Because our God is holy, he wants us to be holy. Because our God is love, he wants us to love one another. And because our God always does what is just, he wants us to act with justice. “This is what the Lord requires of you,” the prophet Micah said, “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

But this story is not about Micah. It’s about another prophet, Amos. Like most of God’s messengers, Amos told Israel about God’s grace for sin and how they were really big sinners!

When Amos was God’s messenger, the people often treated each other unfairly. This was especially true of the rich and the powerful. We’ve seen lots of good guys who were rich—people like Abraham, David, and Job. But we also see in the Bible that being rich can get you into lots of trouble. Sometimes when you’re the big cheese, you look down on other people and start to stink.

Amos told the people that God was angry with them for their injustice. The Israelites were kicking people down instead of lifting them up. They were stealing land from the little guy. They were taking money from the poor to help the rich. They were taking bribes and paid no attention to what was fair. Many of the rich were proud and smug, like a bully who swipes your pizza so he can have more and you can have none.

So the Lord said to the people, “I don’t want your offerings. I don’t want your animals. I don’t want your music. I want your heart, and I want your obedience.”

And then the Lord gave them a picture of the life he wanted to see. “Let justice roll down like waters,” he said, “and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” God wanted Israel to be flowing with fairness, not with pride, selfishness, and cheating.

The Israelites had made the land dry and dark. The land needed life. It needed justice. It needed the river of righteousness to wash things clean and make kindness grow. I guess you could say the Israelites needed to love God with all their hearts and love their neighbors as themselves.