Rolling Justice

Amos 5:24 But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!

There are moments in life when the very fiber of our being cries out, “Justice!” We see an event, someone being deprived of justice and we just want to do something. We write on cardboard and staple it to a stick and go stand with others and shout together, “Justice.”

The news has been filled with stories of injustice lately. Maybe the news is always filled with stories of injustice, but I just don’t normally notice them. But they are there, staring me in the face. Video and pictures attached. And my heart says, “Do something about it.”

The prophet Amos was given a glimpse of the future based on the history he knew. He had seen the injustice and cried out. But it is interesting what he calls for in those moments.

You see, his concept of justice and righteousness are different than our standard picture of justice and righteousness. And it is this difference that makes his words in our text so poignant.

For Amos, and the Old Testament writers who wrote in ancient Hebrew, justice is not something that happens when the judge lowers his gavel and pronounces the sentence. Justice is not some abstract pronouncement that happens in some distant future event.

For Amos, justice happens with concrete actions right in the moment. Justice has to do with us reflecting the character of the LORD in our lives in the way we treat other people. He has given examples in the preceding verses. They had done all the religious requirements for sacrifices and offerings. They had sung all the right songs. They were good Jews on the outside.

But their actions had not lived up to their religious practices. They had worked against justice by depriving the poor, taxing them unfairly, taking bribes to turn their eyes. Their actions had betrayed them.

Justice is something we do daily. It gets lived out in our actions, not just our ‘likes’ on Facebook. Justice in the thinking of Amos mandated doing something. And in many of his examples as he spoke to the Israelites, the justice system was at the heart of his complaint. Those involved in the justice system, even in our day, have a responsibility that extends even to us. We must do justice.

And Amos doesn’t stop there. He pairs justice with righteousness, which is very common in the writing of the Scriptures. Right actions and right relationships are central to the people of God. Righteousness starts with a right relationship with the LORD. This happens through our hearts being open to hear the sad state of our true heart.

We are torn not simply by what happens out there in the world, but by what happens even in our own hearts. The struggle with sin is not only an external battle, principalities and powers. But in order to stay in right relationship with the LORD, we must deal with the sin within our own hearts, daily, moment by moment. We will always desperately need the payment Jesus made on our behalf.

But right relationship, righteousness, extends to our relationships with each other. We must figure out how to deal with others in a way that walks out justice, in concrete actions. Righteousness means we must get along with each other. We must work at reconciliation.

A couple of chapters later in the book of Amos there is an illustration of a plumb line. Being a carpenter as I am, plumb and level are both important concepts. Plumb lines, a string with a weight at the bottom, have been used to determine straight up and down for millennia. It is more accurate than any level. Gravity always pulls straight down, so the string always hangs straight down.

And there is a day coming when the LORD will pull out the plumb line and measure all our actions and relationships against the standard of His. And we will, if left to our own devices and even our best intentions, we will all be out of plumb. We all fall short.

And in the words of C.T. Studd, “Only what’s done for Christ will last.” If it is truly done for Him, then our actions will have passed through the filter of justice and righteousness. Our concrete actions and our right relationships will stand as the testament to Christ’s work in us.

“Only what’s done for Christ will last.”