Wanted to start this day off with a video that someone sent me from Youtube. It's pretty powerful, if all of those testimonies are real. I would hate to find out that they were just actors holding up signs...that would ruin it all. So, for now, I'm assuming they are real. I think the faces say that to me.
"O LORD my God, I cried to you for help,
and you have healed me.
O LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol;
you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit." Verses 2-3
Amos 7:1-9
This is a difficult passage for me. It's hard to reconcile the two instances of God "relenting" (or, as in Peterson's translation..."GOD gave in.") with the truth that God does not change his mind.
At any rate, in this passage, Amos shown three visions. First is locusts eating everything that's green. Amos prays for "Jacob," and God relents. The second is a firestorm so large that it even burned up the ocean, alon with the Promised Land. Again, Amos intercedes for "Jacob." And, again, God relents.
In the third vision, though, God stand beside a wall holding a plumb line. For my younger readers who might not understand this, a plumb line is a simple string with a pointed weight attached to the bottom. The idea is that the string will be absolutely 100% straight up and down. Carpenters use it to see if walls are perfectly positioned, vertically. In this context, the plumb line is the standard by which Israel will be measured.
The emerging theme is that Israel has been given multiple chances and been spared. But God says, in verses 8-9, "This is it!" He says he is raising his sword against the royal family of Jeroboam (the family of rulers in power at the time).
The plumb line always hangs true. Our plumb line is the Bible. It is always true. Its truth never changes, no matter what century it is. People who claim that the Bible is not relevant today don't know what they are talking about, because they don't know the Bible. Most of the time, they just heard someone else say that.
As I read this, I wonder who I am. I know I have been spared many times by God's mercy and grace. When will he take out his sword? When will he demand comparison to the plumb line?
Grace and peace, friends.