God Sets a Plumb Line of Judgment—Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 5C (Amos 7)

 

Amos 7:7-17 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁷ This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. ⁸ And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said,

“See, I am setting a plumb line

    in the midst of my people Israel;

    I will spare them no longer;

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.”

¹⁰ Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the very center of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. ¹¹ For thus Amos has said,

‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,

    and Israel must go into exile

    away from his land.’ ”

¹² And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there, ¹³ but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”

¹⁴ Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am no prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I am a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore trees, ¹⁵ and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

¹⁶ “Now therefore hear the word of the Lord.

You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,

    and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’

¹⁷ Therefore thus says the Lord:

Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city,

    and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword,

    and your land shall be parceled out by line;

you yourself shall die in an unclean land,

    and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.”

                *******************

                You may have seen pictures of a group of preachers in the Oval Office, laying hands on the President, suggesting he is God’s anointed. These are what one historian (John Fea) calls “Court Preachers.” It is nice to be included among the inner circle, but often being included involves saying nice things about the person in power. It’s nothing new. It’s been going on since the beginning of time. Unfortunately, being a “Court Preacher” can corrupt the message, such that the Gospel of Jesus is set aside in support of other agendas. As Nietzsche put it,  “life itself is the will to power.” Indeed, he writes:  “‘Exploitation’ is not part of a decadent or imperfect, primitive society: it is part of the fundamental nature of living things, as its fundamental organic function; it is a consequence of the true will to power, which is simply the will to life” [Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future (Oxford World's Classics) (Kindle p. 15, 153)]. Perhaps this is the foundation of all forms of religious nationalism, including Christian Nationalism.

                In ancient Israel, we find two kinds of prophets. There are the court prophets (often priests) who tickle the ears of the monarch, letting the ruler know that God is blessing their rule. Other prophets do not work for the state. They often bring messages that the ruler doesn’t appreciate.  The prophet Amos was one of the non-court prophets. He regularly brought messages to the king of Israel (the northern kingdom) that were not well received. On the other hand, there was Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, who said nice things about the king and not-so-nice things about Amos.

                In our reading for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, the prophet Amos, a herdsman from Tekoa in the kingdom of Judah, brings a message of judgment to Jeroboam II, king of Israel. In this word to Jeroboam, Amos denies he is a prophet. He’s just a herdsman or shepherd, but he does have a message from God for the king. The timing of this message is the eighth century. Jeroboam II was a relatively powerful king who ruled over a prosperous kingdom for a lengthy period (786-746). However, according to the narrative in 2 Kings, “He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat that he caused Israel to sin” (2 Kings 14:24). While he would not live to see it, it wasn’t long before the northern kingdom of Israel would be destroyed by the Assyrians. In other words, the nation would reap what it had sown.

                As an aside here, while court preachers, like Amaziah, abound, critics of political regimes need to be careful when they seek to take on the mantle of Amos. Remember that Amos didn’t claim to be a prophet, but only a herdsman who heard a word from God that needed to be delivered. Yet, preachers are called to this, even though it can be dangerous. Perhaps that is why Amos earned a living as a herdsman and didn’t get a job preaching. In any case, perhaps this word about prophetic preaching from Walter Brueggemann can serve as a word of wisdom:  “Prophetic proclamation is an attempt to imagine the world as though YHWH—the creator of the world, the deliverer of Israel, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ whom we Christians come to name as Father, Son, and Spirit—were a real character and an effective agent in the world. I use the subjunctive ‘were’ because such a claim is not self-evident and remains to be established again and again in every such utterance” [Brueggemann, The Practice of Prophetic Imagination: Preaching an Emancipating Word (Kindle, p. 2)]  

                In the seventh chapter of the Book of Amos, the prophet uses three images to let the king know that God has a problem with him and the nation. The images are locusts, fire, and a plumb line. Our reading focuses on this third image. A plumb line involves strings with weights attached that are used to make sure the walls of a building are straight, lest they collapse. According to Amos, God wants Jeroboam to know that even if the nation seems to be prospering, things are not as they should be. In other words, the “walls” are not straight, and the nation will collapse. What is God’s charge? According to this word, Yahweh has set a plumbline in the midst of the people. With this word of judgment given to Israel through Amos, God tells Israel that they are now a God-forsaken land. God will not pass among them again because of the nation’s transgressions. Therefore, in the days to come, the “high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste.” That is, Israel’s sacred places of worship, which had been corrupted, will be destroyed. As for Jeroboam II, Amos declares that Yahweh “will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.” A quarter century after Jeroboam’s long reign ended, the nation of Israel would go into exile, never to be restored. While the Assyrians would be the ones to do this, Amos lets Israel know that since it had abandoned Yahweh, Yahweh is taking responsibility for what comes next. Though this word appears to be directed at Israel, most assuredly it was being heard in Judah also.

                As one might expect, the message Amos delivered was not well received in Israel. The priest at Bethel told Amos to go back to Judah and earn his living there. He told Amos never to enter Bethel and prophesy in that place again. As we read this interchange, we might contrast it with the way the prophet Jonah is received in Nineveh. Even though Jonah is most likely a parable since there is no record of the Assyrians repenting, the contrast is still valid. The people to whom God directed this word of judgment, people who were part of the original covenant community, are unwilling to receive this word.

                Amos responded to Amaziah’s rejection of his message by letting the priest know that he was mistaken. He told the priest he wasn’t a prophet but only a herdsman and dresser of sycamore trees. If we read between the lines, Amos is letting Amaziah know that he’s not one of those professional prophets who are on the take. He’s simply following Yahweh’s instructions. Yahweh’s instructions took him from his flocks and sent him to prophesy to the people of Israel.

               Amaziah told Amos not to prophesy against Israel (the house of Isaac). But here is the word that Adonai (the LORD) had for Jeroboam and Israel."Your wife shall become a prostitute in the city, and your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be parceled out by line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.” Amos’s word is clearly one of judgment. Before long, the promised exile takes place. Now, it’s possible that parts of the book of Amos were written after this exile took place. But even if Amos gave this word during Jeroboam’s reign, it wouldn’t take much to foresee an Assyrian invasion. Judah did escape, but only by the skin of its teeth. A century later, it too fell, though it would rise again, unlike the northern kingdom.

                Amos told the king and his representative (the priest Amaziah) that God had looked at Israel using a plumbline and found it wanting. It was beyond fixing because it had oriented itself around the worship of idols, abandoning its covenant relationship with Yahweh. Therefore, Yahweh was finished with this nation. So, what about us? What word might Amos have for us? Could it be that God has a message of judgment for our nation(s)? Have we embraced idols such that even many Christians have abandoned Jesus and his teachings? I write this in the shadow of a newly enacted bill that is cutting taxes (mostly for the wealthiest Americans), adds billions for immigration enforcement, empowering a deportation regime that is devastating communities, while at the same time cutting the social safety net, likely pushing many further into poverty. The Roman Catholic Church is condemning it as being contrary to Catholic social teachings. Many mainline denominations are doing the same. Nevertheless, many Christians are embracing this effort. So, I’m wondering what Amos might say to us. He is not afraid to speak truth to power.

                As we ponder what Amos might have to say to us, and how we might also speak truth to power, Ron Allen and Clark Williamson offer this word of wisdom to preachers. With it, I will close.

The criterion for authentic preaching is not whatever the powers-that-be deem appropriate. It is whether what is preached is appropriate to the grace and command of God. Genuine prophecy came from one who refused to call himself a prophet. He was willing to trust that decision to others. Amos had prophetic modesty that we should emulate. [Preaching the Old Testament, p. 167].