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Scripture: Amos 7:7-9
Song: Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
A plumb line is a simple but effective contraption. Masons and carpenters use it to make things square. It consists of a string with a weight attached to the end of it. The craftsman drops the weighted end of the string (the plumb) from where he plans the top of his finished wall to be. He now has a guide by which to make sure his wall is vertically straight.
In our text, the Lord is the building inspector. He’s come to Israel with His plumb line to check their spiritual alignment. He’s found the nation to be wanting. They’ve been constructing edifices for their idols and building dens for sinful indulgences. The result of God’s inspection is to condemn their cities and to schedule them for destruction.
God still walks with His plumb line among the nations. He still drops it here and there along the walls of empires and fortresses. He still appoints kingdoms for destruction and erects new ones on their ashes.
Look at today’s headlines. Watch this evening’s news. I have little confidence in how our nation measures up. How soon until God says of us, “I will not pass by them anymore?” No one knows the answer to that question but God. All the more reason to pray today “for all men, for kings, and all who are in authority,” and then to fulfill the second aspect of that charge: “lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence,” for some day God may answer, “No more.”
Jason Moore
