Commentary on Amos 7:7-8 (with 7:9)

[My Freemasonry]

​

I've been spending the year reading the Bible, from cover to cover. My wife and I started reading the Bible when our church started a group to read the Bible in a year. It's been a fantastic ride and has given me a better perspective on my own Volume of Sacred Law.

Because of this desire to understand more, I have been reading blogs and listening to podcasts on the Bible. One of my favorite podcasts is "Sermon Brainwave" podcast made in conjunction with Working Preacher. It is a podcast for pastors by pastors that is produced and hosted by several faculty members from Luther Seminary, the local Lutheran seminary here. The hosts focus on the readings from Revised Common Lectionary.

Today's RCL readings included a verse that we as Masons are very well acquainted with.

Amos 7:7-8(9)​

Thus he shewed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand.

And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest thou?

And I said, A plumbline.

Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more: And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.

That last bit gets left off in Masonry but I think it's important. There is a commentary on the website, written by Professor Tyler Mayfield, which points to this:

The plumb line functions to keep the wall vertically straight during construction. The plumb line uses lead (Latin for lead is plumbum) at the end of a string to judge how the wall is measuring up. It helps maintain the integrity of the building by providing a vertical reference point.​

I'll admit, when I first heard this particular verse, I assumed that "[t]hen said the Lord, 'Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more'" was a call to calm, like God's use of the rainbow to seal the Noahic covenant. But I, and I'm sure many Masons, are quite incorrect in this understanding.

When we say that He will not pass by this way anymore, we are describing a time when God sought to measure rectitude and was left wanting. The high places and the sanctuaries, having been polluted, are now fair game to war and desolation. Israel stopped measuring itself against the working tool shown to Amos and is left without help. The meaning is very different and we should understand it as such.

I think this is an important lesson for us, especially as Fellowcrafts. We are in constant need to measure ourselves against what we are doing in our life. The Fellowcraft, being the day laborer, is actively setting the stones and measuring his life according to his set of working tools. The Fellowcraft stage is our active life, our time to put in the most work. We should never turn away from the plumb, like to and about those that Amos is prophesying. It is our constant care.

In lodge, our Junior Warden stands, symbolically, as the representation of morality, of rectitude of life. It is his duty to submit Masonic charges when needed and ensures that the brothers act within the bounds of proper action when not in lodge. He is the first officer elected yet remains on the same level as his brethren, at least in lodges that use risers to differentiate. We all carry the plumb with us no matter where we go because it is always at our level.

I think the closing charge, something not often read in lodges here in Minnesota, should be given by the Junior Warden. It defines our purpose and is probably the greatest lecture ever written to describe why we don our aprons every month. And since the Junior Warden is placed symbolically at the same level as the rest of his brethren, it makes sense that he, like all the brethren on the sidelines, carries the tool with which all Masons should look to use first. Let's use the plumb often to ensure that He will continue to pass by us and remain with us in this great work called Freemasonry.

I'd like to leave all of you with the end of the closing charge:

Finally, brethren, be ye all of one mind; live in peace, and may the God of love and peace delight to dwell with and bless you!​

What do you think? Leave a comment below.

Continue reading...

 

[dfreybur]

I find it interesting that some jurisdictions use the quote about faith, hope and charity while other jurisdictions use the quote about the plumb line in their degrees.

I see the plumb line with the usual symbolic meaning of moral rectitude as explained with the working tool. An example is set in the next degree and we are to emulate that integrity. The working tool also hints at the Masonic attitude towards freedom - Who we walk uprightly in the company of can suggest who we might not be willing to kneel down before. Thus we are loved by free men and despised by tyrants and theocrats.

I also see the plumb in the form of what it is used to create, walls. Walls isolate in more than one way. The Great Wall of China was made as much to keep their civilization within its due bounds to keep it focused as it was to keep the barbarians out. Pour water onto a plate and it flows away - wild. Pour water into a glass and its level goes up - domesticated. This applies in tiling our meetings as well. By separating from the mundane world our works can rise higher.

Wrapping these up they are a veiled message to the side-liners even more than to the candidate - You are now set apart from the outside mundane society. We set a higher example among ourselves. We are taught by veiled messages that soak in very slowly as we learn. Be proud of being a member of our family and bow to none.

The ambiguous history of the next part is even more fascinating to me. Does the "pass by" part mean the divine will always be with them or does it mean now that the lesson is in place the divine will no longer need to intervene? It's both. Steadfast persistence appears in the story of the servitude before the exodus, in Job, in our degrees, on the cross and on and on through history and legend old and new. "If you strike me down, Darth, I will become greater than you can know" even in legend so modern we saw the movie in its first run.

This image sets Masonry among all groups that isolate themselves by choice. All such groups tend to be respected by the intellectual, despised by the ignorant.