Amos 2:9-11

Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks.

Sin as ingratitude

These verses form a graphic resume of the great benefits which God had bestowed on His people. Amos was master of all arts by which a nation might be roused to penitence. Hence the two pictures of man’s sin (verses 6-8) and God’s goodness are set side by side as a means of awakening the slumbering conscience of the nation, and winning them back again to the service of their almighty and changeless Friend. Only the most hardened hearts can resist the appeal which Divine mercy makes! How great the sin of Israel. It blinded them to the mercies of heaven, made them cling to vices which God had raised them up to subdue, and forget the truth and holiness which were to be exemplified in their lives. The mercies are summed up under three heads.

I. The victories which made them masters of their inheritance. “Yet destroyed I the Amorite” (verse 9). The Amorites, strongest of all Canaanite nations, are taken as the representatives of all. The greatness of the victories is measured here--

(1) By the might of the enemies. The two noblest trees of Palestine represent the prowess of the foe: “Whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks.” The Anakim were of this race, combining what are not always united, vast stature and gigantic strength. The terror of the spies (Numbers 13:1.) is the best witness to the power of these mighty foemen. These enemies are a type of all foes whom God subdues before His people. Passion and pride are the Anakim whom He subdues before us. Alone we were powerless, dismayed by thoughts of the encounter; yet God girded Himself as a mighty man of war, and won for us the victory.

(2) The victory is measured by the completeness of the deliverance. “ Yet destroyed I his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.” The fruit might have been borne by the breeze to some spot where it would grow again, the root, left in the earth, might have put forth new branches. Both were destroyed. Our own experience has its parallel here. God not only subdues our foes, but lays them low at our feet, where they need never rise again to harass and annoy us: rooting out the seeds of bitterness. What a claim on our devotion!

II. Deliverances which opened the way for this career of conquest. “I brought you up from the land of Egypt” (verse 10). Nothing seemed more improbable than that they should escape from their captivity. All religious life begins with such proofs of God’s power and mercy.

III. God’s mercy also provided spiritual blessings (verse 11). The Nazarites and prophets were men who withered for truth and purity. The prophet taught by his words, the Nazarite by his life. Representatives of God, they walked among His people to bind all hearts to Himself. They were to preserve the nation from the sins which had brought ruin on the old inhabitants of Canaan, to keep alive that truth and purity which secured to them the possession of their land. How rich the mercy of God! The Amorite subdued, that the people might inherit their land; the yoke of Egypt broken, that they might go up and possess their inheritance; spiritual guides raised up to keep the people from the sin, which would spoil them of their new-found treasure. Such is God’s dealing with all His people. Their path is strewn with tokens of His guardian grace. He is preparing them for a great future. Application--God’s appeal, “Is it not even thus?” (verse 11) sets the sin of Israel before us in all its baseness. The mercies were so evident that none could doubt or deny them. All sin in God’s people is base ingratitude. Remember the gifts of heaven when tempted to wander. (J. Telford, B. A.)