No Crooked Lines

The Lord spoke to His prophet Amos using imagery as the “straightness” by which He would judge Israel’s sin and unrepentance: “. . . the Lord stood upon a wall, made by a plumb line with a plumb line in His hand” (Amos 7:7). The plumb line in His hand would mark the straight line used when He stood amid His people, judging with a just yet strict judgment, with no mercy (v. 8).

A plumb line is a weight suspended by a string and used as a vertical reference line. Lowering the weight causes the line to pull taut for a straight-line reference. Praise God we live on this side of grace: Jesus bore our sins on the cross, paying the price for the death we deserved. Though He visits us with mercy as believers, we are accountable for our actions and unconfessed sins. Jesus is the perfect standard by which God measures our “straightness.”

Does your life’s line lean or hang straight? If God laid a level across your life, where would the bubble settle? Would it drift right because of your way, to the left to please others, or would it be centered on God’s standard for right-living? Surrendering one’s life to Him is crucial; God takes no measurements after death. Our relationship with Jesus decides where the weight falls or where the bubble rests—we spend eternity with God our Father or Satan and his followers.