Answer
“Let Justice Roll” might be a good title for a new song hitting the music charts. More importantly, the prophet Amos used this phrase in his inspired prophetic message. “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:24).
Many of the prophetic books in the Old Testament call the Jewish people to repentance. The prophets received word from the Lord that He would bring judgment upon His people because they had turned away from Him so greatly. God sent these prophets to warn His people about the day of the Lord and call them to true repentance.
In this context, we find our prophet Amos. He sees the sin of the people, and he is sent by God to warn them to turn away from sin lest they be judged. He calls them to let justice roll—the land should be flooded with justice. As it is, the land is thirsty for justice.
Upon examining Amos 5, it is apparent what sins the people were committing in Amos’s day. One of their sins of injustice was taxing the poor unfairly (Amos 5:11). The court system was unjust because judges and witnesses were taking bribes (Amos 5:12). The innocent and the poor were being oppressed by the corrupt justice system. “Let justice roll on like a river,” God said, but they were damming the river up and creating a desert of injustice.
Yet, these same corrupt people who oppressed the poor and innocent proudly entered the temple to give sacrifices to the Lord and to celebrate His holy festivals. The unrighteous people came to worship God with corruption in their hearts and on their hands. God despises this (Amos 5:21–23)! He sees their sin and evil hearts. God hates that they oppress the poor and have ignored God’s laws about treating them fairly and generously (Deuteronomy 15:7–8; Proverbs 14:31; Leviticus 19:9–10). In the Amos passage, God rejects their sacrifices because those offering them are unrepentant (Amos 5:21–23).
God hates the pretense of the Israelites’ worship in Amos’s day. They are fulfilling the cultic practices so that they can be “good with God.” Yet they continue practicing evil and unrighteousness. Their hearts have not been changed by God’s law or His love. They ignore God’s decrees about living a godly life and mistakenly think that burning incense to the Lord and attending the festivals will keep them in good standing. God would rather have true justice than outward conformity to His laws. “To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice (Proverbs 21:3).
God’s law for His people was always about loving God and loving others. In the time of Amos, it seems that His people had totally missed the point. The prophet Hosea reveals the heart of God in this matter: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6). God provided the sacrificial system for His people because He knew that they would sin, and He wanted to provide a way for their sin to be cleansed. In Amos’s day, the people used God’s sacrificial system like pagan religious systems. They didn’t follow God’s moral law, and they assumed perfunctory obedience to the letter of the law would suffice. They were stuck in a legalistic religion.
After God communicates His disdain for their pretentious religious practices, void of true repentance, He says, “Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:24). God wants the land to be refreshed and nourished by justice. He calls His people to be full of justice and righteousness. The poetic language urges them to be overflowing with these traits. God wants to see them turn away from their wickedness and restore righteousness and justice to the land.
The prophet Amos warns the people of God that they must follow God’s law or else He will send judgment upon them. Amos calls the day when God will judge “the day of the Lord.” Later, both Israel and Judah suffered the devastation of exile and judgment because they failed to heed the repeated warnings of the prophets.
Eventually, God graciously sends another prophet to His people—John the Baptist—and he also preached repentance. Then Jesus came to once and for all be the sacrifice for the sins of His people if they repent and believe in Him for salvation (Hebrews 10:10). It is during the future reign of Christ that we will see justice roll on like a river.
