From Judgement to Hope
A reminder to South African readers that Bigger Things is available in South Africa through Takelot.com and Scripture Union.
A prophecy from Amos to those in Power
Compassion, mercy and justice are the heart cry of the OT prophets and an almost assumed Gospel value in the NT. God’s judgement makes all things new. Judgement is when all things are put right. Judgement is the necessary precursor to mercy, compassion and justice becoming the normal way of the new creation.
Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
Gal 2:10:10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.
Serenity Now
Twenty-five years ago, at St. Barnabas’ church on Kloof Nek Road in Cape Town I was properly introduced to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) through a meeting they had in the crypt of the church where I was associate pastor at the time. That crypt (basement) had a painted Green Door. The meeting became quite famous as the AA Green Door Meeting. The Green Door AA group still exists, but they meet in a different venue nearby now. A thing about AA is that they often meet in church basements. This has led to a saying amongst AA members, “you can go upstairs and hear about miracles, or you can come downstairs with us and witness the miracles.”
In doing justice, we want to be promoted to downstairs to where the miracles happen. But there is tension in doing justice. If we are not in step with the Spirit, then doing justice can become an act of self-righteous and empty works. What Scripture calls, dead works, or filthy rags. Biblical justice has at least three dimensions to it, that I am able to find. A social dimension, a spiritual dimension, and a religious dimension that relates to worship.
Those three dynamics working in unison is what differentiates biblical justice from say government based, or social justice. Not that those are bad btw. They are not bad. It in no small way 2000 years of Christian influence on society that has helped bring about systems of governance like liberal social democracies. Political liberal democracy, as Michael Bird says, is far from being the enemy of our faith, as some would have it. Political liberalism is usually closer to being our long-lost cousin.
Our long-lost cousin who has been deeply impacted by us. But the memory of our impact is so distant that they have forgotten their paternity. Who is your father?
There is an attempt, from liberal democracies, often, to do the right thing, but the attempts are skewed because of the rubber ethic undergirding the system. As the people of the Way, we want to be those who are most fully cognizant of our paternity, and then also fully engaged with the work of God in bringing justice to the earth.
Paul says to the Ephesians, we are those who have been “saved unto good works.” We are a people who are saved unto a purpose. And although that purpose grants us eternal security, the purpose we are saved unto is not “unto heaven”. More accurately it is to bring heaven to earth by doing the works of Jesus.
Certain things sound political when viewed through 2026 contextual optics. The reality though is that the human authors of the biblical books knew nothing of the 21st century political categories that we might call liberal, capitalist, centrist, socialist, or conservative. That’s not their optic, and it cannot be our optic as we consider justice for the vulnerable in society.
I am not particularly interested in what political party anyone chooses to vote for. I’m more inclined toward being one of those hippie-type followers of Jesus who say things like, “I belong to a different Kingdom. Vote? Why bother?” Although I have said things like that, I do actually do believe in voting, since it’s really the only power we have to participate in democracy, which increasingly seems to come as something of a gift.
The political category the biblical authors are aware of are “which invader rules over us presently?” Is it the Assyrians, the Babylonians, or the Romans? Or maybe, depending on the era, if we are fortunate, an actual Israelite King. And if we are very fortunate a good one like David, or Josiah, rather than Ahab, Jeroboam, Manasseh, Amon, Jehoakin or Zimri.
The human authors of the Bible don’t relate like we do to government. They don’t gripe, or demonstrate in public, or ask for tax breaks, or complain about political corruption. They don’t dare to speak openly against Caesar or the King. They keep their opinions private, and they obey in public.
Wherever Scriptural values land on the current political spectrum they must land. The chips need to fall where they will and offend whomever they offend. Spoken and demonstrated truth to power is, in large part, the prophetic witness of the Church in our times.
What about Amos?
The OT prophet Amos is sharply distanced from any association with the religious establishment – one the seats of power for ancient Israel. He is fully detached from the formal institutions of the royal court (King) and Temple (Priests). He sits at the margins of society along with the poor and disenfranchised.
He is the most peripheral of the OT Prophets. Figuratively he “throws stones” at the surrounding nations first and then at the formal institutions of both the northern Kingdom (Jacob or Israel) and the southern Kingdom (Judah). He prophecies judgement against all unjust powers.
He holds no favour with any powers of the day. That’s the posture from which his oracles of prophecy are given. He is free from the need to retain or gain the favour of the royal court, or the religious order of the day. He can let rip without a seatbelt or helmet – and he does! Amos proclaims God’s prophetic message of judgement, unfettered by any vested interest or any public opinion. In our attempts to hold unity in the Church, are we losing our legitimacy to speak? Unity cannot be at any cost.
The world of Amos
The moral decay, social injustice, religious apostasy, and political corruption in the northern kingdom prompts God to send Amos across the border of Judah to preach in Bethel of Israel in the North. Amos condemns Israel because they had “forgotten how to do right Am 3:10.”
Amos’ preaching is dated to the early or mid-eighth century BC. He is the first Old Testament prophet to address the theme of the “day of the LORD” (5, 7, 8). He recognises the implications of Israel’s covenant relationship with God for individual and corporate behaviour. This makes him a champion for biblical justice.
Amos’ opening salvo is a warning roar from the South (the Lion of Judah) to the North.
And what the Lion roars forth is a judgement from Jerusalem outward to the North:
1:2 “The Lord roars from Zion
and thunders from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds dry up,
and the top of Carmel withers.”
Be sure to know that when the Lion of Judah roars, the mountain tops will wither… “the mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth NIV Ps 97:5.”
The three dimensions of Justice we can pick up from Amos:
A Social Dimension Amos 3:9-11:
Proclaim to the fortresses of Ashdod
and to the fortresses of Egypt:
“Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria;
see the great unrest within her
and the oppression among her people.”
10 “They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord,
“who store up in their fortresses
what they have plundered and looted.”
11 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“An enemy will overrun your land,
pull down your strongholds
and plunder your fortresses.”
God warns that the judgement to come on the nation will be by an enemy army invasion. And that because they oppress their people and do not know how to do right. I.e., they are an unjust people. The prophesy is fulfilled in the Assyrian invasion of 732 BC under Tiglath-Pileser III.
A Spiritual dimension of Justice. Amos 3:12:
This is what the Lord says:
“As a shepherd rescues from the lion’s mouth
only two leg bones or a piece of an ear,
so will the Israelites living in Samaria be rescued,
with only the head of a bed
and a piece of fabric from a couch.”
A partial rescue of Israel from divine judgement. The imagery of a shepherd saving only useless scraps of a sheep from the mouth of a lion. Only a tiny, insignificant remnant of the luxurious, secure Samarian elite will survive the coming Assyrian destruction. God’s spiritual rescue from Israel’s collective (North, South and Samaria) social and religious disobedience. It is the rebuilding justice of God, in action.
A religious or “worship” dimension of Justice. Amos 3:13-15.
13 “Hear this and testify against the descendants of Jacob,” declares the Lord, the Lord God Almighty.
14 “On the day I punish Israel for her sins,
I will destroy the altars of Bethel;
the horns of the altar will be cut off
and fall to the ground.
15 I will tear down the winter house
along with the summer house;
the houses adorned with ivory will be destroyed
and the mansions will be demolished,”
declares the Lord.
A scathing message of judgement from the LORD God (Yahweh of Hosts) against the house of Jacob (Israel – the North), specifically targeting their false worship and materialistic arrogance. Both are born of elitism and entitlement and a lack of care for the poor. The prophecy foretells the coming destruction of the idolatrous altars at Bethel and the ruin of the luxurious winter and summer houses and mansions. The destruction signals the end of Jacob’s selfish, complacent, materialistic and unjust lifestyle.
Does any of this feel at all familiar? Does it sound at all disconcerting to you?
Power versus Pain
It should. As sure as God made little green apples, it should feel, sound, look and smell all too familiar. Just our general middle-class entitlement versus those on the margins of society alone is an ongoing challenge. South Africa now has (officially) the biggest economic disparity between the rich and the poor on the globe. Many of my friends live in gated communities in South Africa. Some of those wealthy gated communities have poverty almost literally at their door as you exit the gated community. I don’t fully have the answer to the problem. I am observing. The North Americas positively breeds entitlement. A more disturbing American exceptionalist type of entitlement.
The entitled are in a position of power and that position is juxtaposed against those who are in perpetual pain. Immigrants, the poor, the powerless, in relation to the entitled and wealthy. Let’s not even speak of global demagogues and the elitist billionaires, corrupt politicians and surrounding minions. Can you feel the weight of it?What I will dare to call, professional, institutionalized theft, gluttony and greed. It seems to have been perfected.
For those on the Way, I suspect the warning is that we see our faith corrupted whenever the Church crawls into bed with the empire for favour.
Whenever we willingly follow leaders who sound and behave like Domitian and Nero. Whenever we carry out their ways. Then we are marked by what Revelations calls the system of the beast. The warning for us, in our times, is against the Church forming unholy alliances with the state, or whatever other unjust powers avail themselves of alliance with us. Feel the weight of that.
The organizational Church has been marked by the beast often in our erratic and spotty history. When we crawled into bed with Constantine in AD 313. Almost certainly then. Perhaps through the heresy of Christian empire, the doctrine of discovery, the crusades, the inquisitions, genocides, slavery, patriarchy, manifest destiny, triumphalism, apartheid and more.
To those reading this blog who are perhaps not on the Way of Jesus – there may be some of you. Please don’t judge us (the Church) by the behaviour of our very worst representatives. Please don’t judge us by the standards of the Christian Nationalism that abounds.
A call to all Dissidents
The more encouraging piece is this. There has always been a Christian resistance. Always. Like John, the dissident exiled to Patmos that Scot Mc Knight has expounded so beautifully. William Wilberforce and the abolitionists. Frances Willard, Anna Howard Shaw, Emily Wilding Davidson, Kate Sheppard, Emeline Pankhurst and the Suffragettes, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemoller, in Nazi Germany. Alexandr Solzhenitsyn in Marxist Russia, Bishop Desmond Tutu, David Bosch, Beyers Naude and Oliver Tambo in apartheid South Africa.
Across the world, right now, we are seeing a brand of our faith that has sold its soul for political expedience and favour. It has lost its lampstand on the altar of adulterous relationship with power. It is a brand of our faith that is devoid of Jesus.
But…there is a Future Hope
Amos 9:11,12
11 “In that day
“I will restore David’s fallen shelter—
I will repair its broken walls
and restore its ruins—
and will rebuild it as it used to be,
12 so that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations that bear my name,[a]”
declares the Lord, who will do these things.
Amos is the first OT prophet to use the term ‘In that day / the day of the Lord.’ The prophecy promises the restoration of the "fallen booth or shelter of David," signaling a shift from the judgement of God to hope by predicting the rebuilding of the broken Davidic kingdom and its expansion to include all other nations. This prophecy foretells the Messianic era, where the Messiah (from David’s line) reunites God’s people and extends salvation to Gentiles, as confirmed in Acts 15.
The Restoration of the Davidic Line (v. 11): After intense prophecies of destruction, God promises to "raise up the fallen booth of David". David will be restored through Messiah, Jesus, who reestablishes the Kingdom.
"In That Day": Here is the Messianic era predicted, marking the definitive turning point from judgement to restoration.
Expansion to the Gentiles (v. 12): James quotes this verse in Acts 15:15-17 to show that the Gospel message is intended for all.
The Shift from Judgement to Hope (v. 11): The tone changes abruptly with the sword of judgement giving way to the "trowel of reconstruction".
God's Faithfulness: The repeated phrase "I will," highlights that this restoration is a promise from God and that he will do it.
The ultimate purpose of God’s judgement of the people of Israel is not for the sake of destruction. It never is. It’s about establishing the inclusive Kingdom under Messiah Jesus. Lord, let your Kingdom come. Dwell in the midst of us.