Plumb Lines and Crumbling Walls (2nd Monday of Advent)

I doubt that many of us have ever worked with a plumb line. You probably have, however, used a level–those nifty little gadgets with the air bubble swimming in the middle of liquid. Some of us really lucky types have even used levels that shoot out red laser beams (which means that they can double as a toy gun in a pinch). The point of both tools however is simple: to make sure that you are building everything nice, straight and level. You see, our little ol’ eyes aren’t the best at keeping everything straight. Don’t believe me? Then try this experiment: hang a picture up on a wall, deliberately making sure it’s not at all level. Call three people into the room and ask them to straighten out the picture. One will say, "looks fine to me" (probably a male). Another will try to straighten it out in relation to the either the line created by the wall joining the floor or ceiling and say, "move it to the left." The third person will pull out a level and move it back toward the right, making sure that it is perfectly straight, it’s relation to the rest of the house immaterial (this person is probably an engineer).

Amos wasn’t an engineer. Heck, he wasn’t even in the construction business. He was a shepherd and a vinedresser/keeper of sycamore trees who one day got elected by God to be a prophet, never a safe or popular profession in Israel or Judah. In today’s passage we get to overhear part of his message to Israel. First, we see that God tells Amos that He’s preparing a giant army of locusts to devour the crops of the land. Amos successfully pleads for mercy only to be told by God that a great fire would sweep over the land devouring all in its path. Again, Amos pleads for God’s mercy and Israel dodges another Judgement Day.

However, God’s patience with the Israelites wears thin. Standing next to a wall built level with the help of the trusty plumb line, God announces to Amos that He’s going to plumb the Israelites to see how true they’ve remained to the covenant. You see, the plumb line represents the Standard of Absolutely Pure Living that God had given His people through the Law and the Prophets. The people had covenanted with God to be His people, yet time and time again they turned their backs on Him. As a result, their nation was no longer "on the level." It had become crooked and corrupt, a shoddy building atop a crumbling foundation.

God had given the Israelites plenty of time to repent and return to Him. As in Amos’ vision, He had withheld his wrath out of His mercy for His children. However, God is also a Just God and He required His children to live up to the Standard of Absolutely Pure Living. I think that this last point is important. It was because of the Israelite’s failure to live up to this standard that they were to receive God’s wrath, not because God was out to get someone for slipping up. The Israelites were the ones who had built the faulty wall, not God. Just as faulty walls inevitably fail under the test of time and weather, so too had the Israelites failed under the plumb test of God’s Law.

We are no different today. God still calls all of humanity to enter into a relationship with Him as His children. We’re all held to the same moral and ethical standards that the Israelites were. And, just like the Israelites, we all inevitably fail the plumb test. Yet we are no longer doomed to destruction? Why? Because God became one of us and died for our sins only to return to life triumphant over evil and the grave. When our wall tumbled and fell, Jesus Christ stood and the gap and was measured on our behalf. This is the "good news" of the gospel that begins with Advent. As we await the birth of the Christ-child we do so knowing that we have shared in the new birth that comes from accepting God’s forgiveness and grace through His Son. What a wonderful gift from God to us! What a wonderful gift for us to share at Christmas!

Amos 7:1-9 (NIV)
This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts after the king's share had been harvested and just as the second crop was coming up. When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, "Sovereign LORD, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!"
So the LORD relented. "This will not happen," the LORD said.
This is what the Sovereign LORD showed me: The Sovereign LORD was calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the great deep and devoured the land. Then I cried out, "Sovereign LORD, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!"
So the LORD relented. "This will not happen either," the Sovereign LORD said.
This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. And the LORD asked me, "What do you see, Amos?" "A plumb line," I replied. Then the Lord said, "Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
"The high places of Isaac will be destroyed and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined; with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam."