In the 2017 movie version of comic book heroine Wonder Woman, the superhero is given a sword called the ″god-killer″, which she believes can be used to kill an ancient enemy called Ares, the cause of humanity's strife and conflict. When she meets Ares, however, Wonder Woman is dismayed to find out that the sword fails to kill Ares. She had placed her faith and her hope in the wrong thing. In the end, she discovers that the real ″god-killer″ is Wonder Woman herself.

This is what Israel is being warned about in Amos 5:4-6, when they are told to seek God instead of going to the shrines in Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba. Much like how Wonder Woman put her faith in an object rather than in the person with the true power, the Israelites had thought that their salvation came from religious practice, and that doing the right things was the key to successful living.

God's response is to change their way of thinking by pointing them to himself. The Lord tells them that the religious places, and the rites they carry out at these locations, have no saving or life-giving power (v. 5). They will be destroyed and their power–whatever it was thought to be–will be revealed as nothing.

But there is more to God's plea to life than simply switching focus. Though Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba are idolatrous places of worship, God does not simply point them to Jerusalem, the proper place of worship. Instead, He instructs them to seek Him (v. 6). It is a person–and not a place nor ritual–that brings life. Israel had lost sight of God himself and was in danger; the answer to their plight was therefore to seek God. And those who seek Him will always find Him (see Jeremiah 29:13).

In the same way that God invited Israel to return to Him–and not to a location or ritual–Jesus pointed people to the true source of life. When the Pharisees rejected Him, He told them: ″You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life″ (John 5:39-40). The Pharisees mistook the messenger for the message, the delivery system for the product. They knew the Bible, but they missed Jesus.