A mason works with bricks by setting them in place one upon the other. One of the tools used by a mason is a plumb line, which is little more than a string attached to a heavy pointed object. When a setting a course of bricks, the mason must be certain his course is truly vertical. To accomplish this purpose, he hangs the plumb line from above the brick and uses the string as a guideline to stay "plumb."

As for Amos, it's easy to understand how God compared His justice toward Israel to that of a plumb line It's as if He was telling the people, "If you move outside the boundary I've set for you, you will die. Now, that's putting God's word in a form that anyone can understand. But, have you considered that God has a plumb line for His people of our day? He has and it's called, the Holy Bible.

God's word sets a clear straightedge for our lives that's as functional as Amos' plumb line If we align our life with it, we're safe. But when we vary from its principles and go astray, we place ourselves in harm's way. Understand, it's not God that's punishing us when we're violating Scriptural principles, but our own disobedience. All we have to do to fix the problem, is adjust our life to God's plumb line by coming under the authority of God's word in complete obedience.

It's amazing to me that what some people see as restriction, others view as freedom within liberal boundaries.

1 Developed from Read the Bible Thru ( Am. 7:1-9:15 Rv. 3:7-22 Ps. 131:1-3 Pr. 29:23 )
2. Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society

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