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| PentecostalTheology.com
Looking back from beyond the exile, the prophet Zechariah sought to remind the generation returning to Israel why it had occurred: ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor.” …But they refused to pay attention…. So the Lord Almighty was very angry. …[and] scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations…’ (Zechariah 7:8–14).
The force of the prophets’ message about justice is inescapable. Injustice has consequences, and the ultimate consequence is the collapse of the civilization. Like a creeping parasite such as ivy, in the end it will strangle its host to death.
Justice in the New Testament
In the New Testament, Jesus reaffirmed the importance of the call to justice. He saved his harshest words for the Pharisees who claimed great knowledge of God but neglected ‘the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness.’ (Matthew 23:23). He condemned them because their meticulous religious observances were not matched by a concern about the things which actually matter most to God: ‘Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practised the latter without leaving the former undone.’ (Luke 11:42).
Elsewhere, the concerns of Amos are reflected in the book of James. James knew that under the New Covenant, justice remained as important to God as it had been under the Old Covenant. He wrote: ‘Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.’ (James 1:27).
James is suspicious of riches (James 1:9–11; 2:1–7) and scornful of the possibility of a faith which does not express itself in practical compassion (James 2:14–18; 3:13). But he saves his most forceful attack for those who have made profit for themselves by fraud and oppression, through failing to pay their workers on time (James 5:4) and through violence against those who stood in their way (James 5:6).
Conclusion
The prophets are agreed that God hates oppression. He is angered by the powerful throwing their weight around, abusing their power and influence. God is angry when the rights of the powerless are not protected, when there is no-one to plead their case or to help them enforce their entitlements. Abuse of power and unequal access to justice anger him. He is furious when money, when economics, is given priority over people, when things matter more than individuals, when oppression takes the place of compassion.
God is passionate about these things. ‘For I, the Lord, love justice ; I hate robbery and iniquity.’ (Isaiah 61:8) . ‘“[L]et him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the Lord.’ (Jeremiah 9:24).
