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Post by LorrB on Aug 17, 2010 13:04:36 GMT 9.5
We have discussed this item in association with other things on several other threads ... so why don't we give it a home of its own.
I must admit I hit a bit of a wall when I look at Amos 7 in total.
mgc asks elsewhere, was the plumb line just put among the people of Israel.
paul has said that it can be a useful tool by which to measure people. (Tried that experiment and can't get out of the way of my own preconceived ideas about people... will work on it).
I thought that it was a plumb line put amidst all peoples... an example by which we would all be measured. Christians might offer Jesus as the exemplar.
I will post the whole text herebelow and see what you make of it.
Might the clue to its interpretation be that we should not separate 'the plumb line' from 'the locusts 'and 'the fire?'
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Post by LorrB on Aug 17, 2010 13:07:14 GMT 9.5
Three Visions of Destruction
1 Thus hath the Lord GOD showed unto me; and, behold, he formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings.
2 And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
3 The LORD repented for this: It shall not be, saith the LORD.
4 Thus hath the Lord GOD showed unto me: and, behold, the Lord GOD called to contend by fire, and it devoured the great deep, and did eat up a part.
5 Then said I, O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.
6 The LORD repented for this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord GOD.
7 Thus he showed me: and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, with a plumbline in his hand.
8 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:
9 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 Jerobo'am with the sword.
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Post by LorrB on Aug 17, 2010 13:30:43 GMT 9.5
OK... just got a mind picture... ask a question and there comes a (possible) answer.
The Tree of Life again..
I saw Malkuth 'spouting' and Kether 'descending' via Daath/Abyss to reach a point on the Middle Pillar where direct communication with God/GA is a possibility... the Plumb Line in this image is the Middle Pillar or Equilibrium. Is God/Kether standing on the fiery wall the same analogy as Moses' God on the burning bush?
We are the grasshoppers ... we exhausted what we 'were fed on' and needed more. (I have a vague suspicion that we may also be the sheep that Tipareth/Jesus the good shepherd feeds and guards).
We can travel far and wide on the ToL, but the road that is straight and narrow is that middle path, the middle way, keeping balance in all that we think or do, the Pillar of Equilibrium.
I am the Way, the Truth and the Life - the Plumb Line.
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Post by LorrB on Aug 17, 2010 14:29:57 GMT 9.5
Might a plumb line run from Z to the PS in R.Arch?
(Z descends. Two columns are apparent, Z -> PS is the third?)
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Post by LorrB on Aug 17, 2010 14:42:45 GMT 9.5
Christianity - Was there 'a plumb line' between the Father and the Prodigal Son?
When the son decided to return 'home' we are told the Father went out on the road to meet him. If you take that story as God and us... the line would be imaged as vertical. If the son left the road he would become 'lost' again.
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Post by mgc on Aug 17, 2010 23:10:10 GMT 9.5
meaning?
it seems to me a question is missing between 6 and 7..
"he showed me" is a response to what?
also, why did he stand upon a wall made (kept straight, i assume) by a p.l.?
what does that mean?
ignore?
i fail to see the link between what the god of israel does / sais and what amos asks..
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Post by paul on Aug 18, 2010 7:30:24 GMT 9.5
I first observed the plumb line in a collection of bee hives in a forest clearing.
The Antient's lodges were also called hives.
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Post by LorrB on Aug 18, 2010 9:07:01 GMT 9.5
And we do have hives on our collars.
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Post by LorrB on Aug 18, 2010 9:12:15 GMT 9.5
I'm just as puzzled as you mgc. I think I will try and decipher what is meant by the 'high places' of Isaac, the 'sanctuary' of Israel, and the 'sword' that is after old Jerabo'am.
If lodges are imaged as beehives, and there are a collection of beehives (in a forest clearing), what/where would be the plumbline in the world family of Freemasonry?
Speaking macroscopically here.
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Post by LorrB on Aug 18, 2010 9:12:54 GMT 9.5
Coach, Henka? Want to dig deep with us on this one?
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Post by paul on Aug 18, 2010 9:14:34 GMT 9.5
The "high places" will be places of sacrifice. The gods tended to arrive on mountain tops.
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Post by paul on Aug 18, 2010 9:15:27 GMT 9.5
>If lodges are imaged as beehives, and there are a collection of beehives (in a forest clearing), what/where would be the plumbline in the world family of Freemasonry?
The same plumb line is available for both.
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Post by LorrB on Aug 18, 2010 10:27:20 GMT 9.5
The Gods could also be fickle... also from Amos
Thus the Lord GOD showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. And he said, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the LORD said to me, "The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them. The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day," says the Lord GOD; "the dead bodies shall be many; in every place they shall be cast out in silence."
and then we find...
"Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them upon their land, and they shall never again be plucked up out of the land which I have given them," says the LORD your God.
All the summer fruits and grapes could account for the beehive theme. www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/amos-rsv.html |
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Post by LorrB on Aug 18, 2010 10:28:56 GMT 9.5
Just history? According to Martin Noth, a scholar of the Hebrew Bible, the narratives of Isaac date back to an older cultural stage than that of the West-Jordanian Jacob. At that era, the Israelite tribes were not yet sedentary. In the course of looking for grazing areas, they had come in contact in southern Palestine with the inhabitants of the settled countryside. The Biblical historian, A. Jopsen, believes in the connection between the Isaac traditions and the North and in support of this theory adduces Amos 7:9 ("the high places of Isaac").
Eerdmans Encyclopedia of Christianity, Isaac, p. 744.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac
SAMARIA
The Promised Land itself was a type of Sanctuary:
"When Israel went forth from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, Judah became His sanctuary, Israel His dominion." (Psalm 114:1-2 RSV)
JUDAH
"Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Sama'ria, the notable men of the first of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come!
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