Can two walk together, unless they are agreed? —Amos 3:3
The prophet Amos posed this question to a nation that had experienced a recent renewal of prosperity under King Jereboam II. But the sad truth was, only those close to Jereboam II were prospering. The government was exploiting the working class, seizing their properties and assets and selling some of their citizens into slavery for personal gain. So the Lord sent a working-class man to Bethel, headquarters of Jereboam II, to declare to the pagan king God’s love of and demand for justice.
Amos here implied that if the blessings of God were to remain on the kingdom, then agreement with the plan of God would have to be rejoined. The king had been commandeering landholdings that had been in Israelite families for generations, and in God’s eyes, this amounted to governmental exploitation. Amos was a shepherd by trade, and he, much like Moses and David before him, understood the struggles of the common man in running a small family business. It is also interesting that Jesus too was born into a common working- class family. So God sent to Bethel a common man with a message, Amos. “If you are going to continue to exploit the common people,” he said, “God will defend justice for His name’s sake.”
Amos is a book of testimonies and warnings to those who rejected God’s love of and demand for justice in the kingdom. On a personal level, we can easily see the implication that when we live in disagreement or even direct conflict with God’s love of justice and fairness, we cease to walk in fellowship with God. There is not a single aspect of life that God does not have a plan and purpose for. Human government is His instrument (Romans 13), and it has boundaries and instructions concerning its exercise. So too is it with business; God has standards of justice and fairness that are to be maintained at all times, lest a business become out of step with God’s will. Those who reject His standards and refuse to repent, God will judge.
Thomas Jefferson said, “I tremble for my country when I consider that God is just, and His justice will not sleep forever.”
God loves justice!
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