Amos 7:7-8 Sermon

The Plumbline

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;

As Amos was a prophet, and so, he would announces God’s judgment on the nations surrounding Israel, including Judah, but then his prophetic critique would directly be to Israel. Most of the content were calling them out for acts of oppression, violence, and idolatry. The prophet calls Israel to repent, but they reject his message and experience judgment. The book ends with a promise of future restoration. to the Israelites to repent of their sinful ways.

and so, We see a clear example of that here in chapter 7. But the one I would like to focus on this morning is from verses 7-9. if we look over at it again, from verse 7,

This is what Amos is saying what God showed him. The Lord, was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, now I looked up what a plumbline was. At first, I thought it was something to do with a building structure’s plumbing system, but its actually, a tool used for construction. It is basically a weight that is hanging on a string. the weight is shaped like an arrow, where the tip is pointing down to ground. So when it is hanging down, it helps for the worker to see if the building structure is vertically lined up correctly.

And so, in this vision, we see God holding the plumb line, and He is the one seeing if His people are vertically aligned to His standards. Another words, God is checking if His people are crooked or not. And in this vision God is telling His people, as he checks on His people, if He see that they are not aligned straight, then you will be destroyed, because what is the use if the house is crooked?

In verse 8, it says, 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.

There are 4 things I would like for us to see!

1. God's Standard of Righteousness:

In the Old Testament, the plumb line is a symbol of God's standard of righteousness. It represents the straight and true path that aligns with God's moral and ethical expectations.The Gospel message emphasizes the concept of righteousness as well, but it introduces the idea of the righteousness of Christ being imputed to believers through faith (Romans 3:22). In Christ, believers are made righteous, not by their own merit, but by God's grace.

2. Humanity's Deviation and Need for Alignment:

The vision of the plumb line in Amos suggests that Israel has deviated from the straight path of righteousness, leading to impending judgment.The Gospel teaches that all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory (Romans 3:23). The message of salvation in the New Testament is about realigning with God through faith in Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

3. God's Call to Repentance:

The prophets, including Amos, often called for repentance, urging people to turn back to God and align themselves with His ways.The Gospel similarly emphasizes the call to repentance and turning away from sin. Jesus begins His ministry with the message, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near" (Matthew 4:17).

4. Jesus as the Ultimate Standard:

In the New Testament, Jesus is portrayed as the embodiment of God's righteousness and the ultimate standard by which humanity is measured.Believers are called to conform to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29), aligning their lives with His teachings and example.

Application: how are we, as God’s people, living up to God’s percise standards?

Notice, God is the One who is holding the tool, the plumb line and so what that means is He determines if the structure of our hearts are aligned and correct according to His standards.

Therefore, He tells us if we are off, and He is the one that knows just by how much.

In our daily life, our walk with the Lord, how much are we thinking and meditating on how well we are walking aligned to God’s standards?

He is looking for those people who are living and abiding in His grace and His law. The Israelites' moral standards had degenerated, so their religious profession was not verified by the right kind of works. They were not upright; they failed the test.

This morning, I wanted to encourage us with hope, that we do have a way of getting better at our walk with God, but even still, when we do mess up, that we have hope in that area too, because it was God Himself who sent His Son, Jesus Christ, who is the only one that can save wretched souls like us from the grip of sin and death, and He’s the one that gives us life!

So when we are not aligned with God, we can go to our Savior who is also our Mediatotor between us and God, and we can humbly ask before our God to forgive us of our trespasses and understand how gracious our God is when at the same time, we do not deserve God’s grace and mercy.

So even more, we should be thankful for His ways.

We do not want to take His gift of grace for granted, and we do not want to minimize the power of our God.

Our God is not just being mean, but the fact that His standards are good and just is a relief that His standards are correct and straight and so we would think, why would we look or make something for ourselves?