The Plumbline - Building Walls

Amos 7:7

A few years ago we remodeled the basement of our home. The basement was barely livable and we needed the space. And being the handy-craftsman that I’m not, we needed help too. So I contracted out a carpenter who specialized in remodeling. Within the first two days John had the entire basement torn down to bare cement walls with no insulation and crooked support beams. We wondered if it could ever look like the way we planned. John assured us it would fine, and he started hammering away.

When the new walls started to go up John wanted to make sure every thing was level and exactly straight. He used an old tool called a plumbline to obtain the accuracy of his work. The plumbline, held at the top of the wall, helped him judge the accuracy of the vertical line from the ceiling to the floor. After several measurements, hammering here and there, and power in the walls, we had a very nice living space in our basement, with new stairs, TV room and office. We were very pleased with our once crooked walls that John made straight.

In Amos 7:7, we are told that the Lord "stood upon the wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand", and he said to Amos in verse 8, "I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people...I will not pass by them any more." Here the plumbline seems to symbolize that God is strict and precise in his judgement. That he is so strict that he will, in Hebrew imagery, stand upon the wall and measure our worthiness with a tool as accurate as a plumline.

This poses a question for us all...have we built our walls straight and accurate enough for the Lord to stand on and measure our righteousness with a plumbline? Or have we have we constructed walls that are crooked, without proper insulation, that can easily be torn down?

If our walls are not as accurate as we need them to be there is a way to repair them. We need to establish as contract with the Master Carpenter. We need to let him fortify our walls and fill them with his power, so that when it comes time to be measured for our lives, the Lord can stand on our wall, drop his plumbline, and all will be straight.