Justice is Required
You twist justice, making it a bitter pill for the oppressed. You treat the righteous like dirt. How you hate honest judges! How you despise people who tell the truth! You trample the poor, stealing their grain through taxes and unfair rent. Therefore, though you build beautiful stone houses, you will never live in them. Though you plant lush vineyards, you will never drink wine from them. For I know the vast number of your sins and the depth of your rebellions. You oppress good people by taking bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts. So those who are smart keep their mouths shut, for it is an evil time. Do what is good and run from evil so that you may live! Then the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper, just as you have claimed. Hate evil and love what is good; turn your courts into true halls of justice. Perhaps even yet the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will have mercy on the remnant of his people. Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.
Amos 5:7, 10-15, 23-24 NLT
The whole passage needs to be read to glean the full understanding. God was judging His people. He required justice not pretence.
What is God saying to us in this time? The whole world is caught in disease and just when China thinks it is free, it begins again from a different province. Will it be the same for us?
On the night of the 1st April I was burdened that our country dealt with compassion to the ocean liners carrying diseased people and clinging to our coast. It is just and right to show compassion even when wanting to protect our own people. I went to prayer and was grateful to see that the sick were being cared for.
Justice and mercy go hand in hand. God is not interested in our superficial noise but He goes deeper to: how are you caring for the desperate, the needy, the hurting?
May we allow Him to speak to our hearts. Amen!
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