What is a burden in your life? Do you sense a weight that you can’t contain? There was a man in the Old Testament named Amos whose name literally meant burden or burden bearer. Amos voiced his burden about the behavior of the people around him. As he looked at the spiritual complacency and sinful practices around him, God spoke to Amos:

A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy? (Amos 3:8)

It is significant to note that Amos was not a member of the priestly class or from the school of the prophets, he was a shepherd and a farmer:

Then Amos replied to Amaziah, “I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs.” (Amos 7:14)

God can speak to anyone who has ears to hear. Do you at times feel that you can’t make a difference? Perhaps you think, “Who am I to speak out?” Amos had a burden to speak out against the injustice that he witnessed and he challenged the people to return to God. He was infuriated as he saw the people living only to please themselves. He lamented the heartless and halfhearted religious practices of his people. He was heart-broken as the people were neglected, oppressed, and exploited by the ruling class. Plato taught that “Justice will be achieved only when those who are not injured feel as indignant as those who are.” Are you indignant about the injustice around you? God gave Amos a message for his people:

But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:24)

God revealed how far the people had strayed from God’s ways:

Thus He showed me, and behold, the Lord was standing by a vertical wall with a plumb line in His hand. The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Amos?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold I am about to put a plumb line in the midst of My people Israel. I will spare them no longer.” (Amos 7:7-8)

We must ask ourselves, “How does my life measure up against the plumb line of God’s righteousness?” God is slow to anger, but there will come a time of judgment if His people do not return to Him:

“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “When I will send a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of the Lord.” (Amos 8:11)

Thomas Jefferson was burdened as he looked at America, “I tremble for my country when reflect that God is just.” We may have the same fear today. We have a responsibility to speak up against injustice. Martin Luther King warned us, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Rick Higgins

Associate Pastor – Discipleship.  The Church at LifePark

Professor of Discipleship, Columbia International University