epcblog

Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Amos 7

Whatever the suffering may be that any one person, family, church, or nation may face here on earth, it is not as bad as we deserve. When we understand that every violation of God’s Law is an offense against our infinite and perfect divine Judge, then we can easily acknowledge that we all deserve the Lord’s eternal wrath and curse. The worst troubles of this earth, as significant as they may be, are far less than the hell that would be ours by the Lord’s justice.

In fact there are many disasters that could come to us now, but God refuses to bring them to us, because He knows that they are too much for us to bear. In Amos 6 the prophet is given two visions of what Israel deserves that fit into this category. The first is a locust infestation at the most critical time for the development of the new harvest. The second is a judgment by fire so hot that it would not only destroy the land, but also would dry up the sea. In both cases Amos appeals to God, asking the Lord to forgive Israel. He asks for mercy because Israel is small, and would be utterly destroyed by these kinds of devastating judgments. In both cases the Lord announces that these visions shall not come to pass.

Then comes a third vision. This one seems far more tame. It is simply a plumb line used in the construction of a building to make sure that the walls being built upon a foundation are going up straight, so that the building will be structurally sound. God is building His kingdom. He will set a plumb line in the midst of Israel and check to see if what has been built there is in line with good order. God’s Law is a plumb line for the Old Covenant community. Measured against that standard, all the walls of Israel will be found to be crooked and about to fall. What will be left is the Lord’s own foundation in the Word of His prophets. Upon this good and solid footing, a new kingdom might yet be built.

We all think that we want God to visit, and we do not want Him to pass by without embracing us. When the Lord will judge us according to the plumb line of His Law; when He comes as an engineer who will order the demolition of unsound walls, we might instead hope that He will pass by us without coming to close. An embrace from Him might mean our destruction. God announces through Amos that He is finished with passing by Israel. He is coming to judge. He will make a visit that will be painful. The ruling families of the north and their religious sanctuaries will be destroyed.

It is often the case that the one who comes speaking the truth that could bring life is mistaken by others as an enemy of the public good and an adversary of the powers that seem to hold the country together. A prophet can be ignored by an unrighteous nation if he can be kept in a corner and if he does not go too far in offending the powers that be. Amos had apparently crossed the line. One of the priests with close ties to the royal family in the north gave the prophet an ultimatum. He told Amos that it was time for him to return to Judah.

Amos responds with the kind of defense that Paul gives so many centuries later in writing to the Galatians. He says that his words have not come from men, but from God. To reject the message of Amos is to defy the Lord. Perhaps now it is the words of the Lord’s prophet, in accord with God’s Law, that are the precise plumb line for Israel. To kill or intimidate Amos will not change the fact of the Lord’s visitation to judge. In fact, the priest who tried to threaten Amos has a Word that comes just for him; a devastating personal curse for his own rejection of the Lord’s plumb line. Furthermore, Israel will surely go into exile away from its land.

When God sent His Son into the world, He sent Him to save, and not to judge. Yet the coming of the Holy One of Israel is also, of necessity, a plumb line for the Lord’s kingdom. This is because the Lord’s Anointed Messiah comes as the obedient Servant of God, and we look like a tottering wall compared with His perfections.

If Jesus had come first to judge, no one could have been saved. All that could have happened in that kind of visitation would have been a rousing condemnation of the entirety of Adam’s race and especially of those who had access to the Law and the Prophets but had still continued in their rebellion against the Lord. This function of condemnation had already been ably accomplished through Adam’s sin and then most clearly through the Law of Moses by which all of Israel and Judah could be rightly condemned. Jesus did not need to come in order to condemn mankind. Mankind was already justly condemned by the Law before the Christ was born.

Jesus came to save. Though He alone could stand as the true plumb line, He took our place as a tottering whitewashed wall that was about to fall. He did this on the cross, and He was crushed there for our iniquities. Nonetheless, His perfect strength and integrity was displayed through that greatest moment of His weakness, and He has provided for the Lord’s new temple the perfect cornerstone in His death and resurrection. Now the foundation of apostles and prophets stands in perfect alignment with this great cornerstone, and we are being built up on that good foundation as a holy temple in the Lord Jesus Christ.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 6:00 AM

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