the wide swath of
murder and mayhem of a threshing machine
o In 1944, a Polish-Jewish lawyer named Raphael Lemkin coined the word "genocide"
by combining geno-, from the Greek word for race or tribe, with -cide, from the Latin
word for killing.

When we think genocide we think Holocaust but oh there’s more…
Genocide over the past 100 years:
Sudan – 2003 – 200,000
Bosnia – 1995 – 200,000
Rwanda – 1994 – 800,000
Cambodia – 1979 – 2,000,000
The Holocaust- 1945 – 6,000,000
Nanking - 1938 – 300,000
Russia – 1933 – 7,000,000
Turkey – 1918 – 1,500,000
1:6 This
is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Gaza, even for four, I will not turn back
[my wrath]. Because she took captive whole communities and sold them to Edom,



Gaza = Philistines
Their injustice = Human trafficking and slavery
Which is a systemic injustice that continues to destroy lives –
o Slave labor, child forced labor, forced marriage, sex trafficking, child prostitution
Number of Slaves Worldwide in 2010 – 27,000,000
1:9 This
is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Tyre, even for four, I will not turn back
[my wrath]. Because she sold whole communities of captives to Edom, disregarding a
treaty of brotherhood,

Also human trafficking and Slavery
1:11 This
is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Edom, even for four, I will not turn
back [my wrath]. Because he pursued his brother with a sword, stifling all compassion,
because his anger raged continually and his fury flamed unchecked,

Another case of ethnic cleansing or genocide
1:13 This
is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Ammon, even for four, I will not turn
back [my wrath]. Because he ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to
extend his borders,

Infanticide – the killing of babies - part of a broader injustice of sexual warfare
including…
War Rape: in one province in one country in one year – 27,000
And of course abortion:
Number of abortions per year Worldwide: 42,000,000
Number of abortions per day Worldwide: 115,000
Add all the genocide numbers over the past 100 years and they pale in comparison.
2:1 This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Moab, even for four, I will not turn
back [my wrath]. Because he burned, as if to lime, the bones of Edom's king,

Grave robbing and Desecration of bodies
2:4 This
is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Judah, even for four, I will not turn
back [my wrath]. Because they have rejected the law of the LORD and have not kept his
decrees, because they have been led astray by false gods, the gods their ancestors
followed,


This one seems tame comparably – idolatry until you understand the
ramifications…
There idolatry was tantamount to religious abuse foisted upon their children, a
very serious injustice worldwide
Religious abuse is the crushing inner psychological, spiritual and emotional damage
suffered by members of authoritarian communities of faith whenever its spiritual
authority is twisted by spiritual leaders to achieve a desired goal through unethical, cruel
and damaging means
Injustice – Genocide, Human trafficking, ethnic cleansing, infanticide, religious
abuse…all systemic injustices that God abhors.
Then there is Israel itself…
2:6 This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not turn
back [my wrath]. They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals.
7 They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice
to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name.
8 They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge. In the house of their
god they drink wine taken as fines.
A litany of injustice: Human trafficking, oppression of the poor, injustice against the
oppressed, incest, and cruelty

Garments taken in pledge or collateral were to be returned every night so people
would not die of exposure …people were not doing this…human cruelty
In addition Amos takes aim at another fascinating societal injustice of Israel (fascinating
because of its relation to us today)
4:1 Hear
this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the
poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, "Bring us some drinks!"
5:11 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.
6:4 You
lie on beds inlaid with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice
lambs and fattened calves.
5 You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments.
6 You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over
the ruin of Joseph.

Apparently Israel was experiencing good time economically (Archaeologists have
indeed unearthed proof of the luxury of the day)

It seems that economic vitality had generated…
o an insatiable demanding greed
o gratuitous and conspicuous consumption
It seems this luxury came at the expense of the poor and bred a disregard and even
disgust of the poor and marginalized
And irony of ironies Israel through it all postured themselves as deeply religious which
really set God off…
5:21 "I
hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies.
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.
22 Even
God hated their hypocrisy as he has every time in history the church makes a mockery
of true faith…

Christians killing innocent people in Rwanda, and of course the Christian church
in Germany joining the Nazi cult.
You gotta wonder holds God hold himself back when his people say one thing
and do another…when we proclaim faith and live injustice.
Which leads me to this question…what ARE we to do about this?
What are we to do about the systems of injustice in our world?
7:7 This
is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true
to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand.
8 And the LORD asked me, "What do you see, Amos?" "A plumb line," I replied. Then
the Lord said, "Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them
no longer.
1) We must hold a plumb line up to ourselves and the world and not shrink back
from declaring what we see.



We must take up the task of Amos – we must be prophets
We must declare what is out of plumb in us and in our world.
When we see injustice call it what it is – starting with ourselves.
2) We must turn our episodes of justice and mercy into a lifestyles of justice and
mercy
Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
Amos 5:24
Justice is not to be a rain shower, not a rain storm, not even a hurricane, or a tsunami.

Those events are episodes – they come and they go
Justice must be a river that rolls on and never fails. like the Mighty Mississippi…

We must move our lives from episodes of justice and mercy to lifestyles of justice
and mercy.
WOS was a wonderful episode.

Several asked if we could do it more than once – even 4 times a year.
o Friends, you can do it 365 days a year!
o That is the point of WOS!
o Your episode mnust now translate to a lifestyle
WOS must roll on…a never ending stream in all of our lives.


How? Connect with the ministry your served!
Spend some time browsing the Partner Expo today!
o Collect the info – lay it out on your table and pray over it!

Get in the game for good!
We cannot be satisfied with the status quo as long as injustice dominates our
world…this was what Martin Luther King was trying to say on August 28, 1963 as he
spoke in Washington D.C. about the injustice of racism.
No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down
like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
Martin Luther King, August 28, 1963
Confronting injustice It is not an option…it is our mandate…it is our prime directive…



The mandate was not given to the government, not to any political party, not to
any ideological system
The mandate to destroy injustice was given to only one community – the church!
And with that came the authority to take the keys of the kingdom and storm the
gates of hell.
Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! Amos
5:24