Amos the social critic

Amos begins with judgment pronouncements on the nations.  Among the 8 nations criticized, Judah and Israel stood apart for their sins. Take a look at the offences mentioned, the reasons they were judged and punished by God.

1. Damascus:
   they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron (Amos 1:3b).
2. Gaza:
   they carried into exile a whole people to deliver them up to Edom (Amos 1:6b).
3. Tyre:
   they delivered up a whole people to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood (Amos 1:9b).
4. Edom:
   he pursued his brother with the sword, and cast off all pity, and his anger tore perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever (Amos 1:11b).
5. Ammon:
   they have ripped up women with child in Gilead, that they might enlarge their border (Amos 1:13b).
6. Moab:
   he burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom (Amos 2:1b).

We can easily see that these were war-crimes. God judged and punished these barbaric neighbours for their crimes against humanity. However, God demanded something different from Judah and Israel.

1. Judah:
   they have rejected the law of the LORD, and have not kept his statutes,
   but their lies have led them astray, after which their fathers walked (Amos 2:4b).
2. Israel:
   they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes --
   they that trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and turn aside the way of the afflicted;
   a man and his father go in to the same maiden, so that my holy name is profaned;
   they lay themselves down beside every altar upon garments taken in pledge;
   and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined (Amos 2:6b-8).

If keeping God's statutes was not clear enough, the enumeration of the five sins of Israel should leave the readers no doubt that God demanded social justice. Heading the list of five sins were exploitation and oppression of the poor and needy. Adultery came third. The list ended with their profiteering from the poor and needy. For Yahweh, moral and spiritual loftiness meant justice towards the poor. Idolatry was not even mentioned!
Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (Amos 5:23-24).

Therefore, let me collect the famous passages on social justice found in Amos.
Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are in the mountain of Sama'ria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their husbands, `Bring, that we may drink!' (Amos 4:1)
Seek the LORD and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,
and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,
O you who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth! (Amos 5:6-7)
Therefore because you trample upon the poor and take from him exactions of wheat,
you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them;
you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.
For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins --
you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate (Amos 5:11-12).
Woe to those who lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the midst of the stall;
who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and like David invent for themselves instruments of music;
who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! (Amos 6:4-6)
Hear this, you who trample upon the needy, and bring the poor of the land to an end,
saying, "When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain?
And the sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale,
that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great, and deal deceitfully with false balances,
that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and sell the refuse of the wheat? (Amos 8:4-6)

When Pope Leo XIII published an encyclical letter on the condition of the working classes, the Rerum Novarum, on May 15, 1891, he did not quote any passage from Amos who found favour among progressive social action advocates.
Well, may be I should stop here. But before I leave Amos, I should give him a fair hearing. Amos did not just pronounce annihilation of Israel such as
"Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground;
except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob," says the LORD (Amos 9:8).
God would leave a remnant of Judah! Amos ends with a hopeful note.
I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.
I will plant them upon their land, and they shall never again be plucked up out of the land which I have given them," says the LORD your God (Amos 9:14-15).
After all these reflections, Amos remains, at least for me, a champion of social justice.

My dear Advocate, I am a pessimistic man. It is a luxury for me to pray that justice and righteousness would flow like an ever-flowing stream. I pray that I am not a perpetrator of injustice. Help me treat my children, my students and my subordinates with fairness and justice. Amen.