The Most Controversial Verse in the Bible

Part 1, Exodus in the Plural

A few months ago our Bible class at church was finishing up a study of the Old Testament book of Amos. Amos, you may know, is beloved by social justice warriors for stirring lines like these: 

Let justice run down like water,
And righteousness like a mighty stream!

In Amos' indictments of Israel, along with Judah, he consistently attempts to confront Israel's sense of specialness, to undermine Israel's self-satisfied moral smugness in relation to the nations.

For example, at the start of the book, Amos blasts Israel's pagan neighbors, calling down judgment upon Israel's enemies, nations like Moab, Edom, and the Ammonites. As this is happening, you can imagine the Israelites cheering Amos on. Go, go, go! But then, suddenly, Amos turns to point a finger directly at Judah and Israel. That Amos includes Israel in this Hall of Fame of villains is a surprising and unexpected turn:

I will not relent from punishing Israel
for three crimes, even four,
because they sell a righteous person for silver
and a needy person for a pair of sandals.
They trample the heads of the poor
on the dust of the ground
and obstruct the path of the needy.
A man and his father have sexual relations
with the same girl,
profaning my holy name.
They stretch out beside every altar
on garments taken as collateral,
and in the house of their God
they drink wine obtained through fines.

But the most provocative moment in Amos' attempt to undermine Israel's felt sense of specialness in relation to the pagan nations surrounding her comes from the final chapter of the book. In our Bible class at church I described Amos 9:7 as "the most controversial verse in the Bible": 

Israelites, are you not like the Cushites to me?
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Didn’t I bring Israel from the land of Egypt,
the Philistines from Caphtor,
and the Arameans from Kir?

To be sure, calling Amos 9:7 "the most controversial verse in the Bible" is a bit of a hyperbole. But I hope in this short series to explore the shocking provocation and controversial implications of Amos 9:7. To do that, let's wrap our heads around what is so surprising and startling in Amos 9:7.

Let's back up and ask the question: What made Israel feel so special? Answer: They were God's chosen people. Among all the nations, God had chosen them. And the defining event in this choosing was the Exodus. In the Exodus experience Israel stepped into history as a nation.   

In short, the Exodus is what made Israel Israel, what made them distinct and special. Consequently, the provocation of Amos 9:7 is its attempt to to relativize, undermine, and marginalize Israel's specialness by relativizing, undermining, and marginalizing the Exodus. 

Let's see how Amos does this.

To start, God, through Amos, asks Israel a question: "Israelites, are you not like the Cushites to me?"

The obvious answer is, "Of course not! We, the children of Israel, are not like the Cushies. We are Israel, the chosen people."

But Amos' question is a set up. Having tricked Israel into her initial answer, Amos leads them further into the trap with a follow-up question:

Did I not bring Israel from the land of Egypt?

And the answer is, "Of course! The Exodus is what made us God's chosen people."

And at this moment--Israel re-convinced of her specialness in light of the Exodus--Amos springs his trap:

...and the Philistines from Caphtor,
and the Arameans from Kir?

What we have here, in the words of  Walter Brueggemann, is "Exodus in the plural." Amos suggests that Israel's Exodus wasn't so special after all. Apparently, God performed an exodus for both the Philistines and the Arameans. What Israel thought made them unique and distinctive is something God had done for others. There wasn't one Exodus, but many. Exodus in the plural.

The implication of this news is deeply destabilizing. We can see why Amos dared to say or imagine such a thing. Amos goes at the source of Israel's self-identity, the foundation of her specialness, and attempts a denotation. The Exodus, Amos declares, isn't quite so special. This is something God has done for others. 

And not just for others, but for Israel's enemies! Amos 9:7 destabilizes and disrupts how Israel conceives of God's saving and liberating actions in the world and within history. That God had saved and emancipated Israel's enemies, that God was their Exodus God as well, has to come as a moral and theological shock. Perhaps as the most shocking suggestion in the whole of the Old Testament.