Skip to main content

Tag: Amos

Let justice roll on like a river

Written by LWOM Amsterdam on . Posted in Amos, What’s new?.

What does it mean to “let justice roll on like a river” (Amos 5:24)?

“Let Justice Roll” might be a good title for a new song hitting the music charts. More importantly, the prophet Amos used this phrase in his inspired prophetic message. “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:24).

Many of the prophetic books in the Old Testament call the Jewish people to repentance. The prophets received word from the Lord that He would bring judgment upon His people because they had turned away from Him so greatly. God sent these prophets to warn His people about the day of the Lord and call them to true repentance.

In this context, we find our prophet Amos. He sees the sin of the people, and he is sent by God to warn them to turn away from sin lest they be judged. He calls them to let justice roll—the land should be flooded with justice. As it is, the land is thirsty for justice.

Upon examining Amos 5, it is apparent what sins the people were committing in Amos’s day. One of their sins of injustice was taxing the poor unfairly (Amos 5:11). The court system was unjust because judges and witnesses were taking bribes (Amos 5:12). The innocent and the poor were being oppressed by the corrupt justice system. “Let justice roll on like a river,” God said, but they were damming the river up and creating a desert of injustice.

Yet, these same corrupt people who oppressed the poor and innocent proudly entered the temple to give sacrifices to the Lord and to celebrate His holy festivals. The unrighteous people came to worship God with corruption in their hearts and on their hands. God despises this (Amos 5:21–23)! He sees their sin and evil hearts. God hates that they oppress the poor and have ignored God’s laws about treating them fairly and generously (Deuteronomy 15:7–8; Proverbs 14:31; Leviticus 19:9–10). In the Amos passage, God rejects their sacrifices because those offering them are unrepentant (Amos 5:21–23).

God hates the pretense of the Israelites’ worship in Amos’s day. They are fulfilling the cultic practices so that they can be “good with God.” Yet they continue practicing evil and unrighteousness. Their hearts have not been changed by God’s law or His love. They ignore God’s decrees about living a godly life and mistakenly think that burning incense to the Lord and attending the festivals will keep them in good standing. God would rather have true justice than outward conformity to His laws. “To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice (Proverbs 21:3).

God’s law for His people was always about loving God and loving others. In the time of Amos, it seems that His people had totally missed the point. The prophet Hosea reveals the heart of God in this matter: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6). God provided the sacrificial system for His people because He knew that they would sin, and He wanted to provide a way for their sin to be cleansed. In Amos’s day, the people used God’s sacrificial system like pagan religious systems. They didn’t follow God’s moral law, and they assumed perfunctory obedience to the letter of the law would suffice. They were stuck in a legalistic religion.

After God communicates His disdain for their pretentious religious practices, void of true repentance, He says, “Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:24). God wants the land to be refreshed and nourished by justice. He calls His people to be full of justice and righteousness. The poetic language urges them to be overflowing with these traits. God wants to see them turn away from their wickedness and restore righteousness and justice to the land.

The prophet Amos warns the people of God that they must follow God’s law or else He will send judgment upon them. Amos calls the day when God will judge “the day of the Lord.” Later, both Israel and Judah suffered the devastation of exile and judgment because they failed to heed the repeated warnings of the prophets.

Eventually, God graciously sends another prophet to His people—John the Baptist—and he also preached repentance. Then Jesus came to once and for all be the sacrifice for the sins of His people if they repent and believe in Him for salvation (Hebrews 10:10). It is during the future reign of Christ that we will see justice roll on like a river.


Minor prophets

Written by LWOM Amsterdam on . Posted in Books and Testaments, What’s new?.

What is the core message of the Minor Prophets?

The Minor Prophets, sometimes referred to as “the Book of the Twelve,” make up the final section of the Old Testament. They consist of Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The “minor” designation pertains solely to their shorter length in comparison to the five “Major Prophets” but doesn’t imply that they have less theological importance. Moreover, to fully understand the Minor Prophets, it’s important to grasp the core message they convey to readers.

While all seventeen prophetic books in the Old Testament share common features, such as writing style, many scholars believe that the Minor Prophets are uniquely united. Evidence for this includes the facts that (1) they are grouped together, despite having various historical contexts, suggesting theological cohesion; (2) they are referred to in non-biblical texts as a single collection, such as Sirach 49:10, which calls them “the Twelve Prophets”; (3) they number twelve, which symbolizes completeness in the Hebrew tradition; and (4) they contain numerous internal connections. For example, the books of Joel and Amos include the phrase the Lord roars from Zion (Joel 3:16; Amos 1:2, ESV).

This unity is further reflected in the core message of the Minor Prophets. Their central point is that Jews and Gentiles alike need to repent of sin and live for God, who is loving and just, so that on the day of the Lord they will receive the blessings that come through His promised Messiah, rather than face His judgment (e.g., Joel 2:28–32; Habakkuk 2:4). The basis of the prophets’ critique is the law that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai—the Mosaic Covenant identifies sinful and holy behavior (Exodus 19—24). Importantly, according to the law, a person’s behavior reveals the condition of his heart toward God (Leviticus 19:18; Deuteronomy 6:5).

Three themes in the Minor Prophets work together to shape their core message. Central to each one is Hosea because it’s first in the traditional arrangement of the twelve books. Bible scholars disagree on which theme is dominant, yet most recognize that each one is important.

The first theme highlights Israel’s failure to keep the law. It communicates that people need to urgently repent for disobeying God’s commands to avoid His judgment and secure His blessing. Hosea 14:9 is central to this theme: “Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.”

Another theme focuses on the day of the Lord, which ten out of the twelve Minor Prophets mention (e.g., Joel 1:15; 2:11; Amos 5:20). The day of the Lord is a future time when God will decisively intervene in world affairs, judging the unrighteous (e.g., Malachi 4:5) and blessing the righteous (e.g., Obadiah 1:15–18). The New Testament teaches that Pentecost foreshadowed the ultimate fulfillment of the day of the Lord (Acts 2:17–21), which will culminate with the second coming of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 5:5; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:2; 2 Peter 3:10).

The third theme of the Minor Prophets emphasizes the love of God. This is evident in the narrative arc of the Minor Prophets. It begins with a story that illustrates God’s love (Hosea 1—3) and concludes with a declaration of the same theme in Malachi 1:2. That verse reads, “‘I have loved you,’ says the Lord. But you say, ‘How have you loved us? Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?’ declares the Lord. ‘Yet I have loved Jacob.’”

Finally, to fully comprehend the core message of the Minor Prophets, it’s important to understand that the New Testament identifies Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. While the minor prophets looked forward with anticipation to the Messiah’s arrival, Christians look back on it. As the New Testament affirms, the minor prophets testify to Jesus’ birth (e.g., Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:1), public ministry (e.g., Zechariah 9:9; Matthew 21:5), death (e.g., Zechariah 12:10; John 19:34–27), and resurrection (e.g., Jonah 2:10; Matthew 12:39–41). Jesus also taught that the Old Testament prophets testified about Him (Luke 18:31; 24:44–47).

The minor prophets lived under the Mosaic Covenant, which Jesus fulfilled (Matthew 5:17). In contrast, Christians today live under the New Covenant, a unilateral agreement that Jesus established by His death and resurrection (Jeremiah 31:31–40; Luke 22:20). Yet the books of the Minor Prophets remind Christians about the importance of Holy Spirit-empowered obedience. This obedience is no longer directed toward the law in its details but to its essence through loving God and others (Matthew 22:37–40) and to the mission of preaching the gospel and making disciples of every tribe, language, people, and nation (Matthew 28:18–20; Revelation 5:9).

Seek me and live

Written by LWOM Amsterdam on . Posted in Amos, What’s new?.

What does God mean when He says, “Seek me and live” (Amos 5:4)?

Amos ministered as a prophet to Israel at the nation’s apex of prosperity and political power. Sadly, it was a time when true worship of God had been replaced with idolatry, immorality, greed, materialism, injustice, spiritual complacency, and self-reliance. God’s people, both in Judah to the south (Amos’s home) and Israel to the north (Amos’s mission field), faced the Lord’s judgment because they had forsaken Him. In a string of dire predictions of coming doom (Amos 3:1—6:14), Amos offers this one ray of hope: “This is what the Lord says to Israel: ‘Seek me and live’” (verse 5:4).

“Seek me and live” is the central theme and primary message of Amos. The prophet repeats, “Seek the Lord and live, or he will sweep through the tribes of Joseph like a fire; it will devour them, and Bethel will have no one to quench it” (Amos 5:6). Again, he implores, “Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is” (Amos 5:14).

“Seek me and live” is the cry of God’s heart—His appeal for people to repent and pursue His forgiveness while there is still hope of salvation. The message echoes in Isaiah’s invitation: “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6). It resonates in Zephaniah’s call: “Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord’s anger” (Zephaniah 2:3).

“Seek me and live” is God’s invitation to return to “pure and genuine” devotion to the Lord (James 1:27), which is the foundation of our life and relationship with Him. When we forsake the Lord, we must humble ourselves before Him, repent, obey His commands, and walk in His ways again. Only in this way can we receive forgiveness of sins and restoration (2 Chronicles 7:14). The prophets repeatedly warned God’s rebellious children to return to authentic worship, which is our source of spiritual life and the only hope of salvation from the Lord’s judgment and wrath.

In the book of Acts, the apostle Paul informs the people of Athens that God’s desire has always been for all people to seek Him: “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and exist” (Acts 17:27–28, NLT; see also Psalm 14:2). God is our “fountain of life” (Psalm 36:9). From Him we “draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3; see also Revelation 21:6; 22:17; John 4:10; 7:38).

We should “continually seek him” (1 Chronicles 16:11, NLT) and “sincerely seek him” (Hebrews 11:6, NLT). The people of Amos’s day claimed to follow God with their words (see Amos 5:14), but their actions and devotions revealed a different truth. Wholehearted pursuit is the key to life with God: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13; see also Deuteronomy 4:27–29). Like David, we must hunger and thirst for the Lord with our whole being (Psalm 63:1; Psalm 84:2; Psalm 42:1).

“Seek me and live” is God’s time-sensitive opportunity. “Indeed, the ‘right time’ is now. Today is the day of salvation,” says the Lord (2 Corinthians 6:2, NLT). No one is promised tomorrow. We have this one life with breath in our lungs today to seek God and live (Psalm 95:7–8; Hebrews 3:7–15; 4:7).

Not only is “seek me and live” the central theme of Amos and the prophets, but it is also the primary message of the gospel. God loves the people of the world so much that He sent His only Son to die in our place and, through His sacrifice, give us eternal life in Jesus Christ (John 3:16). The apostle John clarifies, “And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life” (1 John 5:11–13).

We must first believe in Him, and then the Christian walk consists of seeking the Lord through a lifelong relationship with Him. Paul expounds, “He will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness” (Romans 2:7–8, NLT).