Amos 7:1-9

Locusts, Fire, and a Plumb Line

7:1 This is what the Lord GOD showed me: he was forming locusts at the time the latter growth began to sprout (it was the latter growth after the king's mowings). 2 When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said,

"O Lord GOD, forgive, I beg you!

How can Jacob stand?

He is so small!"

3 The LORD relented concerning this;

"It shall not be," said the LORD.

4 This is what the Lord GOD showed me: the Lord GOD was calling for a shower of fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land. 5 Then I said,

"O Lord GOD, cease, I beg you!

How can Jacob stand?

He is so small!"

6 The LORD relented concerning this;

"This also shall not be," said the Lord GOD.

7 This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built 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,

"See, I am setting a plumb line

in the midst of my people Israel;

I will never again pass them by;

9 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." (Amos 7:1-9, NRSV)

On Monday Amos begins a series of visions of judgment, concluded by a prophecy of restoration (but that comes in chap. 9). There is judgment by locusts (Amos 7:1-3), by fire (vv. 4-8), and by the plumb line (vv. 7-9). The first is apparently based on “a locust plague at the time of the latter growth [which] endangered the spring planting, just sprouting, after the harvest of the winter grains” (Gregory Mobley, NOAB, 3^rd ed., on vv. 1-3). The devastation caused by locusts becomes a biblical symbol of judgment (cf. Joel 2:1-13; Rev. 9:1-12). Amos’ next vision was of “a shower of fire [which] devoured the great deep [cf. Gen. 1:2] and was eating up the land” (Amos 7:4). Amos protests both of these visions: “O Lord GOD, forgive/cease, I beg you!/How can Jacob stand ?/He is so small!” (vv. 2b=5 except for one word of difference). In both cases “the LORD relented” (vv. 3, 6). But Amos does not protest the third vision of judgment, the plumb line (vv. 7-8), nor does the LORD relent. The “high places” and “the sanctuaries of Israel” do not measure up and will be destroyed (v. 9a, b), “and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword” (v. 9c). While Jeroboam II had a long and prosperous reign (788-747 B.C.), but his son, Zechariah reigned only six months (2 Kgs. 15:8) and was assassinated (v. 10). The next king, Shallum, lasted one month (v. 13), and though the following king, Menahem, lasted ten years (v. 17) and died of natural causes (v. 19), his son, Pekahiah, who reigned two years (v. 23), was assassinated (v. 25). The next king, Pekah, was assassinated in turn (v. 30), having lived to see the intrusion of King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria (v. 29). Then Pekah’s assassin, Hoshea, would be the last king of northern Israel (2 Kings 17:1-6). So conditions in northern Israel deteriorated quickly after Amos’ prophecies.

Revelation 1:1-8

1:1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place; he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.

3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near.

4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, 6 and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

7 Look! He is coming with the clouds;

every eye will see him,

even those who pierced him;

and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.

So it is to be. Amen.

8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. (Revelation 1:1-8, NRSV)

Today’s reading has been called the “Prologue” to the Book of Revelation (Bruce M. Metzger, NOAB, 2^nd ed., Introduction to Revelation). The book begins by announcing a revelation, a series of visions, that “came from God through Jesus Christ and was communicated to John by an angel (referred to again in 22:16)” (Metzger, on Rev. 1:1-3). Although the book as a whole is considered apocalyptic, “it contains other elements as well, such as the the seven letters in chs. 2 and 3 and the scattered prophetic utterances throughout its pages” (Metzger). The “Prologue” is followed by a salutation “to the seven churches that are in Asia” (v. 4a), which anticipates the separate letters to each (chaps. 2, 3). The term “Asia” here refers to the Roman province of Asia, located in the western portion of Asia Minor, of which Ephesus was the capital. God the Father is called “him who is and who was and who is to come” (v. 4b). He also is called “the Alpha and the Omega,” the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet (v. 8), a title which is later applied to Christ (cf. Metzger on 22:13). Through all the conflicts to be describe later in the book, it is clear that God is in control and Christ is the victor over all the powers of darkness. Jesus Christ is “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth” (1:5). He has “freed us from our sins by his blood” (v. 5), “made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father” (v. 6) and “is coming with the clouds” so that “every eye will see him,” even his enemies “who pierced him” (v. 7).

Matthew 22:23-33

The Sadducees’ Question about Resurrection (Mk 12.18-27; Lk 20.27-40)

23 The same day some Sadducees came to him, saying there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question, saying, 24 "Teacher, Moses said, 'If a man dies childless, his brother shall marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.' 25 Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died childless, leaving the widow to his brother. 26 The second did the same, so also the third, down to the seventh. 27 Last of all, the woman herself died. 28 In the resurrection, then, whose wife of the seven will she be? For all of them had married her."

29 Jesus answered them, "You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, 32 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is God not of the dead, but of the living." 33 And when the crowd heard it, they were astounded at his teaching. (Matthew 22:23-33, NRSV)

The challenge of the Pharisees (in last Saturday’s reading, Matthew 22:15-22, was a plot to “entrap” Jesus (Mt. 22:15), and though the Sadducees’ question is not characterized as entrapment, it is clear that by their denial of resurrection (cf. Acts 4:1-2; 23:6-10), they differ from Jesus and the Pharisees. And, given their association with the chief priests and upper classes of Jerusalem, we may assume that they, too, were hostile to Jesus.

If the Pharisees raise a political issue, the Sadducees (who presumably believe only in the OT’s shadowy Sheol) now pose a theological riddle which combines the teaching of the levirate law in Deut. 25:5 with the concrete example in Gen. 38:8. Although the two parties disagree regarding resurrection, they are one in opposing Jesus. (Dale C. Allison, Jr., The Oxford Bible Commentary, 873, on Mt. 22:15-22)

The Sadducees might be compared to “strict constructionists” with respect to the American Constitution. “They did not accept the resurrection, since it is not mentioned in the Torah [i.e. Genesis through Deuteronomy]” (J. Andrew Overman, NOAB, 3^rd ed., on Mt. 22:33), but Jesus refutes them by citing the Torah, that is, Exodus 3:6 (cited in Mt. 22:32). Overman notes that Philo refers to Exodus 3:6 “as proof that the patriarchs were still living” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., on Mt. 22:31-32).

In the main details of this account, Matthew, Mark and Luke agree. Luke doesn’t refer to the scriptures in 20:14 (cf. Mt. 22:29; Mk. 12:24), but refers to conditions of “this age”: “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage” (Lk. 20:34). But he differentiates between “this age” and “that age” (i.e. the “age to come,” in a Jewish phrase) (v. 35), and so refers to the time of “the resurrection” (Mt.22:30) “when they rise from the dead” (Mk. 12:25). Later he will refer to Exodus 3:6 as “the passage about the bush” (i.e. the “burning bush,” cf. Mk. 12:26).

For Christian believers, there is encouragement in the hopes for the Lord’s coming (the Revelation reading) and for resurrection (the reading from Matthew).

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

rworden@houston.rr.com