Step Into Faith

Chapter Reflection

Amos is shown two consuming judgments—the swarming of the latter growth and the fire that eats even into the deep—and each time he answers not with distance but with intercession: "forgive" and "cease," because Jacob is small. The Lord relents from these first visions, yet the third image is different: a plumbline laid in the midst, measuring what is true and leaving no room for disguise. Here judgment is not random fury but a searching disclosure, as if the very wall of the people’s life is being tested for straightness. The tension sharpens when the priest of Bethel tries to silence the word, treating the holy place as the king’s own court; against that, Amos tells the story of being taken from ordinary labor and sent by God. The chapter shows a God who hears mercy, who measures with truth, and who resists every attempt to domesticate His word, while the human heart appears both small and defenseless and also capable of hardening itself against the truth that could heal it.

intercessionplumblinefalse worshipsmallnessjudgment and mercy
← Amos

Amos 7

1Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings.

2And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.

3The LORD repented for this: It shall not be, saith the LORD.

4Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and, behold, the Lord GOD called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part.

5Then said I, O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.

6The LORD repented for this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord GOD.

7Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the LORD stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand.

8And 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:

9And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

10Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words.

11For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.

12Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there:

13But prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court.

14Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit:

15And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.

16Now therefore hear thou the word of the LORD: Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac.

17Therefore thus saith the LORD; Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land.

Who God is

You stand before a God whose mercy is real, whose measure is true, and whose word refuses to be put under human control—what kind of God is this?

The condition of man

You see a people who are small, defended by religion and power, yet exposed by the plumbline—what does this reveal about you?