Social [as they call it] Justice
Exploring man’s varying responses to righteousness:
1. an act of putting on righteousness as clothing
2. a love of righteousness
3. an act of walking the way of righteousness
4. a pursuit of righteousness
5. a casting of righteousness to the ground
6. turning the fruit of righteousness into bitterness
7. hunger and thirst for righteousness
8. fear
Amos 6:
“Woe to you who are complacent in Zion,
and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
you notable men of the foremost nation,
to whom the people of Israel come!
…
You put off the evil day and bring near a reign of terror. You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves. You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments. You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end.
…
[continuing on in the Message]
God, the Master, has sworn, and solemnly stands by his Word…”I hate the arrogance of Jacob. I have nothing but contempt for his forts. I’m about to hand over the city and everyone in it.’ … Do you hold a horse race in a field of rocks? Do you plow the sea with oxen? You’d cripple the horses and drown the oxen. And yet you’ve made a shambles of justice, a bloated corpse of righteousness [or, in the TNIV, 'You have turned justice into poison and righteousness into bitterness.'].
This speaks to me on a few levels: 1] the importance of facing the evil of the day; and 2] how that is unjust and lacking righteousness.
Recently the Lord has been transforming my personal level of compassion for others to greater levels – it is still a work in progress – but before this I was quite settled with letting whatever happens happen because I figured the world is supposed to get worse before it gets better, so why fight it? But what I am coming to see and understand is the evil that is apparent in our world and growing bigger affects people differently than it affects me. How can I sit back and let that happen? How can I lounge on my couch and enjoy my choice foods and strum away on my guitar, jam with the boys, drink my wine and take care of my body, all the while there are others being travestied by this great evil that is invading and attempting to rule our world?
You see, the world is going to get worse before it gets better – but there should be hope stood upon for others. I shouldn’t settle for allowing these poor people to go on living with out hope, to allow them to feel despair. There’s a difference between choosing and being affected. I get the joy and privilege of choosing every day – but some don’t, because they do not know.
If I continue on the way I have been I will be as guilty as those Amos was addressing – I will make a shamble of justice and righteousness a dead, bloated body lying next to me.
