“Thus he showed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumb line. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more…” (Amos 7:7-8). In this particular vision Amos records that he saw Jehovah upon a wall with a plumb line in his hand. A plumb line is a standard of straightness for making walls to be perfectly vertical without lean or sag.
In Exodus 20 and following, Jehovah had formed the united nation of Israel from his people delivered forth from Egyptian bondage by providing the law of Moses as a plumb line to establish the nation upon solid religious principles. Now, after hundreds of years of apostasy from that standard of righteousness. God sets his plumb line among them once again to illustrate the extent to which they had wavered from the true way and to encourage them to realign themselves with that standard.
Today Jehovah continues to have a plumb line set in the world and among his people. Wherein that plumb line in the days of Amos was the Old Testament law of Moses, today that plumb line is a new and better law, established, taught, and ordained by Jesus Christ (Hebrews 8:7-13). Today Christians teach and preach among a heathen people who have enjoyed peace and prosperity, therefore influencing them to be very lackadaisical in her religious attitude, and giving themselves to materialism, self-indulgence, pride, and cruel oppression. Today Jehovah sets before the world and among his people the plumb line of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ as the righteous standard.
How far has the world wavered from that perfect completeness sought in the word of Jehovah? It should be the purpose of every child of Jehovah God to use this plumb line, this standard, to persuade people to measure themselves by the standard and in those areas of which they fall short then go about the necessary steps to correct themselves. The word of Jehovah is “quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12), “given by inspiration of God, and is profitable” (II Timothy 3:16), and “the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth it” (Romans 1:16). Therefore, as the ultimate and perfect plumb line of God is set before all of mankind, all should look toward it and it only as the sole religious authority for the lives of people who earnestly want to serve Jehovah and one day be saved for all eternity.