Amos, Part 2

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Amos, Part 2

• Do you know what I want? I want justice. (524)

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Tuesday February 8, noon, 2011

• Richard Bauckham, PhD
• Professor Emeritus University of Andrews
• Senior scholar at Cambridge
• Jesus and the Eyewitnesses
• The Theology of Revelation

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Chronology
Judah Prophets Israel
931 BC Rehoboam Jeroboam
Abijah Nadab
900 BC Asa Baasha
850 BC Jehoshaphat Elijah Zimri, Omri, Ahab, Ahaziah, Joram
800 BC Jehoram, Ahaziah, Queen Athaliah, Joash Elisha Jonah Amos Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam II
750 BC Amaziah, Uzziah, Ahaz Hosea Micah Isaiah Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah
722 BC Hezekiah Isaiah Pekah, Hoshea
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What is justice in the Bible?
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• Its true that God is love, but dont forget,
  God is also just.

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• God is love, but God also punishes the sinner
  and hates all who do iniquity. God is not one
  sided. He is not simply an infinitely loving God.
  He is also infinitely just. He must deal with
  sin. He must punish the sinner.

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You do the crime, you pay the time. Justice is
satisfied
We will bring the terrorists to justice
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• The Northern Kingdom of Jeroboam II was a proud
  and prosperous nationIsraels military and
  political power under Jeroboam II resulted in
  increased commerce and wealthIt is interesting
  that, under these circumstances, religious
  activity was strong.
• The Hebrew Prophets, pg 17,18

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• They sell into slavery honest people who cannot
  pay their debts, the poor who cannot repay even
  the price of a pair of sandals. They trample down
  the weak and helpless and push the poor out of
  the wayAt every place of worship people sleep on
  clothing that they have taken from the poor as
  security for debts. In the temple of their God
  they drink wine which they have taken from those
  who owe them money. (Amos 26-8)

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• The LORD says, These people fill their mansions
  with things taken by crime and violence. They
  don't even know how to be honestonly a few will
  survive of Samarias people, who now recline on
  luxurious couches. (Amos 310,12)

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• Listen to this, you women of Samaria, who grow
  fat like the well-fed cows of Bashan, who
  mistreat the weak, oppress the poor, and demand
  that your husbands keep you supplied with
  liquor! (Amos 41)

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• The Sovereign LORD says, People of Israel, go
  to the holy place in Bethel and sin, if you must!
  Go to Gilgal and sin with all your might! Go
  ahead and bring animals to be sacrificed morning
  after morning, and bring your tithes every third
  day. Go on and offer your bread in thanksgiving
  to God, and brag about the extra offerings you
  bring! This is the kind of thing you love to
  do. (Amos 44-5)

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• You people hate anyone who challenges injustice
  and speaks the whole truth in court. You have
  oppressed the poor and robbed them of their
  grain. And so you will not live in the fine stone
  houses you build or drink wine from the beautiful
  vineyards you plant. I know how terrible your
  sins are and how many crimes you have committed.
  You persecute good people, take bribes, and
  prevent the poor from getting justice in the
  courts. (Amos 510-12)

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• easy lifefeel safe (61)
• How terrible it will be for you the stretch out
  on your luxurious couches, feasting on veal and
  lamb (64)
• Your feasts and banquets will come to an end
  (67)

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• The LORD says, I hate your religious festivals
  I cannot stand them! When you bring me burnt
  offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept
  them I will not accept the animals you have
  fattened to bring me as offerings. Stop your
  noisy songs I do not want to listen to your
  harps. Instead, let justice flow like a stream,
  and righteousness like a river that never goes
  dry. (Amos 521-24)

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• I cant stand your religious meetings. Im fed
  up with your conferences and conventions. I want
  nothing to do with your religion projects, your
  pretentious slogans and goals. Im sick of your
  fund-raising schemes, your public relations and
  image making. Ive had all I can take of your
  noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang
  to me? Do you know what I want? I want
  justiceoceans of it. I want fairnessrivers of
  it. Thats what I want. Thats all I want. (Amos
  521-24 The Message)

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• Do you think I want all these sacrifices you
  keep offering to me? I have had more than enough
  of the sheep you burn as sacrifices and of the
  fat of your fine animals. I am tired of the blood
  of bulls and sheep and goats. Who asked you to
  bring me all this when you come to worship me?
  Who asked you to do all this tramping around in
  my Temple? It's useless to bring your offerings.
  I am disgusted with the smell of the incense you
  burn. I cannot stand your New Moon Festivals,
  your Sabbaths, and your religious gatherings
  they are all corrupted by your sins. I hate your
  New Moon Festivals and holy days they are a
  burden that I am tired of bearing. (Isaiah
  111-14)

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• "When you lift your hands in prayer, I will not
  look at you. No matter how much you pray, I will
  not listen, for your hands are covered with
  blood. Wash yourselves clean. Stop all this evil
  that I see you doing. Yes, stop doing evil and
  learn to do right. See that justice is
  done---help those who are oppressed, give orphans
  their rights, and defend widows." (Isaiah
  115-17)

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• Justice in the OT is something that we would
  like to be on the receiving end of
• Defend the poor and fatherless Do justice
  (tsadaq) to the afflicted and needy (Psalm 823
  NKJV)
• The LORD is waiting to be kind to you. He rises
  to have compassion on you. The LORD is a God of
  justice (mishpat). (Isaiah 3018 GW)
• tsadaq (or tsedeka) and mizpat (mishpat)

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• Wash yourselves clean. Stop all this evil that I
  see you doing. Yes, stop doing evil and learn to
  do right. See that justice (mishpat) is donehelp
  those who are oppressed, give orphans their
  rights, and defend widows. (Isaiah 116,17 GNB)

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• Give justice (mishpat) each morning to the
  people you judge! Help those who have been
  robbed rescue them from their oppressors.
  (Jeremiah 2112 NLT)

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• Thus says the Lord GOD Enough, O princes of
  Israel! Remove violence and plundering, execute
  justice (mispat) and righteousness (tsadaq), and
  stop dispossessing my people, says the Lord GOD.
  You shall have honest scales. (Ezekiel 459,10
  NKJV)
• Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver
  from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has
  been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the
  alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed
  innocent blood in this place (Jeremiah 223
  NRSV)

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• Jewish kings were commanded to practice mishpat
  utzedakah. The literal translation of this term
  is justice and righteousness or justice and
  charity. Classical as well as modern
  commentators agree that this command does not
  refer to courtroom justice and charity but to
  social justice. The major wrongdoing to which the
  prophets objected was not the perversion of the
  judicial process, but oppression and exploitation
  of the poor by the political elite and the
  wealthy classesOne modern political scientist
  wrote, the execution of righteousness and
  justice in the royal domain refers primarily to
  acts on behalf of the poor and less fortunate
  classes of the people. This policy was
  implemented primarily by means of social
  legislation rather than by court judgments. The
  idea (or ideal) of social justice has a long
  history in Judaism.
• From Charity to Social Justice, pg 159, Frank
  Loewenberg,

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• He executes justice (misphat) for the orphan and
  the widow, and shows his love for the alien by
  giving him food and clothing (Deuteronomy 1018
  NASB)
• You shall not pervert the justice (mishpat) due
  an alien or an orphan, nor take a widow's garment
  in pledge (Deuteronomy 2417 NASB)

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• With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow
  myself before God on high? Shall I come before
  him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
  Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
  with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give
  my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of
  my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you,
  O mortal, what is good and what does the LORD
  require of you
• but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to
  walk humbly with your God? (Micah 66-8 NRSV)

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• In America
• Lifestyle is 4 times the national average
• 97 of income goes to ourselves

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Align Set right Put right
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• This is what the LORD of Armies says Administer
  real justice (mishpat), be compassionate and kind
  to each other (Zechariah 79 GW)

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• You have turned justice into poison, right
  into wrong. (Amos 612)

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What about punishment?

• Noah had no faults and was the only good man of
  his time. He lived in fellowship with God, but
  everyone else was evil in Gods sight, and
  violence had spread everywhere. God looked at the
  world and saw that it was evil, for the people
  were all living evil lives. (Genesis 69-12)
• The LORD said to Noah, Go into the boat with
  your whole family I have found that you are the
  only one in all the world who does what is
  right. (Genesis 71)

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Justice that does involve punishment
I will discipline you, but with justice I
cannot let you go unpunished (Jeremiah 3011)
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Who is the punisher?

• You have brought this on yourself by abandoning
  the LORD your God when he led you on his wayYour
  own wickedness will correct you, and your
  unfaithful ways will punish you. You should know
  and see how evil and bitter it is for you if you
  abandon the LORD your God... (Jeremiah 217-19)
• Judah, you have brought this on yourself by the
  way you have lived and by the things you have
  done. Your sin has caused this suffering it has
  stabbed you through the heart. (Jeremiah 418)

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• See how wicked people think up evil they plan
  trouble and practice deception. But in the traps
  they set for others, they themselves get caught.
  So they are punished by their own evil and are
  hurt by their own violence. I thank the LORD for
  his justice I sing praises to the LORD, the Most
  High. (Psalms 714-17)

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• But he endured the suffering that should have
  been ours, the pain that we should have borne.
  All the while we thought that his suffering was
  punishment sent by God. But because of our sins
  he was wounded, beaten because of the evil we
  did. (Isaiah 534-5)

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• For sin pays its wage---death. (Romans 623)

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• Sadly, there are those who would have us love
  Christ for protecting us from God, instead of
  leading us to God - the one home of safety. They
  imagine justice and love dwelling in eternal
  opposition in the bosom of eternal unity.
• George MacDonald

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• Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I
  love, in whom I delight I will put my Spirit on
  him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
  He will not quarrel or cry out no one will hear
  his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will
  not break, and a smoldering wick he will not
  snuff out, till he leads justice to victory.
  (Matthew 1218-20)

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Justice in the New Testament

• The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees are
  the authorized interpreters of Moses' Law. So you
  must obey and follow everything they tell you to
  do do not, however, imitate their actions,
  because they don't practice what they preach.
  They tie onto people's backs loads that are heavy
  and hard to carry, yet they aren't willing even
  to lift a finger to help them carry those loads.
  (Matthew 232-4)

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• How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and
  Pharisees! You hypocrites! You give to God one
  tenth even of the seasoning herbs, such as mint
  and dill, but you neglect to obey the really
  important teachings of the Law, such as justice
  and mercy and honesty. These you should practice,
  without neglecting the others. (Matthew 2323
  GNB)

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• While retributive justice seeks to fit the
  punishment to the crime, attempting to control
  wrongdoing through punishment, restorative
  justice forgives the crime and seeks to redeem
  wrongdoing through a repairing of the
  relationshipAt the Cross we see God turning away
  the opportunity to exact retributive justice and
  the demand for retribution, and instead God would
  choose to forgive. At the Cross we come face to
  face with the shameful depravity of our own sin
  by coming face to face with the One who has the
  right and the power to punish but who instead
  loves and forgivesIn the face of human hatred
  and hardness of heart, God still managed to
  redeem.
• Sharon Baker. Stricken by God?, 2007, pages
  234-235.