Amos 5:13-15 (MSG) Justice is a lost cause. Evil is epidemic. Decent people throw up their hands. Protest and rebuke are useless, a waste of breath. 14 Seek good and not evil—and live! You talk about God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies, being your best friend. Well, live like it, and maybe it will happen. 15 Hate evil and love good, then work it out in the public square. Maybe God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will notice your remnant and be gracious.
This dire passage caused me to revisit an entry in my journal from a few years ago on another prophecy regarding how injustice seems to triumph (see below). Even when we feel like the situation is hopeless, we are being overwhelmed by evil and injustice, and our efforts are fruitless, we must always remember that we serve the Living God, the God Who answers, the Eternal, All-Knowing, the God for Whom nothing is impossible, this God-of-Angel-Armies Who cannot be defeated. I also must remind myself that the Enemy is already defeated by Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross and injustice, evil and all of their companions are doomed in that same defeat – suddenly in God’s timing.
Isaiah 30:12-14 (MSG) Therefore, The Holy of Israel says this: “Because you scorn this Message, preferring to live by injustice and shape your lives on lies, this perverse way of life will be like a towering, badly built wall that slowly, slowly tilts and shifts, and then one day, without warning, collapses — smashed to bits like a piece of pottery, smashed beyond recognition or repair, useless, a pile of debris to be swept up and thrown in the trash.”
EXAMINE: People make up every society. We forget that people are people, whether in 1000 BC or 2000 AD. There are always people who live in a way that pleases God and others who seek only to please themselves and the culture in which they live. Because we only have a perspective limited by our mere decades of life, we often wonder why God does not move more quickly.
Sometimes it seems that the wall is not tilting and shifting because the movement is imperceptible in our short lifespan. We also are limited in experiencing the collapses that have come over the millennia, such as the revivals that completely turned a society right side up, the revolutions that have overthrown unjust rulers, and the hard-fought social reforms that have eventually succeeded against entrenched power and traditions. There is no way to explain with words the history leading up to those powerful events; you have to live them.
APPLY: I have experienced miracles that cannot be explained with words – miracles of salvation, provision, healing and restoration. There is nothing that compares to being in the midst of the power of God working, impacting your situation, making possible what is impossible, demonstrating that His eyes and attention are on you, filling you with a joy and peace that is immeasurable.
These kinds of experiences fill me with hope for the next impossible challenge, the next perpetration of injustice, the next onslaught of evil. They also cause me to recognize that it is not what talents, abilities, resources experience or seniority I bring to the table that matter; it is only faith, my willingness to be used and obedience to His instructions, my absolute trust in His timing, His Word that matter. His success does not depend on me, but mine entirely depends on Him.
Isaiah 55:8-11 MSG “I don’t think the way you think. The way you work isn’t the way I work.” God’s Decree. “For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think. Just as rain and snow descend from the skies and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth, doing their work of making things grow and blossom, producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry, so will the words that come out of my mouth not come back empty-handed. They’ll do the work I sent them to do, they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.
DEVOTE: Father God, may I always keep faith in Your timing, knowing that You are timeless and eternal and my insight is so limited because it is rooted in this moment. Your Word will not return void, but fulfill the purpose for which You intend. May I never lose hope that You are faithful so I will, without questioning, fulfill Your Word when the time is right and most profitable to Your Kingdom purposes. Romans 15:13 (JBP) “May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in your faith, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, your whole life and outlook may be radiant with hope.”. Let me know that the wall will fall when You are ready. In Jesus’ name, I pray.