Thoughts for the Day

This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand. And the Lord said to me, ‘Amos, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘A plumb-line.’ Then the Lord said,

‘See, I am setting a plumb-line
in the midst of my people Israel;
I will never again pass them by;
the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,
and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.’

Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, ‘Amos has conspired against you in the very centre of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said,

“Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
and Israel must go into exile
away from his land.”’

And Amaziah said to Amos, ‘O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.’

Then Amos answered Amaziah, ‘I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Today we move onwards on our time-line, past King Saul, King David and King Solomon. At the death of Solomon (c931 BCE) his kingdom was split into two kingdoms, with ten tribes in the north (Israel), and two tribes in the south (Judah). They were to remain as two separate states for over 200 years. The prophet Amos appears in the 8th century BCE. A shepherd and a native of Tekoa in the southern kingdom of Judah, he has a number of powerful visions: he preaches against corruption and social injustice in both kingdoms; and he prophesies the destruction of Israel, which would happen in 722 BCE when the Assyrians invaded the northern kingdom.

In Amos' third vision he sees the Lord standing beside a wall with a plumb-line - that is, a weight on a line to measure that something like a new wall is built straight and true. The Lord intends to measure Israel to see if they are living up to His expectations. This is the message that Amos must take to the kingdom of Israel (which is not his own kingdom) and to the famous shrine at Bethel (where Jacob once saw the ladder ascending into heaven (Genesis 28.10-19)). He is to face the most powerful of priests, Amaziah, and pass on the prophecy that the nation will be destroyed and its King killed. Amaziah ridicules his prophecy and immediately informs King Jeroboam. We should notice that there is no mention of God or any sign of repentance by the King or his priest, Amaziah!

God's people appear to have grown too big for their boots and think they can manage without God. But today it's no different. As humans we are so small and insignificant that anything can blow us away. Yet we think we have all that we need. Even if times are tough our relative prosperity gets in the way of our relationship with God, so we not only forget Him, but we often forget others who are far more desperate.

Lord God,
may we constantly turn to You
on good days and bad days,
thankful for your concern for us,
and eager to share our joys and woes.
Help us to be honest with ourselves,
knowing when we must admit
our mistakes,
and confess our sin,
for You alone can forgive us.
Amen.