We move into Amos 5, which contains an often quoted verse. Here’s an excerpt from the description of the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama:

On a curved black granite wall behind the table is engraved Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s well-known paraphrase of Amos 5:24 — We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Amos 5 begins:

For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: “Seek me and live; but do not seek Bethel, and do not enter into Gilgal or cross over to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and Bethel shall come to nothing.”

Seek the LORD and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel, O you who turn justice to wormwood and cast down righteousness to the earth! (Amos 5.4 – 7, ESV)

What was Bethel? When the kingdom split after Solomon, Jeroboam, king of Israel didn’t want his people (the northern 10 tribes) going to Jerusalem to worship…

So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” And he set one in Bethel… (1 Kings 12.28, 29, ESV)

Don’t go to Bethel! It’s not even the right God! And it’s more than that:

“You turn justice into wormwood…”

…you trample on the poor and you exact taxes of grain from him… (Amos 5.11, ESV)

The solution?

Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said. Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the LORD, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. (Amos 5.14, 15, ESV)

And don’t forget, the Day of the Lord is negative:

Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! Why would you have the day of the LORD? It is darkness, and not light, as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it? (Amos 5.18 – 20, ESV)

And don’t try to substitute religious ritual:

I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. (Amos 5.21 – 23, ESV)

What does God want? He is clear:

But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5.24, ESV)