Amos 7:1-9, Yahweh Is Done Looking Away

Plumbing or making a wall straight is critical to proper construction of a home. “Straight walls are important. They make a house look better, and getting them right makes the construction process easier for everyone down the line. If you don’t get the walls plumb and straight, everyone from plumbers and drywallers to finish carpenters and flooring installers has a harder time making their respective parts of the house fit together and look good.” (FineHomebuilding.com). When Yahweh finds that Israel is not plumb, He tears down in order to build again.

7:1 This is what the Sovereign Yahweh showed me: He was bringing locusts when the latter crop was just beginning to sprout, and after the king’s harvest had come in. 2 When the locusts had finished eating the grass of the land, I said, “O Sovereign Yahweh, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” 3 Yahweh relented concerning this: “It shall not be,” said Yahweh.

4 This is what the Sovereign Yahweh showed me: the Sovereign Yahweh was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great depths of the sea and was eating up the land. 5 Then I said, “O Sovereign Yahweh, please cease! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!”

6 Yahweh relented concerning this: “This also shall not be,” said the Sovereign Yahweh.

7 This is what he showed me: behold, Yahweh was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, and the plumb line was still in his hand. 8 And Yahweh said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then Yahweh said, “I’m setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again ignore their sin; 9 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.”

Amos is shown three judgments coming from Yahweh. The first two are so destructive he pleads with Yahweh to relent, and Yahweh does. But the third involves a plumb line that Yahweh measures Israel’s failure to be straight, and Amos does not, cannot, ask for Yahweh to relent, because the standard has clearly been rejected. Israel’s sin can no longer be ignored. The false places of worship must be torn down and the house of Jereboam, Israel’s first king, must be destroyed.