But I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was as the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; but I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.
God has just listed Israel's sins against the poor. Then He turns the argument around and points to Himself: Israel owed its very address in the land to a victory it never won.
The Amorite blocked Israel's road into the land and paid for it. A reference work fills in the history behind the verse:
When Israel came near the promised land, the Amorites were in the east. They refused to let Israel pass. But they were beaten, their cities fell, and their people were killed, along with Sihon their king. Some must have escaped, for we read of them later. One of the disputes the Lord had with Israel was over worshipping their gods.
That last line carries a sting: Israel later bowed to the gods of the people God had cleared out of their way.
The two trees are chosen for what everyone knew about them. The Hebrew words behind "oaks" all come from a root carrying a plain idea:
Four Hebrew words are translated this way. They all seem to come from the same root, meaning "strong, hardy," and they most often refer to the oak, which lives to a great age… The oak is a symbol of strength, and it gives shade from the heat of the sun.
So the enemy stood like the best timber in the land: tall, old, hard to move. God treats him as a tree, then takes the fruit off the top and the roots from underneath.
One writer describes what happened when Israel met Sihon and Og. Watch what he says about Israel's own losses:
Israel had won its war against Sihon the Amorite king, and against Og, king of Bashan, one of the giants. Neither could stand against them. It had been a war of extermination. Every man, woman and child was cut off. As far as we read, not one Israelite was wounded… Og came from the Rephaim, an ancient and very powerful race. He found that his fortified cities, with their high walls, gates and bars, gave him no protection against the invading army.
God did not clear the land on a whim. The Amorite here stands for all the nations of Canaan, and God waited until their evil was past bearing:
Every landlord has a perfect right to evict bad tenants. The nations of Canaan had not only failed to pay their rent, as we say. They had damaged and defiled the property so badly that God could no longer put up with them. So He was going to drive them out, no matter who the new tenants were… The wickedness of the Amorites had reached its highest point. Nothing remained but for judgement to take its course.
None of the credit fell to Israel, and God said so:
God told Abraham that his descendants must go down and live in Egypt for a long time, because the sin of the Amorites had not yet reached its full measure. And this happened. God made plain to Israel why these nations were judged: "Not for your righteousness, or for the uprightness of your heart, but for the wickedness of these nations, the Lord drives them out before you," Deut. 9:5.
The verse is not history for its own sake. God sets it beside the sins He has just listed, and the contrast does the work:
Last of all (verses 6-8) we come to Israel's sins. There seem to be four kinds of wickedness here: hard selfishness; grinding the poor out of greed; immorality that profanes God's name; and idolatrous revelry. To shame them, the prophet sets out the gracious and faithful care of God, both in the land and, before that, in Egypt (verses 9, 10). He also sets out God's choice of their sons to be prophets and Nazirites. And what had they done?
And the memory was meant to shape how they treated the weak among them — the very people they were now crushing:
The same power destroyed the Amorite, the Canaanite, and the rest who lived in the promised land. Israel was bound to remember that all this was of His grace. He required that same grace, in due measure, from those who prospered, on behalf of their poor brothers.
- Cause — The Amorite fell for his own sin. It had ripened until God would bear it no longer. Israel's own record had nothing to do with it.
- Gift — The land came to Israel as grace; Deuteronomy 9:5 rules out any claim of their own righteousness.
- Power — Giants in fortified cities could not stand. God felled the tallest timber in the land, not Israel's army.
- Completeness — Fruit above, root below: God left nothing. Israel could not point to one wound of their own that paid for it.
- Result — Remembered grace should shame sin and soften the strong toward the poor. Israel forgot, and had no answer when God listed its crimes.
And I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years in the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.
Amos has just listed Israel's crimes. Now the Lord answers with a record of His own: He brought them out of Egypt, He led them forty years, and He gave them the land of the Amorite.
The verse is not a history lesson for its own sake. One writer explains why God recalls His own kindness here:
The prophet sets before them the gracious and faithful care of God, both in the land and before that in Egypt, to shame them. … Israel had failed as a nation before God. The righteousness that punished the surrounding nations would certainly not spare a more privileged people who bore His name.
Notice who acts in this verse. Israel never acts. God brings up, God leads, God gives the land. One commentator lists the same acts, then says what Israel's sins did to God's heart:
Yet God had brought them up out of Egypt. He had destroyed their enemies to give them their lands. He had given them the signs of a special relationship with Himself… Their sins crushed the heart of God, so to speak, and His judgment would overtake them.
The Amorites were a real people, and Israel met them on the way to the land:
When Israel came near the promised land, the Amorites were in the east, and they refused to let Israel pass. But they were defeated, their cities were taken, and the people were killed, along with Sihon their king… Some must have escaped, because we read of them later. One of the disputes the LORD had with Israel was for worshipping their gods.
That last detail sharpens the whole verse. The nation whose land God handed over became the nation whose idols Israel later copied.
One writer sets God's gifts beside Israel's response:
Then the Lord reminds them of all His mercies and loving kindness in the past. He destroyed the Amorite. He led them through the wilderness to take the land… Despite all these many mercies they continued in their evil ways, grinding down the poor, defying God and His law, and living in moral corruption.
There is a puzzle in the wording. God says you came out of Egypt, yet He is speaking to the people of Amos's own day:
Again, the LORD says to His erring people in Amos 2:10: "Also it was I who brought you up out of the land of Egypt and led you forty years in the wilderness." In fact the people He was speaking to had never been in Egypt or the wilderness. They lived hundreds of years after the Exodus. Yet God speaks of them as sharing in that wonderful deliverance.
His answer is belonging. Birth into the nation gave them a share in the nation's history. The same writer applies this to Christians at Corinth:
The "fathers" of Isaiah's day, and the Israelites Amos spoke to, are described as the people God rescued from Egypt. By their birth as Israelites they had become part of the people God favoured in this way. In the same way, Scripture describes the Christians at Corinth as baptized by the Spirit. Through their reception of the gospel the Spirit of God lived in them, so they had become part of that wonderful living body, the body of Christ.
- Brought up. The list starts with the rescue from Egypt. Israel never acts in it: God brings up, God leads, God gives the land.
- Led. Forty years in the wilderness are counted as care, not punishment, in this recital of "the gracious and faithful care of God both in the land and before it in Egypt."
- Given. God destroyed the Amorites to give Israel their land. Later Israel worshipped the gods of that very people.
- Counted in. The "you" of this verse reaches people born centuries later. Birth into the nation meant a share in the rescue that made the nation.
- Called to account. The list of mercies becomes the charge. The righteousness that judged the surrounding nations would not spare a more privileged people who bore His name.