I destroyed the Amorite before them, though he was tall as the cedars and strong as the oaks. I destroyed his fruit above and his roots below (Amos 2:9 NIV).
In this passage God is declaring to Israel what He had done for them. God had dislodged and destroyed the Amorite people from before the Israelites. The Amorites can symbolically represent sin in the life of a Christian. And from this passage we can learn some important lessons in our fight against sin.
First of all we come to learn that God’s help is needed to destroy sin from our lives. We can never do it alone. We have to seek God’s help. Only God can destroy sin.
Again, we have to learn not to be frightened by the power of sin over our lives. Sometimes even after our “born again” experience we find that we are caught in many sinful habits. Often we do not fight against it thinking that the particular sin is very powerful.
Here, we see that the Amorite was as tall as the cedars. Their appearance was very imposing. Sin will always appear imposing when we try to conquer it. Again, they were as strong as the oaks. The bonds of sin are very strong. They cannot be broken easily. Even though sin is imposing and strong, it can be destroyed with God’s help.
We should determine to destroy sin in our lives. And this passage shows how to do it. God destroyed the fruit of the Amorite that was above. Fruit refers to the visible part of our sin. It means that we should STOP acting on sinful thoughts.
Again, the roots below were destroyed. We may stop sinning outwardly; but feast on sinful thoughts in our minds. This sinful thought life represents the roots. So STOP thinking sinful thoughts and sin will be destroyed!
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