Do you like to read the Bible? How often do you read the Bible? Daily? I know that is a hard question. I love to read the Bible. There is an interesting thing. Before reading the Bible, I think, “I will read the Bible.” I am the subject who reads the Bible, and the Bible is my object. But after reading, the relationship changes because the Bible is reading me rather than me reading the Bible. Have you had such an experience?
God knows my situation and my thoughts. God tells us about our lives and guides us. We are just exposed, like being naked before God. But it is grace. The word of God becomes spiritual bread and feeds me. To have this experience, we first need to open ourselves to the narrative of the Bible. Unless we open ourselves, God cannot tell us. By opening ourselves, we experience that we become one of disciples of Jesus Christ or Apostle Paul on a mission trip, and sometimes we cry like people in the Psalms, saying, “God, I have so many difficulties and problems in my life. When will the Lord answer?” But, we find answers in God just as the Psalmist does. By reading the Bible, we experience how God tells us vividly, guides us, encourage us, and empowers us to live in this world as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. Some would say, what is the difference because I am living well without the Bible? I want to say that our identities are changing when we know God’s heart for us, and we can have transcendent faith by which we can have peace in pain and suffering. Also, the Bible is the guideline for our lives. It teaches us to do good, not to harm our neighbors, and to stay in love with God. Through the Bible, we know the purpose of life The irony of the Old Testament However, we are tempted to read only the New Testament. Even pastors are tempted to only preach from the New Testament because the Old Testament is long and hard to understand. I pick up today’s passage from Amos. Amos is also hard to understand. Some would say that God is a little bit scary and revengeful in the Old Testament, asking ‘Is it the same God in the New Testament?’ Even in today's passage, God says to Amaziah, the priest at Bethel, "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..” Oh no. Does God really say this? If so, is it true loving God? Church history affirms that the God in the Old Testament is the same God in the New Testament. Then, how can we find the love of God from this passage? This is the main question today. The Era of Amos At the time of Amos, Israel had divided into two countries; the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom, Judah. Amos usually prophesized in the Northern Kingdom governed by Jeroboam II. The northern Kingdom was different from the Southern Kingdom in terms of the spirit of a national foundation. The Northern Kingdom was built upon the spirit of Exodus and freedom rather than the blood of David. They wanted to treat all people equally based on the spirit of freedom. And when God saved them from Egypt, God wanted them to be holy, holy and holy. Importantly, Holiness is also the spirit of Exodus. So, there are two basic spirits: Freedom and holiness. However, they seem to forget God’s grace and saving love. We see the corruptness from Amos chapter two, where he says, “they sell the righteous for silver. And the needy for a pair of sandals, they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way; father and son go into the same girl so that my holy name is profaned; they lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge and in the house of their God they drink wine bought with fines they imposed.” (Amos 2:6b-8) They forgot the Holiness, their guideline for life, their identity and they forgot the spirit of freedom. Instead of that, they oppress the poor, the indebted and women. Although God saved them from the oppression of Egypt, they create new oppression towards their own people. And the elites in the Kingdom enjoyed their lives, drinking good wines and using the money from the poor. In the midst of corruptness, Amos proclaimed words of God to get them back to holy living. The Vision – Plumb line God shows four visions to Amos. Today’s passage is the third vision about the plumb line. God says, “See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by; 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.” Why does God hold a plumb line? You can check what a plumb line looks like from the bulletin. How can we use it? When you stack bricks, you need to hang a plumb line somewhere above and stack bricks from the bottom. A plumb line is a standard by which a wall's vertical trueness is tested. To follow a plumb line, you need to look up while stacking bricks and have time to adjust. 'Oh this brick is slightly left, this brick needs to go backward.’ By doing so, we can build a good wall. Unless we do this, we cannot make a good building. Here again, you need to pause and look at the plumb line and adjust the bricks. Look at the sky. From God's perspective, Israel does whatever they want to do. They have no standard. Although Israel is called to live holy, they forget it. They stack bricks aimlessly and some are on top of the bricks and some are under the bricks and suffering down there. They forget their identity. They should have aimed for Holiness and freedom. But they didn't. Thus, God shows up with a plumb line. In Hebrew, a plumb line is Anak (אֲנָך), but Anak means weapon in Akkadian. When they hear Anak, two words pop up in their head, weapon and plumb line. Unless they turn to God, God will do measure their wall with the plumb line and hammering with the weapon to fix it. Have you ever built a wall or building? One of the pastors I know, wanted to build a brick fence outside of church by himself because he is a pastor in a small church, and he could not hire people to work together. But the problem was that he had no experience. He just stacked bricks upon bricks. Anyway, he finished it and he was very pleased. I visited the church and saw the wall but it bowed badly. You know, one day when severe rains came, the wall was demolished. Perhaps, he should have used a plumb line. Back to the question. Let’s go back to the question. The scary last verses 16-17 are not God's will, but it will happen if they do not come back to the holy life. It is the result of their behavior. It is not God’s will. Rather, God’s will is to let them come back! In the Old Testament, punishment and grace are interwoven. When you hear about punishment, it means that there is still time for them to come back to God. This is God's love waiting for you and awakening you. When you build a wall without looking at the plumb line, it is going to fall down. It is not God’s fault, but God wants you to realize that the vertical line is not straight, and you need to fix it. And the Northern Kingdome was destroyed by Assyria in BCE 722. Here is a lesson for us. Let’s look up at the sky and see God’s plumb line. Amen.
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