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 December 10, 2007 (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday of Advent, Year One), comments were repeated with editing and supplement from December 5, 2005 (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday of Advent, Year Two); the comments are repeated again here:

In today’s reading, 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). After the report of Amos’s encounter with Amaziah, priest of Bethel (vv. 10-17), visions continue, the ripe fruit (8:1-3), and the appearance of the LORD beside the altar (9:1-6). The last two are followed by speeches of judgment against Israel (cf. Gregory Mobley, NOAB, 3^rd ed., on Amos 7:1-9:15).

In reporting the first vision, Amos says, “This is what the Lord GOD showed me (yn9xar4h9, hir’anî): he was forming locusts at the time the latter growth began to sprout (it was the latter growth after the king's mowings)” (Amos 7:1). “Showed me,” says Gene M. Tucker, revised by J. Andrew Dearman, was “technical language in autobiographical style for the introduction of a vision report (7:4, 7; 8:1). “Locusts,” they add, “were a familiar threat to crops and therefore to the lives of the people” (ibid.). This vision, says Mobley, 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” (op. cit., on vv. 1-3). The devastation caused by locusts becomes a biblical symbol of judgment (cf. Joel 2:1-13; Rev. 9:1-12). Although Amos recognizes the vision as a picture of judgment on Israel’s sin, he responds with horror as he begs forgiveness for Israel. “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!’ ” (v. 2). And the LORD hears Amos’s plea, for we are told, “The LORD relented (MHan9, nicham) concerning this; / ‘It shall not be,’ said the LORD)” (v. 3). For “relented,” Tucker and Dearman say “or ‘repented.’ Reports that God repented or reversed a decision are not uncommon in the Hebrew scriptures (see esp. Jon. 3:9-10; 4:2; Joel 2:14, 18-19)” (op. cit., on v. 3). There is no implication, of course, that God “repented” of sin. The verb for that would be bUw (šûv, cf. 1 Kgs. 8:47, 48; 2 Chr. 6:37, 38; Ps. 7:12; Isa. 1:27; Ezek. 14:6; 18:30). In the texts cited by Tucker and Dearman, the verb bUw (šûv) occurs in the king of Nineveh’s question, “Who knows? God may relent (bUwyA, yāšûv) and change his mind (MHan9v4, w ^enicham); he may turn (bwAv4, w ^ešāv) from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish” (Jonah 3:9). But in Jonah’s complaint, he uses the verb “relent” (MHan9, nicham). He fled, he says, because “I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent (MHan9v4, w ^enicham) from punishing” (Jonah 4:2). In Joel, after a call for the people to repent using the verb bUw (šûv, Joel 2:12, 23, Joel asks, “Who knows whether he will not turn (bUwyA, yāšûv) and relent (MHAn9v4, w ^enicham), / and leave a blessing behind him . . . ?” (v. 14). Verses 18 and 19 describe God’s gracious response with “pity” and “grain, wine, and oil,” but do not use verbs for “repent” or “relent.”

In Amos, the next vision presents judgment by devastating fire. “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” (v. 4). Tucker and Dearman say, “Shower of fire [would be] better [translated] ‘judgment by fire.’ Since it devoured the great deep, the waters believed to surround the earth and heavens (see Gen. 1:2), as well as the land, this was no ordinary flame but a cosmic fire” (ibid., on v. 4). Amos repeats his protest using the same words as before, with one exception, “cease” (xn!-ldaH3, h ^adal-nā’ ) for “forgive.” (xn!-Hlas4, s ^elach-nā’ ) (v. 5, cf. v. 2). And again the LORD relents. “The LORD relented (MHan9, nicham) concerning this; / ‘This also shall not be,’ said the Lord GOD” (v. 6).

But a third vision is described, to which Amos does not protest. “This is what he showed me,” says Amos: “the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line (j`n!7x3, ’ <sup>a</sup>nāk), with a plumb line (j`n!x3, ’ ^anāk) in his hand “ (v. 7). As if to drive the point home, the LORD asks Amos what he sees, to which, Amos replies, “A plumb line” (v. 8a). The LORD explains:

See, I am setting a plumb line (j`n!x3, ’ ^anāk)

in the midst of my people Israel;

I will never again pass them by; (Amos 7:8b, c, d, NRSV)

According to Tucker and Dearman, “The Hebrew word translated plumb line appears only in this context and therefore its meaning is uncertain” (ibid., on v. 7). But Mobley says, “The plumb line, a device for determining the true vertical line of a structure, reveals that Israel’s religious and political institutions do not measure up and will be destroyed” (op. cit., on vv. 7-9).

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.” (Amos7:9)

According to Ben Zvi, “The house of Jeroboam refers to Jeroboam II or better, the ‘House of Jehu,’ the last stable dynasty of the northern Kingdom. The term refers also–at least by connotation–to the Northern Kingdom as a whole” (The Jewish Study Bible, 2004, on Amos 7:7-9). Although Jeroboam II had a long and prosperous reign (788-747 B.C.), 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)

The following comments are essentially repeated from earlier comments, those of the Presbyterian and Lutheran readings for December, 29, 2008 (Monday in the week of the First Sunday after Christmas, Year One), when comments were repeated from December 20, 2007 (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday of Advent, Year Two), when comments were based on comments from December 5, 2005 (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday of Advent, Year Two), from December 29, 2006; and from October 20, 2007 (Monday in the week of the Sunday closest to October 26, Year One):

Today’s reading begins with what has been called the “Prologue” to the Book of Revelation. namely, 1:1-3 (Bruce M. Metzger, NOAB, 2^nd ed., 1994, Introduction to Revelation). The book is called “the Revelation ( =ApokavluyiV, Apokalypsis) of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants’ what must soon take place” (Rev. 1:1a). Jean Pierre Ruiz says the term “revelation” (ajpokavluyiV, apokalypsis) refers to “a literary form in which a vision from God, often under the guidance of an angel or other heavenly messenger, communicates in symbolic language God’s hidden plan for the concluding period of history. Apocalypses also include visions of the heavenly world” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., augmented, 2007, on Rev. 1:1). In this case, the author claims that Jesus Christ made the revelation known to him “by sending his angel to his servant John” (v. 1b), thereby identifying himself as “John.” Whether this is John the son of Zebedee and the likely source behind the Gospel of John, the “beloved disciple” (who is referred to in the third person by the final editor of John’s Gospel, Jn. 21:24), is a disputed point. Metzger is content to say, “it is probably that the author, whose name is John (1:1, 4, 9; 22:8), put the book in its present form toward the close of the reign of the Emperor Domitian (A.D. 81-96)” (loc. cit.). Ruiz, on the other hand, notes this John’s “self-identification to the seven churches as ‘your brother who share with you in Jesus the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance’ ” (1:9), but also his reference to “the twelve apostles as figures from the past (21:14) [in which he] does not refer to himself as one of them.” So Ruiz concludes, “The traditional identification of the John of the book of Revelation with the apostle of the same name is thus questionable” (op. cit., in the Introduction to Revelation). One may add that Ruiz’s interpretation of the reference to “apostles” in 21:14 is not self evident either.

The prologue concludes with a beatitude, a blessing pronounced on “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” (v. 3). Metzger notes that this is “the first of seven beatitudes in Revelation (compare 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14) [and that it] is pronounced upon the reader of this prophetic book in services of worship and upon the listening worshippers who heed its message” (on v. 3; cf. Ruiz, op. cit., on the same). “The words the time is near (repeated in 22:10,” says Ruiz, provide a motive for obedience by announcing the imminence of the end-time” (ibid.). One might call these beginning and ending beatitudes “brackets,” or better, “bookends,” that frame the entire book.

Although the book as a whole is considered apocalyptic, according to Metzger, “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” (loc. cit.). So, though the literary genre (literary form or type) of Revelation is correctly identified as Apocalypse–as indicated by the title commonly used–it shares the characteristics of “circular letter,” and of “Christian prophecy” (cf. Paul J. Achtemeier, Joel B. Green, and Marianne Meye Thompson, Introduction to the New Testament; Its Literature and Theology, 2001, pp. 556-559). And immediately following the prologue, we come to an “epistolary salutation” (1:4-8, as labeled by Ruiz; cf ‘introductory salutation,” Metzger). John first identifies himself, then the addressees: “John to the seven churches that are in Asia” (v. 4a). 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. John follows with a greeting in the style of Paul’s letters, “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” (v. 4b). For the greeting with the words “grace” (cavriV, charis) and “peace” (eijrhvnh, eirēnē), compare those of Paul (e.g. Rom. 7:1b; 1 Cor. 1:3; 2 Cor. 1:2, etc.). The one “who is and who was and who is to come” (1:4, cf. v. 8) is the one who is enthroned (cf. chaps. 4-5), and is distinct here from “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth” (1:5), and distinct there from the one called “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David” (5:5), but revealed also as “a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth” (v. 6).

A dedication is made that ascribes glory and dominion “To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (1:5b, 6). The ascription of glory and dominion is continued in poetic lines that recall Daniel’s description of dominion being given to “one like a human being” (wn!x$ rb1K4, k^ebar ’ ^enāš, lit. ‘like a son of man’) (Dan. 7:13-14). Compare the texts in the following table:

In the Daniel passage the “one like a human being” who is “coming with the clouds of heaven” is coming to “the Ancient One” who is on his throne (Dan. 7:9); in the Revelation passage, “coming with the clouds” refers to the Parousia, when “every eye will see him, / even those who pierced him” (Rev. 1:7).

The salutation closes with a self-identification of the Lord God. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” (v. 8). In calling himself “the Alpha and the Omega,” God refers to the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet; the title is later applied to Christ (cf. Metzger, op. cit., on 22:13). As noted above God is here described as the one “who is and who was and who is to come”; finally, he is called “the Almighty” (oJ pantokravtwr, ho pantokratōr). The term is used of God in the Septuagint texts of Hosea 12:6 and Amos 3:13, for example. Jean-Pierre Ruiz interprets the reference to the Greek alphabet: “‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God” (v. 8), as “the beginning and end of all things” (on v. 8).

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 following comments are based on the comments on the first part of the reading from July 5, 2008 (Saturday in the week of the Sunday closest to June 29, Year Two), when comments were based on comments on Matthew 22:23-33 from December 10, 2007 (Monday in the week of the Second Sunday of Advent, Year Two), and on relevant comments, on Matthew 22:34-40, selected from comments on Matthew 22:34-46 from December 11, 2007 (Tuesday in the week of the Second Sunday of Advent, Year Two). Those comments were based on earlier comments as noted there.

Parallel passages for this reading are presented in the separate file, the Question on the Resurrection. For recent comments on Mark’s version of this reading, see the Archive for August 19, 2009 (Wednesday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 17, Year One). For recent comments on Luke’s version of this reading, see the Archive for June 17, 2009 (Wednesday in the week of the Sunday closest to June 17, Year One).

The challenges to Jesus’ authority continue. “The same day,” says Matthew, “some Sadducees came to him, saying there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question” (Mt. 22:23; cf. Mk. 12:18; Lk. 20:27, 28a). We might call the Sadducees “strict constructionists,” comparing them to those who have been called that with respect to the American Constitution. According to J. Andrew Overman, the Sadducees “did not accept the resurrection, since it is not mentioned in the Torah [i.e. Genesis through Deuteronomy]” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., augmented, 2007, on Mt. 22:23). Their question for Jesus was posed as a hypothetical case. On the surface, they address Jesus respectfully (if not ironically). “Teacher,” they say, “Moses said, ‘If a man dies childless, his brother shall marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother [citing Deut. 25:5].’ Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died childless, leaving the widow to his brother. The second did the same, so also the third, down to the seventh. 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” (Mt. 22:24-28; cf. Mk. 12:19-23; Lk. 20:28b-33). According to Overman, the Sadducees quote what is called “the law of levirate marriage (from Latin ‘levir,’ brother-in-law)” (ibid., on v. 24). “Moses,” says Dennis C. Duling, was “the presumed author of the Pentateuch . . . The purpose of this legislation (levirate law) was to preserve the deceased male’s family line and name (see Gen. 38:8; Ruth 4:10)” (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on Mt. 22:24). “Down to the seventh,” says Overman, “echoes Tob. 3:7-10” (op. cit., on v. 26). So the Sadducees present Jesus with a kind of reductio ad absurdum–though they wouldn’t have called it that. Assuming that there is or will be resurrection of the dead, there would be seven brothers to claim the same wife.

Jesus responds to the Sadducees in two ways, in their understanding of scripture, and in their concept of life in the resurrection. “Jesus answered them,” says Matthew, “ ‘You are wrong because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven’ ” (Mt. 22:29-30; cf. Mk. 12:24-25). On this, Luke elaborates a little. “Jesus said to them, ‘Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection” (Lk. 20:34-36).

Having explained life in the resurrection, Jesus returns to the point about the Sadducees understanding of scripture. In Matthew, he says, “And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, ‘I am ( =Egwv eijmi, Egō eimi) the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is God not of the dead, but of the living” (Mt. 22:31-32, citing Exod. 3:6, 15, 16; cf. 4 Macc. 7:19). Although the verb “am” is understood in the Hebrew of Exodus 3:6, the Septuagint has “I am” ( =Egwv eijmi, Egō eimi); compare “I AM WHO I AM” (hy,h4x, rw,x3 hy,h4x,, ’ehyeh ’^ašer ’ehyeh; LXX =Egwv eijmi oJ w[n, Egō eimi ho ōn, lit. ‘I am the one who is, v. 14), a play on the divine name hvhy (YHWH, which modern scholars understand as “Yahweh”). According to Duling, in the quotation from Exodus 3:;6, “The present tense (I am) is here taken to imply that the deceased patriarchs were still living, i.e., resurrected. Evidence for the doctrine of resurrection is thus found in the Pentateuch” (op. cit., on v. 32). In Mark and Luke, Jesus cites the Exodus passage as “the story about the bush.” “And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush [i.e. the burning bush, Exod. 3:1-4:17], how God said to him, ‘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; you are quite wrong” (Mk. 12:26-27; cf. Lk. 20:37-38. which adds, “for to him [i.e., to God] all of them are alive”). So Jesus counters their belief that there is no resurrection because, in their view, it is not mentioned in the Pentateuch (i.e., the Torah), “the Book of Moses,” by reference to their authority, in the account in which God calls Moses to lead his people out of Egypt. J. Andrew Overman says, “For Ex. 3:6 as proof that the patriarchs were still living, see Philo, Abraham 50-55” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., augmented, 2007, on Mt. 22:31-32).

The challenge of the Pharisees (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 both from Jesus and from the Pharisees as well. And, given their association with the chief priests and upper classes of Jerusalem, we may assume that they, too, were hostile to Jesus. According to Dale C. Allison, Jr., “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” (The Oxford Bible Commentary, 2001, p. 873, on Mt. 22:15-22). According to Elwyn E. Tilden and Bruce M. Metzger, “The idea here is that those who are related to God in faith have life even though physically dead; resurrection is the divine act by which they will achieve the fullness of life intended in creation and lost through sin and death” (NOAB, 2^nd ed., 1994, on Mt. 22:29).

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

deanworden@comcast.net