Description
Contents
Lesson 1
Let Justice Roll Down
Scripture: Amos 5:18-24; Amos 8:4-6 (NRSVUE)
Key Theme— Israel in the eighth century BC had a strong economy and full sanctuaries, and God told the people their worship had become unbearable. Amos ties the worth of worship to what happens in the marketplace and at the city gate. Where the scales are rigged and the courts are bought, the songs and the offerings become an offense. What God wants is justice that runs all year, like a stream that does not dry up in the heat.
Lesson 2
What the Lord Requires
Scripture: Micah 6:6-8; Micah 3:9-12 (NRSVUE)
Key Theme— Micah answers a worshiper who wants to know what offering will settle the account with God. The answer sets aside the whole idea of settling accounts. God asks for justice done, loyalty loved, and a life walked attentively in God’s company. Micah then shows what happens when leaders keep the religion and abandon the requirement.
Lesson 3
Learn to Do Good
Scripture: Isaiah 1:10-20; Isaiah 10:1-4 (NRSVUE)
Key Theme— Isaiah addresses the leaders of Jerusalem as though they were the rulers of Sodom, and he tells them their prayers are unwelcome because their hands are full of blood. What follows is not a general appeal but a list of things to do, beginning with the instruction to learn. Justice is a skill God expects the people to acquire, and Isaiah warns that it can be undone by lawful means as easily as by violence.
Lesson 4
Justice at the Gate
Scripture: Jeremiah 7:1-11; Jeremiah 22:1-5, 13-17 (NRSVUE)
Key Theme— Jeremiah stands in the temple gate and tells the worshipers that the building will not save them, then walks to the palace and tells the king the same thing about his throne. The two sermons make one point. God’s presence is tied to how the alien, the orphan, and the widow are treated, and knowing God is measured by whether the case of the poor is heard.
Lesson 5
Shepherds Who Feed Themselves
Scripture: Ezekiel 34:1-16; Zechariah 7:8-14 (NRSVUE)
Key Theme— From exile, Ezekiel explains the disaster by pointing at the leaders. They fed themselves on the flock they were supposed to feed, and the sheep scattered. God announces that God will do the work personally and warns that the strong sheep will answer for what they did to the weak ones. Zechariah, writing after the return, tells a community asking about ritual what God had wanted from them all along.
Lesson 6
Justice That Will Not Fail
Scripture: Habakkuk 1:1-4; Isaiah 42:1-9 (NRSVUE)
Key Theme— Habakkuk complains to God about the collapse of justice and about God’s silence, and Scripture preserves the complaint as prayer. The answer he receives is not an explanation but an instruction to write the vision and wait for it. Isaiah 42 shows what is coming: a servant who establishes justice in the earth without breaking anything already bruised, and who does not give out before the work is finished.