Locusts, Fire, and Judgment by God’s Standard

Amos 7:1-9

Vision of the Locusts

1 Thus the Lord GOD showed me: Behold, He formed locust swarms at the beginning of the late crop; indeed it was the late crop after the king's mowings. 2 And so it was, when they had finished eating the grass of the land, that I said:

"O Lord GOD, forgive, I pray!
Oh, that Jacob may stand,
For he is small!"
3 So the LORD relented concerning this.
"It shall not be," said the LORD.

Vision of the Fire

4 Thus the Lord GOD showed me: Behold, the Lord GOD called for conflict by fire, and it consumed the great deep and devoured the territory. 5 Then I said:

"O Lord GOD, cease, I pray!
Oh, that Jacob may stand,
For he is small!"
6 So the LORD relented concerning this.
"This also shall not be," said the Lord GOD.

Vision of the Plumb Line

7 Thus He showed me: Behold, the Lord stood on a wall made 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:
"Behold, I am setting a plumb line
In the midst of My people Israel;
I will not pass by them anymore.
9 The high places of Isaac shall be desolate,
And the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste.
I will rise with the sword against the house of Jeroboam."

Amos was given visual messages for his people of consuming locusts, consuming fire, and a promise of being held to God’s standards for judgment.  The locusts consumed the grass of the last harvest, wiping out the food for the winter.  The fire consumed as God’s indignation against their unrepentant sins of immorality and idolatry.  The plumb line signified that this was the last measure of the people, and that he would defer his judgment no longer.  For the locusts and the fire, Amos interceded by praying and asking the LORD for forgiveness and mercy to stop consuming the people because they were so few left as a remnant of their former number.  When the third vision of the plumb line was revealed, however, it was the last straw and no intercession by any man could stop God’s judgment.  He was holding them to account for their unrepentant sin by measuring their uprightness by the scriptures which are His unbending word of truth and righteousness.  Their only hope as yet still hidden in the scriptures was the Messiah, the Branch of Righteousness (Jeremiah 23:5-6, 33:15-16) to come and deliver according to God’s own righteousness and not their own unobtainable attempts to be holy like Him.  This plumb line measure looked to see who was straight up righteous and found none (Romans 3:20, 23).  Therefore, God would no longer pass them by on His judgment but hold them accountable for their deeds until a better mediator than a man like Amos was there to do so, the man Jesus Christ as the second Adam, the perfect man who is also divine as God’s Son.  His righteousness alone can deliver from certain judgment (Romans 3:22, 1 Corinthians 1:30) by the righteousness of God Himself.  He was set in our midst as the divine plumb line and the intercessor who alone can offer a sacrifice to cover all our sin in Him forevermore.  All the consuming locusts and fire in the final judgment cannot stop the measure of all according to that saving plumb line of Jesus Christ; only those aligned with Him will stand upright in the face of that eternal accounting, meeting His standard of righteousness and finding judgment passing over us as Israel was passed over from destruction in Egypt by the blood of the Lamb (Exodus 12:13, Romans 3:25-26).  Amen.