Michael Green, in his book Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, shares a good lesson which I think is appropriate for beginning our message this evening. He states,
All of us frequently compare ourselves favorably with someone else. We all think of someone whom we consider to be less mature, less competent, or less able than we are. That person is a great comfort to us because he or she enables us to keep our self-image intact by saying, “Well, at least I’m not like so-and-so.” The only problem with determining our self-worth by comparing ourselves with others is that we are using the wrong measuring stick.
A little boy came up to his mother one day and said to her, “Mother, guess what! I’m eight feet, four inches tall!” His mother, greatly surprised, inquired into the matter and found he was using a six-inch ruler to measure a “foot.” The boy was actually only a few inches over four feet. This is [similar to] what we do. We measure ourselves by one another, an imperfect prototype, rather than by the standard of the Word of God.(1)
This evening I am asking us to think about our standard of holiness. As individuals, do we compare ourselves with those whom we consider to be less righteous or good than we are? As a church, do we compare our ministry with that of another congregation down the road? If we are making such mistaken comparisons in our Christian walk, then hopefully this evening we will discover the true standard by which the Lord compares us.
Vision of the Plumb Line (Amos 7:7-9)
7 Thus He showed me: Behold, the Lord stood on a wall made 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 not pass by them anymore. 9 The high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste. I will rise with the sword against the house of Jeroboam.”
Amos saw the Lord standing on a wall. One commentary says, “The wall is not identified, but it was probably a city wall. It could have been the wall of a building or a fence made of stones, but the [Hebrew] word ‘homah’ is used most often for a city wall.”(2) Another commentary adds, “The wall is not identified, but it can be only one wall – the wall of Israel’s capital city, Samaria.”(3) The wall of Samaria symbolized Israel as a nation. Amos tells us that this wall had been “made with a plumb line” (v. 7); or rather, it had been built true to plumb, meaning that the wall had been originally built straight and did not lean or sag in any direction.(4)
Symbolically, this meant that Israel had been rightly and properly established as a nation. The Lord had given His people the purest ordinances, statues, and regulations for church, state, and society. Everything had been established in a God-ordained state of operation; and everything was directed to its proper goal, which was the glory of God. What God did for Israel in the Old Testament, He also does for the church in the New Testament time period. He has built the church squarely and solidly on the foundation of Jesus Christ and Him crucified and resurrected.
The Purpose of a Plumb Line
In the vision, Amos saw the Lord at the wall, and He had a plumb line in His hand. What exactly is a plumb line? Roy Honeycutt tells us, “The plumb line was simply a string with a weight fastened to one end. When the string was held up to a wall, the weight caused it to hang in an absolutely vertical position. One could tell by this method whether or not a wall was leaning, whether it was safe or dangerous.”(5) Page Kelley provides us the reason why the walls were measured with a plumb line: “Stone walls, built with little or no mortar, would slowly shift and settle until they were badly out of line.”(6)
Every year near Memorial Day I travel with my family to a few cemeteries, in order to place flowers on the graves of deceased relatives. Many of these cemeteries are located on hillsides. I’ve noticed that some of the monuments are leaning downhill. They were, of course, not originally set in the ground crooked. Even some of the newer tombstones, having a concrete footer poured beneath them, are beginning to lean. In noticing this occurrence, the Lord reminded me of this passage in Amos concerning the plumb line.
Years ago, my wife and I volunteered at a Christian camp where many of the cabins were built on a hillside. In a couple of them, the support poles were leaning downhill. The Camp Director called this occurrence “the Bald Knob creep.” It’s where the soil slides down the hillside over time, and pushes over anything not firmly planted in the bedrock. One day when no campers were present, one of the cabins with severely leaning poles actually toppled over and rolled a couple of times downhill. It was later picked up with a crane and re-set on a permanent concrete foundation dug into the bedrock.
Walls can also topple over if they are left unattended. Page Kelly says, “Since it was dangerous to leave such walls standing, they had to be demolished or else rebuilt.”(7) For the future safety of the people, a leaning wall would be torn down.
Israel Was Out of Alignment
The Lord said to Amos, “Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of My people Israel” (v. 8). Amos knew what this meant: just as a wall was built with a plumb line and later re-checked with a plumb line, so the Lord built and was now checking on Israel with His plumb line. Honeycutt tells us that God “would first set an absolute standard alongside Israel’s deeds. Then He would determine His action by her conformity or lack of conformity to that divine standard.”(8)
The plumb line, or the divine standard, can represent only one thing – the law. The Lord had arrived on the scene with a plumb line in His hand; He was planning to check Israel against the plumb line of His law. Would He find anything wrong with the wall? Would Israel measure up? Amos knew the answer all too well. He knew the lack of justice and righteousness in Israel; he knew that Israel’s worship was all show and not at all heart-felt. Israel had been built on the foundation of God’s law, but she had allowed the dirt and filth of the world to push her over to topple down the slippery slope of sin.
We Are Held to the Standard
What would happen if the Lord were to visit you and I with a plumb line in His hand? Are you and I living up to our calling to serve the Lord and make Him first in all areas of our life? Are we, as individuals, what the Lord wants us to be; the salt of the earth, and a city set on a hill? Could it be that we too need to be torn down? And how does the church measure up to God’s plumb line? When the Lord checks us out as a congregation will He find love lacking, or will He find a great deal of love among us? Will He find a people who care for each other, and support one another?
When the Lord examines us as a church, will He find selfishness and greed? Will He find materialism, worldliness, jealousy, lust or quarreling? Or, will He find a congregation filled with a passion for the Lord and the things of His kingdom? Will He find a church that is holy and pure in all things; and will He find a church that is always faithful and true to His Word?
“Behold,” says the Lord, “I am setting a plumb line in the midst of My people” (v. 7). There’s no use hoping that God will forget to look in some nook or cranny of our lives, or our marriages, or our homes, or even our church. There is no use in hoping that something could possibly escape His attention. Everything will be checked carefully against the plumb line of His perfect law. Our very lives will indeed be measured against God’s absolute standard; the One who came to fulfill the law (Matthew 5:17) – Jesus Christ.
False Worship Will Be Exposed
In verse 9 the Lord said, “The high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste. I will rise with the sword against the house of Jeroboam.”
According to Amos here, devastation would fall upon the religious structures of Israel after God checked them against the plumb line of His law. “High places” and “sanctuaries” include all the religious sites within the nation. The high place was an altar built on a hill out in the open country. Many of them had been in continuous use since the times of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were the official religious centers of the Northern Kingdom which were established by King Jeroboam at Bethel and Dan; and all of these high places would be destroyed after the Lord set up His plumb line.
When we turn to Amos chapter five we see that God not only had no use for the Israelite religious centers of worship, but He had no use for Israel’s religious practices and ceremonies either. When measured against His plumb line, they too would be found wanting. The Lord said in Amos 5:21-24, “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings. Take away from Me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” God had no use for Israel’s religion because, as already stated, it was all show and not at all heart-felt.
Time of Reflection
God has set His plumb line in our midst. He has shown us His highest standard of excellence. The standard of excellence by which God, the Great Carpenter, measures each of us is by His Son, Jesus Christ, who is described as the Carpenter’s Son in Matthew 13:55. Jesus is not only the son of Joseph the carpenter, but He is the Son of the Great Carpenter, His Father in heaven. Jesus is the true standard by which we of the New Covenant are judged, as He came into this world to fulfill the law. Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17).
In Matthew 7:26-27, Jesus told His disciples, “Everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” Jesus Christ is the rock of our salvation, and if we are not built squarely on Him then we are going to be pushed over; and when we stand before God in the Day of Judgment the Lord will tear us down and expose us for who we really are.
If God were to compare our life with the plumb line of the perfect life of Jesus Christ right now, how would we hold up? If we know Jesus as Savior, and have not fallen and followed after the ways of the world, then we will do well; but not because of anything we have done. It is all because we are made perfect in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). But what about those who don’t know Jesus? I encourage you to receive Christ now while it is still called today; for when you die and stand before the Lord, it will be too late. He will not allow you to enter into His kingdom.
NOTES
(1) Michael P. Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1997), pp. 327-328.
(2) Ralph Smith, The Broadman Bible Commentary, vol. 7 (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1972), p. 126.
(3) Adrian Dieleman, “The Plumb Line,” posted October 5, 1997; www.trinitycrc.org/sermons/amos7v7f.html (Accessed June 2001).
(4) Page H. Kelley, The Book of Amos (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1967), p. 82.
(5) Roy L. Honeycutt, Amos and His Message (Nashville, TN: Broadman, 1963), p. 130.
(6) Kelley, p. 82.
(7) Ibid., p. 82.
(8) Honeycutt, p. 131.
