THE PLUMB LINE
AMOS 7:7-15
7 This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,” Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by them; 9 the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.” 10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said, “‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.’”12 And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, 13 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”14 Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. 15 But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’
In the name of Jesus:
When Christian Herter was governor of Massachusetts, he was running hard for a second term in office. One day, after a busy morning chasing votes (and no lunch) he arrived at a church barbecue. It was late afternoon and Herter was famished. As Herter moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line. "Excuse me," Governor Herter said, "do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?" "Sorry," the woman told him. "I'm supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person." "But I'm starved," the governor said. "Sorry," the woman said again. "Only one to a customer." Governor Herter was a modest and unassuming man, but he decided that this time he would throw a little weight around. "Do you know who I am?" he said. "I am the governor of this state." "Do you know who I am?" the woman said. "I'm the lady in charge of the chicken. Move along, mister."
It is nice to know who is in charge, isn’t it? Who is in charge? That is the question! Who has the ultimate authority? Where do we go for that authority? And how do we measure up as a people and as individuals? Those are questions which Amos, the prophet, answers in our text for today, as Amos has a vision, a vision of:
THE PLUMB LINE
In this vision, Amos sees the Lord standing on beside a wall with a plumb line. A builder in Biblical times, in order to make certain that the wall is straight and not out of line, with any bulges, would stand on the top of the wall or beside the wall with a plumb line. The string would be dropped with a weight on the bottom, which would hang straight due to the laws of gravity. The builder would use this line, this plumb line, to measure the wall to ascertain that the wall would be aligned without any imperfections.
This vision reveals the Lord speaking to Amos and stating that He, the Lord, stands in the midst of His people, and measures them to see if they measure up to the Lord’s expectations. According to the Lord’s measuring, the people are found lacking. They are a crooked people, a bowed people, and a sinful people when measured up to the plumb line.
The plumb line here is God’s Word. God reveals His will and Word to us and all people. We call this specific revelation from God Holy Scripture, The Bible. God speaks in and through His Word His Law, and tells His creation and His people that everyone must live according to His Will. God measures everyone’s lives in accord with the Ten Commandments, and God in His measurement finds the society’s morality crooked. He measures our lives and finds our lives bent as well. No one measures up to God’s expectations. They didn’t in Amos’ time, and no one does today!
God says something shocking in His measuring. Listen: “I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by them.” God will not turn the other way and not notice the sinfulness of our society or our sinfulness. He will not make any exceptions! There is no difference, all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. God will not change His Word, His will, His commands, He will never, ever deviate from His revealed Word.
How does society measure up today in accordance with God’s plumb line? What do we see, what conclusions can we draw when we see what is going on today when lined up to God’s Word? God measures society, our culture, and our times and finds it lacking. It falls short of God’s will. We see all sorts of sinfulness in our society: homosexuality, same sex marriage, abortion, premarital sex, drug and alcohol abuse, gluttony and selfishness just to name a few things. God holds the plumb line up and shows us that these things, among others, are deviations from God’s plan and His revealed Word. God in the past has called generations and cultures to repent. The call is the same today.
Lest we become too proud and secure, God holds His plumb line up in our midst and He shows us how far short we have fallen from His glory and expectations. His standard of perfection holds true for each and every one of us. What does God see in your life when He holds up His plumb line? He sees apathy, toward God and His Word. He sees indifference to the plight of those who are less fortunate. He sees pride, arrogance, and selfishness, a lack of respect of God and His will and word, instances when we try to take matters into our own hands, trust our own intuition and own reason and strength instead of trusting in God and what He deems as best.
We can point an accusatory finger at our culture, but as my mom used to say to me, when you point one finger you have three other fingers pointing right back at you. We stand condemned before God, as well as our society and our culture. We live in a fallen society and we are a fallen people. We live in a miserable situation. God and His Word will not change; God is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow and forever. Yet we are not without hope. God calls us to change, He calls us to repentance, to turn from sin, from self, and turn TO Him.
God’s will have not changed and will not change. That is good news for us and our world for God has decided in eternity to save the world and save each sinner. This is what the Apostle Paul writes about in our Epistle lesson in Ephesians 1:3-14, that God has blessed us in Jesus Christ in that God has chosen us in Christ. Before the world was made God decreed that Jesus would descend from heaven to be born of the Virgin Mary. He lived the holy and blameless life in behalf of sinners, and then died a bloody death on the cross of Calvary. We, who were estranged from God, have been adopted by His love, made children of God in Jesus Christ. This is the purpose of God, the will of God that everyone would be saved in Jesus Christ, that in Jesus the sins of the world would be paid for. We have been redeemed, purchased and won from sin, Satan, and death, not with any earthly treasure, but with the holy and precious blood of Christ. God has forgiven us in Christ according to the riches of His love for us. He lavishes us with His love and has given to each of us the revelation of this mystery of His salvation in His Holy Word. God has chosen to fix the brokenness of our world and of our lives in Jesus Christ. And His promise is to work everything out according to His purpose in Jesus.
He has placed you in His grace, guaranteeing your adoption in Christ in the waters of your Baptism. He reaffirms His love for you today as you hear the Word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation in Jesus. Jesus feeds your faith this day as you come to His altar to receive His gifts of forgiveness and salvation in His Body and Blood. He has blessed you with innumerable blessings so that you will be a blessing to those around you, testifying to the hope that is within you in Jesus Christ. This is the hope that you have and the hope that the world desperately needs.
Amos was a man of hope. The people in Amos’ day and age needed to hear what he had to say. He spoke of God’s judgment, against sin and unbelief, and He spoke of hope as he lived a life of God’s grace. Amos was a simple man, not a man of power, wealth, fame or fortune. He was a man, in his own words: ““I was no prophet, nor a prophet's son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. 15 But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ The people didn’t want to hear what Amos had to say. They loved their lifestyle, they didn’t care about God, they lived for themselves and for the moment of time they were in. They turned a blind eye and deaf ear to God and his prophets, Amos included.
But Amos, in spite of this, fulfilled his calling. He lived out his faith and he spoke God’s word of Law and Grace. He lived a life of repentance and called his generation to repentance, to turn from sin and turn to God. So too God has called you by His grace. He has saved you by a free gift of grace through faith in Jesus. Amos’ call of yesteryear is God’s call to you today, to believe and proclaim God’s Word to this sinful and lost generation. For God’s Word is sharper than a two edge sword. He cuts the heart open, and by the power of the Spirit brings the unbeliever to faith in Christ. You have been called for this moment, for: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (I Peter 2:9).
Amen
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