God Calls For Justice: Justice Enacted
Praise for God's Justice
Amos 5:8-15
The Message
Raw Truth Is Never Popular
7-9 Woe to you who turn justice to vinegarand stomp righteousness into the mud.
Do you realize where you are? You're in a cosmos
star-flung with constellations by God,
A world God wakes up each morning
and puts to bed each night.
God dips water from the ocean
and gives the land a drink.
God, God-revealed, does all this.
And he can destroy it as easily as make it.
He can turn this vast wonder into total waste. 10-12People hate this kind of talk.
Raw truth is never popular.
But here it is, bluntly spoken:
Because you run roughshod over the poor
and take the bread right out of their mouths,
You're never going to move into
the luxury homes you have built.
You're never going to drink wine
from the expensive vineyards you've planted.
I know precisely the extent of your violations,
the enormity of your sins. Appalling!
You bully right-living people,
taking bribes right and left and kicking the poor when they're down.
13Justice is a lost cause. Evil is epidemic.
Decent people throw up their hands.
Protest and rebuke are useless,
a waste of breath.
14Seek good and not evil—
and live!
You talk about God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
being your best friend.
Well, live like it,
and maybe it will happen.
15Hate evil and love good,
then work it out in the public square.
Maybe God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
will notice your remnant and be gracious.
For Reflection
Those
who do not speak out, those who do not act, and those who turn a blind
eye to injustice are as sinful as those who practice injustice. let
your God guide your participation in His justice.
Pray
that
you will pray frequently. Pray that you will listen to God's wisdom.
Pray that you will rise to the opportunities to influence justice.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please post comments here.