Chapter 7
Amos sees two visions of devastation coming. First, locust that would devour the land, and all that was green. Famine would come. Amos prays for it to not be so, and God relents. The second time, Amos sees fire, devouring the deep and eating the land. Amos prays again and God relents. The third vision is of a plumb line. Of God's standard. This time, God will not relent. Israel must be "plumb", or God will judge it. God has agreed not to send locusts, and not to send fire - perhaps in this case meaning wildfire that would have razed the land to nothing. These judgments would have been against crops, and starved them out, reduced them to poverty. But God relents on these two matters, and then this verse:
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 never again pass by them; [Amo 7:8 ESV]
It is like a reset, with strict, non-negotiable conditions. The reset takes away the punishments that God had in mind up to that time. He decides, at Amos' prayers, to relent. HOWEVER, the standard goes back to full plumb. There will be no further deviation allowed, this is the LAST TIME that God will relent. If they don't change, essentially immediately, then God says He will never "pass by them" again. They get what they earn from here on.
2022 - Three visions. Locusts, fire, both stayed at Amos' pleading. Plumb line - standard set. Stay plumb or He will never "pass" by them again. No more remitting. From here, what God starts as punishment will go on as punishment.
2025 - And if they fail, it is the house of Jereboam, the northern kingdom, that will fall, and we know that it did fall. They did not stay plumb, they never got close to plumb, any more than we do.
2024 - Note that all these prophecies seem to be for Amos' own time, and are against Israel specifically. There may be principles here as to how God works, but I don't believe we are seeing any unfulfilled prophecy here.
Vs 10 on, a priest to the golden calf in Bethel tells King Jeroboam (I or II? II I think) that Amos is over the top. King insists that Amos leave Israel for Judah and bother them instead.
Amos replies to Amaziah, says Amaziah's wife will be a prostitute, his children die by the sword, and his land will be divided - parceled out - to others. Amaziah will die elsewhere, in a place unclean. Israel into exile.
2024 - Did Amaziah misrepresent what Amos had actually said by tell Jeroboam that he was prophesied to die by the sword? Not sure Amos said exactly that.
Here is what I found:
29 And Jeroboam slept with his fathers, the kings of Israel, and Zechariah his son reigned in his place. [2Ki 14:29 ESV]. Doesn't say he didn't die of the sword, but it surely doesn't look like he did.
Amaziah, priest of Bethel (where one of the calves was worshiped) sends word to Jeroboam II that Amos' words are not to be tolerated.
2023 - We have not seen Amos say the things of which Amaziah the priest accuses him before Jeroboam. Amaziah puts these words in Amos' mouth: 11 For thus Amos has said, "'Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.'" [Amo 7:11 ESV]. Amos may have said this at one time - that is sort of his message in the whole book - but he didn't say it in this chapter.
Amaziah - NOT Jeroboam - orders Amos to go live in Judah and do his prophesying there. Amos replies he who was a shepherd and no prophet at all has been called to Israel. Instead of backing down, he makes this prophecy against Amaziah:
17 Therefore thus says the LORD: "'Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.'" [Amo 7:17 ESV]
This seems to be directed at Amaziah himself, and his family. This would have been a very unwelcome prophecy in light of the King's order that Amos leave Israel entirely (no, it was not that King that ordered this. It was Amaziah, first lying to the King about what Amos had prophesied, then lying to Amos as to what the King wanted done about it. Amaziah is pretty much a liar all around. We ought not be surprised by his fate), and Bethel, the King's sanctuary, in particular. What a horrible prophecy.