“If you return, O Israel, declares the Lord, to me you should return. If you remove your detestable things from my presence, and do not waver, and if you swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.” (Jer 4:1-2)

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. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. (Amos 5:22-24)

God, as the lover, continues to call for his adulterous bride to return, despite her refusal thus far. Only now, it becomes conditional.

They were going to have to turn back to the Lord. They are to renounce any allegiance to all idols. They must swear that God was the only true God, but there had to be evidence of change.

Justice and righteousness were the traditional prophetic formula and seen in the books of Amos, Isaiah, and of course, Jeremiah. Covenant relationship requires that participants see justice and righteousness as the norm. The third element, truth, becomes the way that everyone around is blessed.

COVID-19. Or Coronavirus is a blessing in disguise, in that it has shown us our short-comings, revealed the true nature of our society, and revealed to us that though we claim ‘in God we trust,’ nothing could be further from the truth. We are a society of injustice and self-righteousness. This has to change, and it should start with the Christian.

• Our immigration policy.
• Separating immigrant children from parents is immoral.
• NASA spend on average $152 million per launch, when we have average Americans out of work, and 30 million children food insecure.
• Healthcare, the benefit of the rich. The poor are excluded because of the cost.
• Education, employment, the judicial system, shall I continue……?