Bible Shorts With Biblebob
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Justice & Wormwood Amos Ch. 5:1-11 Ep. 133
Imagine someone singing a funeral song and giving an epitaph for you while you were still alive. Imagine them telling you that you missed the mark and you’re not ready for the coming day of the Lord. I’d be shaking in my booties and pleading for more time to make things right.
Bob Kuebler
11/5/20264 min read
It’s good to see ya! Welcome to Bible Shorts With Biblebob. In this episode we continue our journey through the Book of Amos. As a short recap, Amos wasn’t originally a prophet. He was a sheep herder and a fig farmer who lived in the Southern Kingdom around the time of 750-760 BC. God called him from the South to go to the Northern Kingdom with a call for people to change their wicked ways. Here in the fifth chapter we read about the hypocrisy of fake worship while ignoring the poor and then God will teach us about justice and righteousness.
You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/JChmd7a_Xp0
Let’s read the first 11 verses before we dive a little deeper and see how it applies to us today. “Listen to this message that I am singing for you, a lament, (lamentation,) house of Israel: She has fallen; Virgin Israel will never rise again. She lies abandoned on her land, with no one to raise her up. For the Lord God says: The city that marches out a thousand strong will have only a hundred left, and the one that marches out a hundred strong will have only ten left in the house of Israel. For the Lord says to the house of Israel: Seek Me and live!
Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal or journey to Beer-sheba, for Gilgal will certainly go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing. Seek Yahweh and live, or He will spread like fire throughout the house of Joseph; it will consume everything, with no one at Bethel to extinguish it. Those who turn justice into wormwood throw righteousness to the ground. The One who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the earth — Yahweh is His name.
He brings destruction on the strong, and it falls on the stronghold. They hate the one who convicts the guilty at the city gate and despise the one who speaks with integrity. Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact a grain tax from him, you will never live in the houses of cut stone you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.” Amos 5:1-11 HCSB
Amos starts out by calling his message a lamentation which is like funeral dirge. It’s a song of grief that memorializes someone who died. It’s like reading someone’s epitaph before they’re dead or before they’re epitaph-able. I’m not sure if that’s a word or not, but it serves to drive home the point. Imagine someone singing a funeral song and giving an epitaph for you while you were still alive. Imagine them telling you that you missed the mark and you’re not ready for the coming day of the Lord. I’d be shaking in my booties and pleading for more time to make things right.
During this time the Israelites were prosperous. There’s an old saying that urges people to be “healthy, wealthy and wise.” It was first used in a book of proverbs written by John Clark in 1639. It was later used by Benjamin Franklin in his publication in “Poor Richard’s Almanack for the Year 1735.” In short, it’s urging us to maintain good habits and they will lead to success. Unfortunately, what appears to be success cannot always be measured by good habits.
The Israelites had become very prosperous - due in part to their mistreatment and oppression of poor people. We often see people experiencing hard times and misjudge the reason for their hardship as being wrongful behavior. Wealth leads to apathy.
What is justice? Judgement or justice in Hebrew: mišpāṭ, pronounced: “mish-pawt.” Here’s the outline of how it’s used in the Bible: • judgment, justice, ordinance • judgment • act of deciding a case • place, court, seat of judgment • process, procedure, litigation (before judges) • case, cause (presented for judgment) • sentence, decision (of judgment) • execution (of judgment) • time (of judgment) • justice, right, rectitude (attributes of God or man) • ordinance • decision (in law) • right, privilege, due (legal) • proper, fitting, measure, fitness, custom, manner, plan
Websters Dictionary defines justice this way: “Justice is the quality of being fair, impartial, and morally right, as well as the legal administration of laws to uphold rights and assign appropriate punishments or remedies.”
Justice in the Bible is described as doing things in right relationship with the moral attributes of God. What is righteousness? In Hebrew the word is: ṣᵊḏāqâ, pronounced: sed-aw-kaw'. Here is how it’s used in the Bible: • justice, righteousness • righteousness (in government) • of judge, ruler, king • of law • of Davidic king Messiah • righteousness (of God's attribute) • righteousness (in a case or cause) • righteousness, truthfulness • righteousness (as ethically right) • righteousness (as vindicated), justification, salvation • of God • prosperity (of people) • righteous acts
You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/JChmd7a_Xp0
Webster’s Dictionary defines righteousness this way: the quality or state of being righteous : conformity to the divine or the moral law.
Righteousness in the Bible means to be in right standing with God as in your character is modeled after God’s character. Your morality matches Biblical morality. God brought about justice and righteousness through the cross that Jesus died on. God’s judgement or justice is when He holds us accountable for our wrongdoings called sin or our lack of righteous behavior. Picture the cross as two beams intersecting with each other; judgement meets mercy and grace abounds through God’s forgiveness.
Mishpat, or “justice,” refers to a right way of living life God’s way and correcting injustices. Tsedaqah, or “righteousness,” is about treating people right no matter what our differences might be. As a rushing stream that never dries up, God’s justice and righteousness will never leave us.
Thanks for your time. Go do something nice for somebody. Jesus loves you and so do we. #JLYASDW #BibleShortsWithBiblebob
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