Old Testament Week 8: Judgment is Grace

One way of thinking about Amos is through the lens of the final unit, a promise of restoration to Israel. The editor of the book, a disciple or admirer of Amos frames the text to lead toward this unit. Based on your reading of Amos and of the other material for this course, how does the juxtaposition of hope and doom influence the reader (ancient Israelite or today's) to think about (1) the interaction between God and Israel, (2) the nature of grace and divine demand, (3) moral reflection on justice in society? How do hope and condemnation relate to each other, if they do? What implications might there be for us today given the shaping of this oracle?

The juxtaposition of hope and doom clarifies the purpose of judgment in God’s relationship with Israel: the purpose of judgment is to achieve restoration. This doesn’t mean that all punishment is rehabilitative, but at least it is clear that for the people of God, punishment is aimed at rehabilitation. This includes punishment as severe as exile. The very end of Amos also seems to have an absolute character that the previous chapters don’t have. God will judge Israel unless they turn back of their own accord. But God will restore them and bring them back even if they fall so far as to go into exile. This signals the infinite faithfulness of God to covenant even when the people of God are unfaithful, and God’s promises include bringing his people to faithfulness.

This gives a new character to earlier verses like 9:2. God will go to any lengths to punish and humble them, no matter where they try to run. Rather than reading this as a vindictive commitment to punishment or a cosmic balance of justice, we can read it is God’s commitment to restore his people no matter where they try to run.

Thus we can see the nature of grace is that God makes his people able to be faithful to covenant. We may imagine grace to be something separate, i.e. a lot of rain. But we learn in the prophets that good times do not always signal God’s approval. On the other hand, we see that hard times are the gift of God aimed at returning his people to faithfulness. So the best way to understand this is to see grace not resulting from faithfulness, but grace in a sense making God’s people in to a faithful people. God’s demands are a part of grace, as are judgment and blessings. God’s nature is faithfulness to covenant and it is apparent that God will not let his people go.

If we are to take God’s love for the people of God as a model for how we should relate to others, we might take seriously the idea that we should be very hesitant to condemn without also providing hope. What would a justice system look like if it was aimed at restoration rather than punishment, perhaps excepting extreme cases? I suggest it might mean that those who have been “unfaithful” in the past would not have to fear marginalization after they re-enter society. It might mean we would be committed to doing whatever we could as a society to restore people to right relationship with society.