Seventh Sunday after Pentecost—July 15, 2012

Amos 7:7-15

“Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel...” vs. 8

     Amos is receiving another authorization for the office prophet into which the Lord has placed him.  Like you read in Ezekiel last week, here in Amos you read of another image of justification.  Last week it was the image of standing upright before the Lord.  This week it is the image of a plumb line—a string with a weight at the end.  When the weight hangs on the end of the string, the string marks a straight up-and-down vertical line—an excellent way to measure the “uprightness” of a wall or of a people.   By implication, God’s people Israel would fail to measure up—they would not be “upright” and, like a tilted wall, must be torn down and rebuilt. 

     God’s justification of his people is dramatic and terrifying.  Listen to its description:  “Made desolate…”  “Laid waste…”  “With the sword…”  “Die by the sword…” “Go into exile…”  God justifies by reducing them to nothing and then—from that nothing—raising up a new people… a new person… and a new creation (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17)

     When God first justified you, he did so in the water and word of Holy Baptism.  By being baptized into the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, your old sinful self was drowned and you were raised up a new creation.  While you are still “in the flesh,” your baptism is to be used every day through confession and absolution.  These two will repent you and forgive you your sins.  In this forgiveness of sins you will know that you have been set free from that triumvirate of powers—the devil, the world, and your sinful self.  When you are no longer bent over in their bondage, you are stood up straight; you’ve been “plumbed” and found upright—justified.  This is the daily dying to sin and being raised up to walk in newness of life.  It is the Christian life: baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection.


Table Talk
Timothy J. Swenson

The Institute of Lutheran Theology