Amos Didn't Get It Quite Right. Lucky for Us! Amos 5:18-24

How often we have been inspired by the words from this section of Amos, especially the phrase "Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream." I have always loved the imagery, and the imagery of the plumbline. However, Donald Gowan, in his book Theology of the Prophets, asserts that the word has been mis-translated and that it should really be interpreted as tin. That takes a bit more creativity to conjure images relating to justice than does plumbline.
As often as I have read this section of Amos, I had never before thought about the fact that Amos got it almost right, but not totally. The destruction he imagines as something akin to the force of a flood never came. It is doubtful he was thinking about exile as he wrote. So, what came to Israel, eventually, was deliverance. With the coming of Christ, God inaugurated an age of redemption. While it is not fair to use Amos to point forward in time to that incarnation, it is fair to look backwards. Amos could not have known that the Lord would choose a way of peace to deal with errant humanity. It is obvious that Amos had a temper and seldom minced words when conveying a prophetic truth. But Amos was one of the eighth century BCE prophets, and, to my way of thinking, a man of valor. Those eighth-century prophets were not religious professionals, but religious people who took up the cause of Yahweh's desire for justice. All we know about Amos is that he was from a place called Tekoa and he had experience as a shepherd and as a tender of fig trees. A great professor of mine once referred to him as a "fig puncher." The image of Amos punching anything is a fun image.
In the end, his dismay with the empty worship of Israel did not presage directly the destruction of the temple. Amos painted a bleak picture for the wealthy and religious folks who thought of themselves as God's chosen ones. And the God he announced was more patient than Amos might have given him credit for being. The Christian message is one that reminds us, time and again, that we don't get what we deserve. We were not destroyed again in a raging flood, but in a torrent of love and unmerited grace. However, the image of justice as an everflowing stream remains a powerful motivator for those who seek to work for God's justice in a sometime hard-hearted world.