Happily Ever After

It is no secret I love movies. The truth is, I love good movies. I hate bad movies. The secret to a good movie is a well written story. When all of the plot elements are developed properly, the story grips the viewer and leaves an impression. You become emotionally invested in the characters. You want to see the hero succeed and the villain defeated.

But do you know what I really hate? I hate a movie that has potential for being great but is actually terrible. You can mess up a lot of things in a movie, book, or TV series, but if you mess up the ending, the whole movie is terrible. I hate a movie with a bad ending. A movie has a bad ending when the story brings awareness to a conflict and never resolves it.

There are six elements to the plot of any story:

Exposition - This is the opening scenes. It establishes the characters, setting, and what is normal in the lives of the characters.

Inciting incident: This is that first moment that disrupts the status quo. It thrusts the character(s) into a challenging situation.

Rising action: The series of events that escalate the tension. This is the largest part of the story. The reader/viewer is becoming familiar with what is at stake.

Dilemma: This is the moment where a character must make a choice. He/she must take decisive action.

Climax: The greatest point of tension is here. This is the moment where the reader/writer gets to see the outcome of the decision the character made.

Resolution: The moment where victory is won and there is re-establishment of normalcy, but it is a new normal.

The resolution of a story is where all the conflicts of the story get resolved. There is deescalation and things return in some sense to what they were before the inciting incident. But the new normal is not the same as the old normal. If it was, there would be no point to the conflict. This is where our passage today lies.

The book of Amos is filled with prophecy announcing judgment on Israel for the sins they committed against God. In fact, that is much of what prophetic literature is. It can be difficult to read about judgment and wonder where all the hope is, but if we look carefully, we will see how all the prophets, including Amos, announce the coming judgment, but also offer hope.

Amos 9:11–15 NASB95

“In that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David, And wall up its breaches; I will also raise up its ruins And rebuild it as in the days of old; That they may possess the remnant of Edom And all the nations who are called by My name,” Declares the Lord who does this. “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “When the plowman will overtake the reaper And the treader of grapes him who sows seed; When the mountains will drip sweet wine And all the hills will be dissolved. “Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel, And they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them; They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, And make gardens and eat their fruit. “I will also plant them on their land, And they will not again be rooted out from their land Which I have given them,” Says the Lord your God.

The Bible is unlike any other book on earth. What we have is a collection of God’s revelation of Himself to His people over a period of thousands of years, and here we get a glimpse of the end of God’s story. Here we see a snapshot of God’s happily ever after.

God’s Happily Ever After Joins Israel and People from all over the world

When God has concluded carrying out justice, in that day, he will raise up the fallen booth of David. Some translations may use tabernacle or house, and the idea here is a restoration of David’s kingdom. David’s kingdom has been broken since the death of Solomon and the nation divided into two kingdoms. When God brings Israel back together in the end of His story, Israel will be united under a single ruler who is from the line of David. This is a connection to God’s covenant with David in 2 Sam 7, where God promised David would have a descendant on the throne forever. Scripture testifies that the descendant God had in mind was none other than His own Son, Jesus Christ.

James understood this as he cited verses eleven and twelve at the Jerusalem council in Acts 15.

This is fulfilled in one manner in the sense that Jesus is the rightful heir to David’s throne and already rules at the right hand of the Father, but scripture also testifies that Jesus will return to the earth and establish His kingdom in Jerusalem where it will remain for 1,000 years.

Matthew 24:29–31 NASB95

“But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. “And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. “And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Revelation 20:2–7 NASB95

And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time. Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years. When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison,

When Amos 9:11-12 comes to pass in totality, Jesus will be seated on the throne of David.

A total restoration is in view. For the people in Amos’ day, Israel was about to be ransacked. It would suffer destruction. Here we see that there will be a rebuilding of what was destroyed. This has happened a number of times throughout Israel’s history, but this instance speaks of the final time, which I will show you in a moment.

It is verse twelve where we see something different about who will be brought back, for Israel is not alone. Here we get a glimpse of God’s intent to include people from all over the world in a new kingdom under one ruler. One world government is coming, but it won’t be at the hands of the nations of the earth. It will be the Lord who accomplishes this.

God’s Happily Ever After Includes unprecedented prosperity.

In verse thirteen, we see the familiar agricultural depiction of prosperity. The plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes, the sower of seed. Now in the agricultural world, there is a time of sowing and a time of harvesting. What we see here through agricultural language is that productivity will be so high that these tow jobs will bump up against each other. The land will produce so much that the window between these roles will be nonexistent. This may be hyperbole, but the point here is that the kingdom established by God will be the most plentiful and productive the world has ever seen.

Remember Amos was prophesying drought and famine as part of God’s judgment on the nation, But here we see that God will reverse that and the land will be extremely fertile. Gone are the days of dry, unproductive ground and food shortages. In the Lord’s kingdom, there will always be enough to go around.

God’s Happily Ever After is filled with peace.

In verse fourteen God will restore Israel and they will rebuild their cities. The planting of vineyards and gardens followed by the enjoyment of the products of them marks a time of peace for the nation. Like the time the people lived in when this prophecy was spoken, Israel will be at peace. The people Amos is prophesying to are enjoying a measure of peace from their enemies, but there is no peace among the classes as the rich have made a habit of exploiting the poor. This will not be the case in God’s future kingdom.

The kingdom that is to be is marked by workers working and then enjoying the fruits of that labor without threat from within or without of losing everything they worked so hard for. Right now, we are exposed to a number of environmental factors that pose risk to our food supply every day on top of evil people doing evil things to take what we work hard for. One day that won’t be an issue. The kingdom of God will be filled with peace.

God’s Happily Ever After goes on in perpetuity.

God will bring His people back to the Promised Land and that second phrase, “And they will not again be rooted out from their land,” is one of the greatest hopes of all. The kingdom God will establish will go on in perpetuity, meaning it will never cease. It means forever. Jesus, as the eternally existent God-man, will forever be the king of creation. The prosperity and peace he will bring will go on forever.

The resolution to God’s great story is an eternal existence with Him as ruler through Christ where we enjoy meaningful work and the fruits of that labor in His presence forever and ever. The first normal was Adam and Eve walking with God in the garden of Eden in the cool of the day. The new normal, after all the conflict and tension is over, will be like it was always meant to be. We will know the great price of victory and the everlasting love of an everlasting Father.

Because God has never broken a promise, put your hope in His saving power.

God has never broken a promise. He has been true to His word. The book is finished and it tells the story of God’s plan to save humanity. We can see it from beginning to end. We know how it ends, but we are watching the story unfold right in front of us every single day. God’s happily ever after is already secure but the story is progressing, where our part in this chapter is to call people to believe in His story and its eventual outcome.

A happily ever after with God is available, but not automatic. He does not force anybody to be in His kingdom who doesn’t want to be there. In God’s story, the decisive moment took place before the story ever started. God knew His creation was going to abandon Him. He knew they would need saving, so he planned beforehand that He would send His Son to deliver them. Now, the decisive moment in our story is when we choose what to do about Christ. Do we trust him or do we reject him?

Some of us made the decision years ago. Some of us only recently. There might be some of you that have yet to make the decision about Jesus. Your decisive moment is right now. Are you ready to trust your life to Him? Do you believe the story God has been telling? Are you ready to join His kingdom?

If you are already a part of the kingdom of God, go fishing. Who has God placed in your life to hear His story? Commit to sharing Jesus with that person.