God's Plumb Line - December 9, Readings: Amos 7, 1 John 4, Psalm 139:6–12, Proverbs 30:7–9

Links to Today's Readings

Amos 7 is a series of three visions that God gives to the prophet. The first, in verses 1-3, is a vision of a plague of locusts descending on Israel and picking the land clean. For a agricultural society, one where most people lived off the crops they could grow in their own fields, such an invasion was disastrous. Amos called out in horror to God that Israel could not survive such a plague, and God relented and did not send it.

A second vision came in verses 4-6, this time of a massive fire that would sweep through the land. If there was anything more disastrous than locust it was fire. Locust would eat the crops, but fire would destroy crops, houses, barns, and even kill people. Again Amos called out to God for mercy, fearing that Israel would not survive such a plague, and again God relented and did not send the fire.

But then God brought Amos into his confidence and explained himself in a third vision. This time, Amos saw the Lord standing with a plumb line in his hand, standing next to a wall that was intended to be vertical. But evidently this wall was no longer straight. It leaned. God was revealing to Amos why he was threatening Israel with locust and fire. It was not out of cruelty, but because of their sin against his holiness. In verses 8 and 9, God says,

“I am setting a plumb line among My people Israel; I will no longer spare them:
Isaac’s high places will be deserted, and Israel’s sanctuaries will be in ruins;
I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with a sword.”

When we come to a passage like this, we must remember two things. First of all, Jesus has borne our sins and carried our sorrows, and the chastisement of our peace was upon him! Jesus paid for our sins so that the plagues of God against sin do not fall on us any more. We do not face the wrath of God.

But that does not mean that there are no consequences when we sin. If we lean away from the righteous standards of God in our daily lives, God's discipline will fall upon us. He will correct us as a father corrects his children - and that correction will often be painful. We must be careful to walk in obedience to Christ. It is right and good to do so as a response of love to the amazing gift of grace given to us in Christ. But we also have the Spirit of God within us, who holds the plumb line of the Father in our spirits and reminds us that we must walk in holiness daily.

Father, I thank you for you love and grace, but I also thank you for your discipline that drives me back to you when I stray, when I lean to one side or the other. Set me straight!