Turn From and Turn To - Amos 5-9

Amos 5:4-7 (ESV)

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!

These verses are best understood by reading the opening lines of Amos chapter five.  

Amos 5:2 (ESV)

“Fallen, no more to rise,

is the virgin Israel;

forsaken on her land,

with none to raise her up.”

Israel has fallen and now needs to find a way to turn back to God.   But instead of turning toward God they are turning, once again, to their cult idols found in the cities of Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba.  These cities were the locations where all Israel’s cult worship was carried out.   Instead of turning toward God during this discipline by God, they simply went back to their previous ways of living: False worship.  Yet, it is false idol worship that got them into this mess.   Their turning to the wrong source of life (God) they once again turned justice to wormwood and cast down righteousness to the earth.  Wormwood was tree like plant that grew in the region. It was not poisonous but it was bitter of taste.  What Amos is saying is that in our repentance we are to turn truly to God. Anything less is distasteful and inadequate.  He is our only hope.  Turning back to the idols we worshipped prior is subverting justice and righteousness, freely given by God.   Repentance is always turning from something, but toward God.  

1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 (ESV)

For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Israel wanted to repent but not return.   They wanted relief from discipline but not restoration with their Deity.   That approach distorts justice and righteousness.