Amos 6:12 "Do horses run upon rocks? Does one plow the sea with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood." God, through Amos, is berating Israel and "the pride of Jacob",  and foretelling its destruction (Amos 6:8).

The words of prophecy are timeless, there is always something for us to glean from them no matter when or where we live. We can and should read the prophets as if they are speaking to us and try to apply their words to our lives and our times. Amos' questions about horses and oxen are meant to show that we can have been given wonderful, helpful gifts from God, but we can misuse them, making them ineffective and harming them and ourselves. Horses and oxen made the lives of the Israelites much easier, but only when they were treated and used properly. Amos ties this same idea to justice. God is just, it is one of His inherent traits. Justice is a gift He gives and a trait His people share in when they are properly following Him. Israel, as God's chosen people, had a share in God's justice. It naturally ordered their society and kept it running smoothly, but they corrupted justice, leading their society to fall apart. In their pride, they thought they could apply justice as they saw fit, rather than as God commanded. The Jews began using justice improperly, applying it discriminately, so that it became a tool for its exact opposite - injustice.

A just society was one of Israel's fruits of righteousness, but they turned their fruit into wormwood, into poison, by their unjust actions. Remembering the timeless nature of prophecy, we should ask ourselves, are we misusing justice? Are we achieving great injustice through a biased and corrupt application of "justice" as we define it? Our country promises "liberty and justice for all," yet we see the exact opposite these days, and yet it is called "justice." Examples abound of prosecutors applying the law in a very biased manner, of attorneys general twisting the law to help "their side" win; of politics having become a no holds barred battle for power, rather than a tool to serve the people. But the most egregious and obvious example is the horrific destruction of the most defenseless human beings, the unborn. We literally tear them to pieces, sell their body parts, and call it "reproductive justice". Anyone who has not been corrupted by the evil of our time can see that this demands true justice, it is only a matter of time .

So, yes, Amos' words are very applicable to the United States (and most of the rest of the world) right now. We were a very blessed nation, we were given many gifts, including justice, but we are now misusing them terribly. We have poisoned justice and brought forth the most tremendous injustice. Just as God did not stand for this with Israel, He will not stand for it with us much longer.