God's Plumb Line

“Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet.”  Isaiah 28:17

Some of you might not know that I grew up on a farm.  My dad was one of the hardest workers I have ever known.  He also was one of the Godliest men I have ever known as well.  I know some of my memories may be exaggerated from childhood, and he passed away 30+ years ago.  However, my memories have been affirmed repeatedly as people have come forward through the years to provide testimony of how my father helped and ministered to them through the years.

When one grows up on a farm, you learn many things without “formal training.”  There is a need and you just “learn.”  My father, his friends – farmers and hunting buddies, they taught so much as we worked together through the years.  A term I learned during those days was the saying, “out of kilter.”  These men would have their ways of doing things, there were times I took the “shortcut.”  What does this term mean?  Well, sometimes something was “out of kilter” if you just did not do the task their way.  On other occasions, what I did – by using my shortcuts, just didn’t work.  Therefore, there were many times around the farm things were “out of kilter.”

Recently I was working on a project while Linda was listening to a Kay Arthur Bible study video.  As Kay Arthur taught, she was using the illustration of a plumb line.  It reminded of the times we worked together on the farm.  When something was not straight and true, they would tell me it was “out of plumb.”

During Bible times, a plumb line was a cord with a lead weight used by builders to make sure that walls were constructed straight up and down.  A spiritual plumb line speaks of God’s absolute uprightness.  Kay Arthur would let the truth of the scripture she was teaching drop plumb, and then as she explained how we “lived out” that truth, we tended to go to the left or the right, she would push the line one way or the other to illustrate that modern day America often times is “out of kilter/out of plumb.”  Then she would reiterate the scripture and the necessity of our getting back “in plumb.”

Recently I was studying Deuteronomy 14, emphasizing that EVERY aspect of our lives – including our menu – should be under the LORDSHIP of Christ!  We need to apply God’s plumb line to our lives.  Would we be “out of kilter” if we applied God’s plumb line to our homes/marriages?  How do our business ethics, entertainment choices, political views, personal priorities, and practices measure up to the Biblical plumb line? 

Apply God’s plumb line to our marriages and homes.  How do the ethics of business, politics, and entertainment measure up to God’s plumb line?  We can see how far our country has strayed from the biblical standards of right and wrong.  If we are honest, we will see that in most aspects of American culture, there has been a major shift and we are way out of plumb!

God has established Jesus as our pattern of personal holiness.  We have drifted far from that plumb line of righteousness.  There will come a day when He will judge us out of kilter and unless we change, our eternity could be affected.  We must get back to God’s Word to be plumb.  If not, God will surely bring judgment upon our crooked walls.

Pray today that God will forgive us for being out of plumb.  Thank Him for His mercy and grace toward us as we come back to the straight and narrow.