AUGUST 2026
In 1987, the Centre for Action and Contemplation (CAC) was founded by Richard Rohr. Father Richard (OFM – Order of Friars Minor, a religious Order founded by St Francis of Assisi) is an American Franciscan priest and author, based in New Mexico. I have received daily meditations from CAC for some years and have found many to be thought provoking. Given the happenings in our world today, this Meditation – although ancient in context – holds lessons for us today.
Hebrew Prophets
God Witnesses Injustice
Thursday, August 20, 2026
What does the Lord require of you? Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God. —Micah 6:8
Rabbi Nahum Ward-Lev reflects on the central themes of the biblical prophets:
The historical period of the prophets, from around 740 to 520 BCE, was a time of shattering social crisis and political instability that ultimately led to the destruction of both Israel and Judah….
While [the Jewish] elites treated the impoverishment of common labourers as an acceptable condition of society, the prophets would not turn aside from this human suffering. Seeing the situation as if through God’s eyes and carrying God’s word, the prophets proclaimed that economic injustice and the oppression of the poor were intolerable and abhorrent. The growing inequality was, in the prophetic perspective, an existential crisis….
Animated by God’s love for creation and God’s passion for justice, the prophets confronted the princes and the privileged, decrying the greed and insensitivity of these elites. Amos, the first of the writing prophets, was unstinting in his condemnation:
They sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes. They pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the humble (Amos 2:6–7)….
Isaiah and Micah were contemporaries of Amos. While Amos confronted the king and the high priest in the northern kingdom of Israel at the height of its wealth and regional dominance, Isaiah and Micah condemned the arrogant elites in Judah, the southern kingdom, at the apex of its power.
Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards (Isaiah 1:23).
Hear, I beg of you, O heads of Jacob …. Is it not for you to know justice? You who hate the good and love the evil (Micah 3:1).
Though each prophet has a unique style, they share God’s concern for justice in our fractured world:
Amos, Isaiah, Micah, and Hosea are just four of the fifteen prophets whose words have been preserved in Scripture. Each of these prophets possessed extraordinary vision. Perceiving their world as if through God’s eyes, these prophets were able to maintain a sustained focus on the suffering of the poor, to see the disaster that would inevitably come in the wake of profound, endemic injustice. At the same time, lifted by divine inspiration, each prophet possessed the moral imagination to transcend the brokenness of [their] own day and envision an alternative society. Even in the midst of crisis and imminent disaster, the prophets could see an inclusive economic and social order in which all beings would flourish.
These then are the three qualities inherent in every prophet and in the prophetic stream:
An encounter with divine love and concern for the world,
Courage to name oppression, and
Moral imagination to articulate an alternative future.
Loving God, we thank you for this reflection from CAC. Help us to be more aware of the injustices across the world and grant us courage, strength and compassion to face and act on these, according to Your Will. In Christ we pray. Amen
Revd Tish Bird
Micah 6:8
He has told you, O mortal, what is good,
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice and to love kindness
and to walk humbly with your God?
Please note the invitation to share this meditation and feel free to do so.
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See previous Reflections here