In Midian, Moses pondered over the economic and social injustices to which his people were being subjected. He communed with God, from whom he received the motive power to correct a gigantic social wrong. His vision of Jehovah gave him the conviction that Jehovah is a God of justice and mercy who understands social and industrial evils and sympathizes with the socially defeated classes. Moses reports this remarkable social message from Jehovah:
“I have surely seen the affliction of my people that are in Egypt, and have heard their cry of anguish because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows, and I am come down to deliver them out of the power of the Egyptians.”[IV-2]
In other words, against the union of great wealth and political power in the hands of an unjust man, God revolted, and God said to Moses: “Rescue this Israelitish people from the heels of autocracy.” Moses conceived of Jehovah as a God who is “full of sympathy for the afflicted and dependent and ever eager to champion their cause against cruel oppression.” Moses’ conception of Jehovah as a socially spirited God is unique for that day in human history. God is described as a lover of justice and even a lover of mankind. When God speaks, it is usually in terms of democracy. The first social teachings of the Old Testament, considered chronologically, are those against social and industrial oppression.
A momentous conflict ensued. Fired by the promises and presence and power of Jehovah, Moses journeyed back to Egypt. He proceeded to organize the first labor strike known to mankind. Thereupon, the angry Pharaoh commanded the workers to make brick without straw. And when the workers cried out against the impositions and burdens, the agents of “the first great captains of industry” taunted the workers and cried at them: “Ye are idle, ye are idle.” But God and Moses won against the hosts of autocracy and plutocracy. The workers were freed.
Out of these struggles the Hebrew nation took form. Group loyalty, or patriotism, became a conscious Hebrew concept. The idea of kinship was supplemented by an appreciation of the meaning of national life. Furthermore, a sense of social and economic justice received a clear-cut and positive human expression and divine approval. For the first time the social problem was defined.
The major social chord which the Hebrew prophets kept vibrating was justice. Some of the recurring interpretations of the needs of the hour were: Let justice roll down like waters; Rulers shall govern in justice; Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Israel, is it not for you to know justice?
The Hebrew word for the English “justice” is mishpat. It is used in various senses, such as, justice, order, law, right, legal right. Amos wanted mishpat established in the land. Micah asserted that Jehovah requires the individual to do mishpat, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with his God. Isaiah urged the people to do well and to seek mishpat; he pronounced woe upon those who turned aside the needy from mishpat; he declared Jehovah to be a God of mishpat. Jeremiah made plain that Jehovah exercises mercy and mishpat among the people.
Amos protested vigorously against special class privileges. He denounced the wealthy classes because of their social arrogance and economic injustice. In describing them, he points out a fundamental principle of social procedure. By their repression of those who are protesting, they “are heaping up violence”; that is, autocratic repression will never right injustice, but will foster ultimate revolution. Amos charged the rulers and all persons in positions of social power with the primary obligation of seeing that the poor and the outcast are protected from exploitation. What satire in a day when rulers were noted for their exploitation of the weak social classes!
A special responsibility rests upon judges. Amos severely arraigned all who turn judgment to wormwood and cast righteousness to the ground. Anathemas were heaped upon the takers of bribes, especially if they sit in places of public authority and wear the robes of law and patriotism. Hot denunciation fell also upon the private doer of injustice; upon the merchant who makes smaller the measure and perverts the false balances; upon all who trample in any way upon the needy, who trample on the head of the poor, who sell the righteous for silver, who turn aside the way of the humble.[IV-3] The concept of justice was vividly defined by Amos. Moreover, the shepherd prophet of Tekoa had the courage and ability to make the concept clear to all who would listen to him. Amos spoke for justice on the throne, on the judge’s bench, in the activities of the wealthy, in the transactions of merchants, and in the daily dealings of individuals with one another.
The campaign against injustice is carried forward by the first Isaiah, the statesman and orator. In the Kingdom of Judah, Isaiah found the same social evils that Amos had earlier preached against in the Northern kingdom. The boldness of his attack is startling: