Amos 5:1-15: a reflection

1Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel: 2“The virgin of Israel has fallen; She shall rise no more. She is cast down on her land; there is no one to raise her up.” 3For the Lord GOD says: “The city that went out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went out one hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.” 4For the LORD says to the house of Israel: “Seek me, and you will live; 5but don’t seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and don’t pass to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing. 6Seek the LORD, and you will live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel. 7You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth! 8Seek him who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the LORD is his name, 9who brings sudden destruction on the strong, so that destruction comes on the fortress. 10They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly. 11Therefore, because you trample on the poor and take taxes from him of wheat, you have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. 12For I know how many are your offenses, and how great are your sins— you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn away the needy in the courts. 13Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time. 14Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you say. 15Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that the LORD, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

In the middle of a lament over Israel's coming judgment, God calls out to his people with an urgent invitation, repeated: Seek me, and you will live. Seek the LORD, and you will live. And in the same breath, he makes clear what such seeking involves: Seek good, and not evil, that you may live. Hate evil, love good, and establish justice. To seek God and to seek good, to hate evil and to do justice, are bound together; they are not separate things.

Notice how God joins seeking him with seeking good and doing justice. He does not say, Seek me with religious observance while continuing to trample the poor and pervert justice; he says, Seek me, and seek good, hate evil, love good, establish justice. True seeking of God is inseparable from turning toward good and away from evil, from loving what is right and doing justice, especially for the poor and oppressed whom Israel had been crushing. To seek God is to seek good.

That corrects a false separation we can make. We can imagine that seeking God is a matter of religious devotion, separate from how we treat others and whether we do justice; that we can seek God while ignoring good and tolerating evil. But God binds them together: to seek him is to hate evil, love good, and do justice. Seek God, and let that seeking show itself in seeking good, hating evil, and doing justice. Do not separate your devotion to God from your love of good and your doing of justice; they belong together. Seek the LORD, and you will live; and let your seeking of him be joined, as he commands, with hating evil, loving good, and establishing justice, especially for those who are oppressed.

Lord, in the midst of judgment you called your people with an urgent invitation: seek me, and you will live; and in the same breath you made clear what such seeking involves: seek good, and not evil; hate evil, love good, and establish justice. Correct in me the false separation I can make. I can imagine that seeking you is a matter of religious devotion, separate from how I treat others and whether I do justice; that I can seek you while ignoring good and tolerating evil. But you bind them together: to seek you is to hate evil, love good, and do justice. Help me seek you, and let that seeking show itself in seeking good, hating evil, and doing justice. Keep me from separating my devotion to you from my love of good and my doing of justice; they belong together. Help me seek you and live, and let my seeking of you be joined, as you command, with hating evil, loving good, and establishing justice, especially for those who are oppressed.