Scripture Daily

Context No. 1685 of 4322 · Amos

Context · Reflection

Amos 6:10-14: in context

10“When a man’s relative carries him, even he who burns him, to bring bodies out of the house, and asks him who is in the innermost parts of the house, ‘Is there yet any with you?’ And he says, ‘No;’ then he will say, ‘Hush! Indeed we must not mention the LORD’s name.’ 11“For, behold, the LORD commands, and the great house will be smashed to pieces, and the little house into bits. 12Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness, 13you who rejoice in a thing of nothing, who say, ‘Haven’t we taken for ourselves horns by our own strength?’ 14For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, house of Israel,” says the LORD, the God of Armies; “and they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of the Arabah.”

Amos describes a scene of such devastation that survivors dare not even speak the LORD's name, and warns that God will smash the great house and the little house alike. Then he names the heart of the offense: you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness. And he exposes their pride, those who rejoice over nothing and say, have we not by our own strength taken power for ourselves? For this, God says, he will raise up a nation to afflict them.

Two things Amos names deserve our attention. The first is the perversion of justice: you have turned justice into poison, righteousness into bitterness. Justice is meant to be sweet and life-giving, the thing that protects the weak and orders society rightly; and they had turned it into its opposite, an instrument of harm, bitter and poisonous, twisted to serve the strong against the weak. It is a grave thing when the very institutions meant to do right are bent to do wrong, when justice itself becomes a weapon of injustice. The second thing is the pride beneath it: have we not by our own strength taken power for ourselves? They congratulated themselves on their success, crediting it entirely to their own strength, forgetting that whatever they had was given, not self-made. These two often go together, corrupt justice and self-satisfied pride, for the pride that says I did this by my own strength is quick to bend justice to protect what it thinks it has earned. There is a warning in this for individuals and societies alike. The perversion of justice into a tool of harm, and the pride that claims our gains as wholly self-made, are both grave before God, and both invite his judgment. The remedy runs the other way: to keep justice sweet, protecting the weak rather than the strong, and to remember that what we have is given, not achieved by our own strength alone. Amos's generation turned justice to poison and boasted in their own strength, and God raised up a nation against them; the passage presses us to keep our justice just and our hearts humble, remembering the Giver of all we have.

Have I let justice, in my dealings or my society, be bent from its sweetness into a tool of harm, and do I boast, like these, that what I have I took by my own strength, forgetting the God who gave it, or can I keep justice just and remember that all I have is given, not self-made?

Sources