7 ¶Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall madeby a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand.8 And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more: (Amos 7:7-8)
A plumbline is a string with a weight on the end of it; it is used as a guide to help a person building a wall to know whether their wall is straight or crooked. If the wall isn’t following the plumbline, then the wall isn’t being built right. So the plumbline represents judgment, good example, or a righteous standard one must follow.
The Lord promised Amos He would set a plumbline among His people Israel. Who is the example Israel is supposed to follow? Clearly it is Christ. Understood this way, these verses testify of Christ’s coming to Israel as a standard they should follow when building their lives.
(Aside: I have to say that I love the mental image of the Lord standing on a nice straight wall with a plumbline in His hand.)
Then, when the Lord says “I will not again pass by them any more,” we can get the point that the Lord’s mortal ministry would only happen once, so it was a warning to take advantage of that example while He was there. This is not to say that the Lord would never come to Israel again, but that in walking freely among them openly, traveling around on foot as He did in mortality, that would not be repeated.
Image: http://britseps.blogspot.com/2013/01/coventry.html
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