“Let justice roll on like a river”

This is a blog that we wrote for LSM's website. You can view more posts from other LSM employees at www.loving-shepherd.org/blog

Over 2,700 years ago, when the prophet Amos wrote these words, he was rebuking the people of Israel for depriving the poor of justice, building lavish mansions at the expense of those in poverty, and oppressing the vulnerable among them.

About three hundred years after Amos, when Nehemiah led Israel to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, the poor of the city cried out to him saying, “some of our daughters have already been enslaved” because they could not pay their debts. They continued saying that “we are powerless”. Nehemiah was not passive, he did not reply timidly. But he writes, “when I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials.”

When Jesus began his ministry nearly two thousand years ago, He pointed to what Isaiah prophesied of Him, saying the Lord had anointed Him to “preach good news to the poor” and “release the oppressed”.

God’s followers throughout history have cried out for justice and spoken against the evils of slavery, oppression and exploitation of the vulnerable. We had the opportunity to visit Park Street Church in Boston a couple weeks ago. At this church, nearly 170 years ago on July 4th, William Lloyd Garrison once again challenged followers of Christ to fight against the Trans-Atlantic slave trade:

“I call upon the ambassadors of Christ everywhere to make known this proclamation: ‘Thus saith the Lord God of the Africans, Let this people go, that they may serve me.’”

As we sit here today, it’s estimated that over 27 million people are enslaved throughout our world and many millions more are exploited physically and sexually because of their poverty. That’s over twice the amount during Garrison’s time. It can seem staggering and overwhelming. Indeed it is. But at the same time we can pray for the vulnerable and we can speak out against the oppressors. We can go to Haiti and set the orphans in families to prevent the oppression. We can rescue exploited girls in Ethiopia, and empower them to live out their created intent. We can join the cause of Amos, Nehemiah, Jesus Christ and our God of justice to let Amos’s words ring true – let justice roll!