The Plumb Line

Stateless

Earlier in the year, the ABC released a TV series called Stateless. Although loosely based on some real events, it was a fictional look inside an Australian immigration detention centre.

The series has four main characters, each with a very different vantage point of the centre.

One of the characters was a young Australian father who lived in a town near the detention centre and managed to get a job with the firm that was contracted to run it.

His name was Cam Sandford and the show painted him as a kind, generous and caring man.

As he entered the centre he saw the misery and hopelessness that many of the detainees were living in. And so he tried to do something.

He spoke with them. He put up some swings for the children. The detainees started to recognise that this new guy was good.

But as the show continued, Sandford started to get pressure from above. You see, the swing set posed a suicide risk. Some detainees needed to be brought into line.

And so we see this tension in this character. It becomes apparent that if he allows this kind and generous nature, he is not going to survive in the job. The problem is, after getting the job, he took out a loan to buy a house for his family, and if he lost the job, he wouldn’t be able to pay the mortgage.

And so we see this change in this character. As the series progresses, he delves lower and lower. He takes on a hard exterior.

To be honest, I found it a hard show to watch. Actually, it wasn’t just Sandford’s character development, the other characters also left you feeling uncomfortable.

Our deviation

But part of the reason Sandford was so hard to watch, is because I think it is easy to identify with him.

You see, like Sandford, I suspect most of us would think of ourselves as nice people at heart. But then we face pressures from the world.

And we start to believe a lie. A lie that says: ‘if I do what is right, things aren’t going to end well.

It’s the small lie on your tax return, because you know the truth is going to cost you a lot more (after all, it’s kinda true)

Or when you decide not to stand up for a wrong, because you know getting involved is going to put you in a world of pain.

Actually, have you noticed that the term ‘whistle blower’ often carries a negative connotation. Now I recognise that there is a level of complexity when the some high profile whistle blowers have acted in some unethical ways, however, as far as I can tell, most whistle blowers just want to expose some wrong doing.

But they quickly get painted as a trouble maker and a disruptor.

And so we learn - just fall in line. Don’t rock the boat. Because when we comply with the order of the world, life will be more smooth.

God’s way v the world’s way

But… what if we acknowledge that the order of God is different to the order of the world?

The world’s way

Let’s just think about it. You see, the way we’ve ordered our world, is through various structures. Those structures include our government, but in our capitalist society, it also includes big business.

If any big player falters, the system shakes. We saw this during the global financial crisis which was a decade or so ago, and we’ve seen it even more amplified during the current pandemic.

The name of the game is to keep the major pillars standing, and the rest will follow.

God’s way

Now compare that to the way God has ordered his creation.

In fact, we could go right back to creation in Genesis 1. Everything is perfect, and the pinnacle of creation is humanity.

From these early chapters of Genesis, we learn something important - relationships matter. There is a special relationship between humanity and God. And God designed special relationships between humans.

By Genesis 3, we see sin enter, and with it, disorder. But then we see God restore that order.

He does that in a number of ways, but included in that is helping us to know how to live God’s way. And as confirmed later by Jesus, there are two important elements to it - Love God. Love others!

You see, here lies a big difference. The world order is about power. God’s order is about relationship.

Unfortunately, this lust for power pulls us off track.

Amos 7

This morning, as we move into chapter 7 of Amos, we start to get to the pointy end of the book.

The previous six chapters have essentially laid out the accusation. And central to that, is that these people have neglected justice and righteousness. But now it’s time for God to take action.

Unfortunately what we’ll see is that, rather than recognising their wrong doing and repenting, instead they rely on their power structures.

The big question...

Now as we go through this chapter, I want us to consider the question: how do we respond once we recognise we have moved away from God’s order, and into the ways of the world?

Are we even able to recognise how off track we are? Or are we so wedded to the power structures of this world, that we don’t even see it?

God’s grace

Now this chapter opens with a few short visions.

But in the first two there is something very interesting to note.

Locusts

Firstly there is a vision of locusts. It’s a picture of punishment. A punishment that these people rightfully deserve.

There is however a little detail that is easy to miss.

If you look in verse 1, the swarm of locusts is actually being prepared after the king’s share had been harvested, and just as the late crops were coming up.

Now it’s easy to miss the implication of this. But the timing would harm the poor and the lower classes a lot more than the rich and powerful.

Now had this happened it would have been deserved, but, on this occasion we see Amos interceding on their behalf.

In verse 2 Amos cries “Sovereign Lord, forgive!”

So you see that, he recognises that they deserve it, but interceding on their behalf, he asks for forgiveness.

He goes on and says: “How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”

And at that, we’re told in verse 3 that the Lord relents. This punishment is not given to them.

Fire

The next vision goes in a very similar fashion. This time it is a fire which devours the land.

Again, this is no less then they deserve, but again, Amos intercedes on their behalf and the Lord relents.

Grace

Now, I’m actually going to spend more time on the vision that comes next, but I think these first six verses actually set the scene well for us.

God loves his people. They are deserving of punishment, but he cares for them.

And it’s important for us to hear this as well. Very shortly I’m going to be pressing into the idea that we need to own up to the fact that we have turned our back on the way God wants us to live, but we need to remember that God never stops loving us.

And can I also add, that like Amos prays for these undeserving people, we too should be praying for the countless non-believers who need to hear the good news.

The Plumb line

Now as I move into verse 7, we come to a third vision, but this time it is quite different.

This time, the Lord is standing by a wall with a plumb line in hand.

Now for anyone who might not be familiar with a plumb line, it is a very simple device. Basically, it’s a bit of string with a weight on the end.

The way it works, you hang your string next to a wall. Once you stop it swinging, then because of gravity, you know the string is perfectly vertical. You can then easily tell whether your wall is vertical or whether it has a lean.

In the vision, the Lord asks Amos what he sees - and Amos answers correctly.

And with this vision, the Lord applies this concept of a plumb line to see how straight his people have been.

You see, when the Lord holds up his plumb line, it becomes clear whether you are doing things God’s way, or whether you have been pushed out of line with injustice.

The reality is, while we think that injustice and a lack of righteousness can help us get ahead, the reality is, just like a crooked wall in inherently unstable, so is a life without justice and righteousness.

Well, once the plumb line has been used, the Lord declares: I will spare them no longer.

Judgement

And then in verse 9 we get a judgement.

Now I want you to notice something in this.

The first half of the judgement says that the high places of Isaac will be destroyed, and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined.

That is to say, their religious structures.

The second half says that the Lord will rise up against the house of Jeroboam.

Just to be clear - Jeroboam was the king of Israel.

And so this half of the judgement is against the government.

So did you notice that essentially this judgement is against the two main power structures of Israel at the time. Their religious and the government structures.

This was really the bedrock of their society, but because they haven’t measured up to the plumb line, it is being taken down.

Now let me just clarify, there is nothing inherently bad about religious and government structures. In fact, God even sets these up himself.

The reason God is taken them out is because they are no longer plumb. They have been made crooked with injustice and a lack of righteousness.

Amaziah

Now, most of Amos is what you might call an oracle. That is, Amos relaying the messages of God that he has received. However from verse 10 we get some narrative. And on this occasion we’re getting some feisty conflict.

You see, prior to this point in the book, it is not made entirely explicitly exactly who is listening to these words. We can presume that the words are being made public to some extent, but we don’t really know what sort of reception they are getting.

Well that changes in verse 10.

You see, we get to meet Amaziah, who is a priest at Bethel.

Now based on the force of his words, which we’ll get to very soon, it’s generally assumed he is a rather high ranking priest, possibly even the high priest.

Well, this priest has heard the judgement pronounced by Amos on the king, and he passes this information directly to the king himself.

Now, I asked a question earlier, and that was: how do we respond when it becomes evident that we don’t line up with God’s way?

Well, I’m going to suggest that Amaziah is going to teach us a cautionary tale.

You see, I want to show you evidence of how his plumb line has been pulled off line.

You see, a plumb line should go straight down. That’s because of gravity.

But let’s imagine there are some other forces. Maybe someone’s tugging at it in one direction or another. Or there’s a strong wind or something.

If you’re building a wall, you need to be mindful of those other forces, otherwise your wall can be far from straight.

Now let me read what Amaziah says to Amos in verses 12 and 13, and we’ll see if we can find a few of those forces that have knocked his plumb line off.

Amos 7:12–13 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

Then Amaziah said to Amos, ‘Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. Don’t prophesy any more at Bethel, because this is the king’s sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom.’

I find it interesting that as he starts by telling him to get out, he refers to him as a seer. There is some debate as to whether he’s using this in a derogatory sense or not, but I do find it interesting that while he is clearly rejecting the message, he actually doesn’t try to claim that the message isn’t from God.

But as I said, there are a few telling things in those words which show his plumb line is out.

Money

Firstly his reference to making money. In telling Amos to go back, he is making the assumption that Amos is in this for the money - a claim that Amos will soon reject.

But I’m going to make an assumption, that the reason Amaziah’s mind first goes to money, is because this is a big driver in his own life.

And it’s not surprising. Money is a big deal. Our whole society is built around an economy.

When big decisions need to be made we often use the phrase - the bottom line. I understand the phrase comes from a financial balance sheet, and at the very bottom you get a number that tells you the profit or loss.

But I suspect most of you would be like me and start to feel a little uncomfortable when we start to put a dollar figure on a human life.

I know in this current pandemic, politicians around the world have to make decisions which balances life with the economy.

Now here’s the thing. A focus on money will skew the plumb line.

That’s not to say we shouldn’t think about money. In fact money can be used to help align God’s natural plumb line. When we use money to help the poor, right some wrongs, it is a good thing. But when big profits are the focus, it completely skews the line.

Power

Now there is another thing he says which I believes shows how his line has gone off centre.

The reason in verse 13 that he tells him to leave, is because the sanctuary belongs to the king, and the temple belongs to the kingdom.

Now there is something way off with this. This essentially is placing God under the government.

What this boils down to is power.

The reason Amos’ message is so repulsive, is that it is taking away from their power structures.

Now again, I just want to be clear. Governments are not wrong. In fact, God raises up governments. What is wrong is when we think that these power structures are the ultimate - when we fail to see that they should be used for God’s purposes.

And so we can see, Amaziah has used a plumb line that has been tugged and pulled by money and power.

Amos’ response

Amos responds by reiterating his call.

He’s not in this for the money. He was just a shepherd, and took care of sycamore-fig trees. I get the impression he would have been quite content to stay in that position, but God called him out.

God called him out because people had gone astray. Their plumb line was no longer going straight up and down. It was all over the place.

God’s response

Now it’s interesting to compare verse 17 to verses 3 and 6 earlier in the chapter.

Now remember the first two visions that Amos had. God was going to send destruction, but at Amos’ intercession, God relented. Well, at the end of this third vision, we get a very different picture.

You could say, after Amos was expelled, there was no one to plead their case. They had crumbled under their crooked wall because their plumb line was not vertical.

Engineering

Now, as some of you are aware, prior to coming into the ministry I was a civil engineer. I never worked as a structural engineer, but this was a big part of the degree I studied.

Part of engineering was learning how to assess the various forces on a structure. If you have a pillar and there is a single force, straight up and down, the assessment was easy. As long as the material can withstand the compression forces, everything is fine.

However, if that pillar is at an angle, a different type of force comes into play. Engineers refer to this as a bending moment. A certain material may easily be able to withstand the compression forces, but the bending moment creates something like a twisting action and the pillar that could previously easily hold a load, could now crumble.

And I want to suggest something similar happens when we get our plumb line off.

God says, if you live life, plumb with his ways, you will withstand those forces against you.

If however you allow that plumb line to be swayed by money and power, then expect additional forces.

Ourselves

Now, to be clear, the precise judgement on King Jeroboam is a message specific for him.

It’s not as simple to say that if you make the right choices that are in line with God, then nothing will knock you over. Because you will still have pressures on you.

But in thinking about this plumb line that allows our wall to be straight, it can help us think in a different way.

We need to put money and power in line with God. Not put God in line with our power structures.

I’ve asked the question, how do we respond when we recognise that our lives are off kilter. Part of the problem however is that we don’t often get the plumb line out to see how we measure up.

And the main way to get the plumb line out, is by spending time in God’s word.

Not just picking the parts we like. You know, we can pick out a bunch of commands that we do really well at and think that we must have our wall very straight.

But what about the parts that are a little harder. Like not letting wealth rule you. Or caring for the unlovable people of this world.

And once we do get the plumb line out, do we have the humility to recognise when our wall is crooked?

Will we be like Amaziah that is so caught up in the structures around him to prefer to kick out God’s messenger rather than confessing that he’s got it wrong?

Or will we humbly bow before God, and say, Lord, I need your help to get my wall straight.

Conclusion

The good news is that God is a merciful God. We saw that at the start of the chapter.

When we cry out, God is ready to listen. But when we reject God, when we tell him that we don’t want our lives to line with his. Then our foundations are gone.

God has given us a plumb line. Are you prepared to place it next to your life?

Let me pray...