On
August 9th, 2014 Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American
teenager, was shot and killed by Police Officer Darren Wilson. Crowds have gathered in Ferguson, MO for
protests and answers. The crowds
continue to shout, “No justice, No Peace!! No Justice, No Peace!!” The
conversation birthed from this incident has spread from water coolers to living
rooms, break rooms to dinner tables about what is true justice. Was the killing
justified? Was Michael Brown innocent? Regardless
of how people may differ in how they answer those questions, it clear that both
sides are pleading for justice. In his famous
Letter from the Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Dr. King was a voice for justice
for a people who had no justice. The
Civil Rights movement was a quest for justice. We all want to know, will there
be justice? Will wrongs be put right?
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We
all have an innate sense of justice. We
desire to live in a society where justice rules. Unfortunately as much as we desire justice
“out there” in society, we do not often want that same justice to be
demonstrated against us. When people
protest and beg for justice and the heavy hand of the law against the
oppressors, those same people often beg and plead for mercy when it comes to
their own injustice. Jesus shares this parable in Matthew 18:23-29,
“Therefore the
kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with
his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten
thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be
sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.
So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I
will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant
released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out,
he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing
him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’
The servant wanted mercy and
patience from this master while he wanted justice from the one who owed him his
debt. This is human nature. We demand justice when we are wronged by
others and mercy when we wrong others.
And yet the question remains, “Will there be justice?”
We
hope to answer this question in the book of Amos. Amos was a shepherd and fruit farmer that was
called to be a prophet to Israel in the 8th century B.C. The
biographical information was given in Amos 1:1,
The words of Amos,
who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the
days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king
of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
And in Amos 7:14-15,
Then Amos answered
and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a
herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the LORD took me from following
the flock, and the LORD said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’
Amos was a blue collar
servant. He was not called because of
his heritage, but by the Lord’s mercy. In this way Amos is like us who as Paul
writes, “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise
according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble
birth” (1 Cor.1:26). Amos is the every-man prophet. Amos prophesies that the Lord will bring
justice.
Amos
starts his prophecy against the nations with a common refrain, “For three
transgressions of (fill in the nation) and for four, I will not revoke
punishment, because…” Amos says because
of the multiple sins of the nations I will bring justice. He is not referring to only 3 or 4 particular
sins, but to multiple sins that each nation is consistently guilty of
committing. The nations have mistreated
Israel and therefore they deserve to be punished. God sees what they were doing and He will
avenge His people. The Lord will avenge
His people like a mighty lion. Amos 1:2,
“And he said: “The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from
Jerusalem.” It is hard for our cultural
blinders to understand the power of this imagery. A Lion roars to show his power and his
ferocity. We may have watched a lion
roar on the television, internet climb or at the zoo, but we probably have not
heard a lion’s roar in the open field of the African plains. Imagine standing,
frozen under a tree in the plains of African with a lion running at you at 40
miles per hour having him stop 5 feet from you before he bellows out his
ferocious roar. The Lord will execute
His Justice with this type of ferocious anger.
As
the Israelites heard this prophesy that God was going to roar and execute His
powerful justice on the nations, they would have felt vindicated from their
oppressors. They have been crying out
again and again, “No Justice, No Peace!! No Justice, No Peace!!” before finally
justice was pronounced. They demanded
justice against the wrongs of their enemies and they were ecstatic to get what
they demanded…until that judgment was rendered upon them.
Amos turns from
the nations towards God’s people to pronounce God’s justice upon His own
people. God shows no partiality. Listen
to God’s judgment against His people:
Thus says the
LORD: “For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the
punishment, because they have rejected the law of the LORD, and have not kept
his statutes, but their lies have led them astray, those after which their
fathers walked. So I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the
strongholds of Jerusalem.” Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of
Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the
righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals— those who trample
the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the
afflicted; a man and his father go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is
profaned; (Amos 2:4-7 ESV)
God shows no partiality. He will judge the nations for their injustice
and He will judge His own people for their injustice. The Lord will not all
forgive the guilty, but,
He will render to
each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek
for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those
who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there
will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human
being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and
peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God
shows no partiality (Romans 2:6-11).
This is when God’s justice starts
to feel uncomfortable. We are fine with
God bringing justice “out there” against the oppressors but we want mercy and
grace extended towards us. How did it
come to this? How did God’s people become like the nations? They harden their hearts to warnings and
rebukes.
It
can be very hard to hear about God’s justice.
It is powerful and it is total.
No one is going to stand against the Lord. Amos 2:14-16,
Flight shall perish
from the swift, and the strong shall not retain his strength, nor shall the
mighty save his life; he who handles the bow shall not stand, and he who is
swift of foot shall not save himself, nor shall he who rides the horse save his
life; and he who is stout of heart among the mighty shall flee away naked in
that day,” declares the LORD.
No one will be able to stand
against the Lord, but that does not mean that God has not shown His people mercy. Mercy and grace always come before judgment.
God gives warning and rebuke and corrections as signposts to repent to turn
back to the Lord. Amos 4:6-11, the Lord
announces to the people how He send various calamities and trials to the people
so they would be warned of their waywardness, but sadly, we hear the refrain,
“yet you did not return to me.” All
those trials and difficulties were to serve the people so that they would
repent and turn. Joel used the swarming
locusts to remind the people of a greater day of suffering that awaits them if
they do not turn. Justice does not come
without warning, but it will definitely come.
There will be Justice for God’s Name
God’s
people represent God’s Name. Throughout
the prophets, there is pronouncement of woe on God’s people because their
conduct profanes His name. Due to their gross sin and mistreatment of the poor,
God says, “my holy name is profaned.” His name is desecrated. The Lord will bring justice for His name,
Amos 9:5-6,
The Lord GOD of
hosts, he who touches the earth and it melts, and all who dwell in it mourn,
and all of it rises like the Nile, and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt; who
builds his upper chambers in the heavens and founds his vault upon the earth;
who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the surface of the
earth— the LORD is his name.
And Amos 4:13,
For behold, he who
forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his
thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the
earth— the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name!
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The LORD descended
in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. The
LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The
LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in
steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear
the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the
children's children, to the third and the fourth generation” (Exodus
34:5-7).
The Lord’s anger has been slowly
building. He has to punish the guilty,
yet He will forgive iniquity and transgression.
He does this on the basis of His promises. He says that if we turn and seek Him we will
live. Amos 5:14-15,
Seek good, and not
evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you,
as you have said. Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of
Joseph.
And who is the remnant of Joseph,
but those who are under the promise of Joseph’s forefather Abraham and God’s
great promise to bless every nation through him.
The Lord promises
that the punishment of Israel will not be final, but only to ultimately serve
as a blessing to the whole world. We know that the Israelites' disobedience
opened the way for the Gentiles to be grafted into the kingdom through the
Vine, Jesus Christ. In Acts, following Paul and Barnabas’ testimony of the
Gentiles being saved, James stood up and said,
“Brothers, listen
to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them
a people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as
it is written, (Quoting Amos 9:12-13) “‘After this I will return, and I will
rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will
restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles
who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of
old.’
James saw what Amos
prophesied. There was coming a day when
God will bless every nation through the promised line of David through the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Jesus
came to answer the question, “Will there be justice?” The answer is yes. The Lord will
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forgive the iniquity and the
transgression of the people, but by no means clear the guilty. The guilty must be punished, or someone has
to be punished in their place. This was
why Jesus came. He came to bring justice
to God by paying the penalty for sin and death.
He died to satisfy God’s justice against sin. He forgives us by placing
our sin upon His Son. Jesus has given
justice to everyone who will seek Him.
God promises to restore us if we turn and trust in Him, but if we spurn
His warnings and do not return to the Lord, He will roar from Zion in His
wrath.
There
will be justice. It will be God’s
merciful justice given to the sinner through the shed blood of Jesus Christ or
it will be God’s powerful justice given to the sinner when He roars from
Zion. We all want justice and we all
will get justice, but the question is which kind of justice will we receive?
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