Amos 9:11–12 informs us that elect from all the nations will be part of God’s new creation. Within these verses there are two promises made to God’s people.

The first promise has to do with the booth of David—a reference to the kingdom of the Messiah, great David’s greater Son. David had been king of a united Israel, north and south living peacefully together, and so the promise here is that a time will come when that kingdom will be restored. A time when all of God’s people will live under the rule of God’s perfect king. So even as the people from the north have been described as sinners and a sinful kingdom, there is hope that God’s grace will also reach them. There will be people from ethnic national Israel in the perfect new world.

But that is not all, God’s grace also extends a second promise to Edom. That ancient enemy that has been at war with Jacob for centuries, there will be true believers from amongst them. In fact, there will be people from every language and tribe—Philistia, Egypt, Tyre, Ethiopia—God will gather his elect from all the nations.

The gathering of elect from the nations is very exciting news—especially given the warnings of judgment that came in the rest of Amos. You might remember especially the first two chapters where God’s anger circled around Israel, one nation to the next before finally coming down on his own people. Now it seems as if things are going to be reversed. Because a perfect mediator has been found, one who can intercede between us and God, now there will be good news proclaimed. From Jerusalem to Samaria to the ends of the earth—elect from all the nations will be gathered.

Yet notice that these people are all going to be possessed by the restored tent of David. In God’s perfect kingdom all people are equal, possessing the same rights, but the way into the kingdom is always one of submission to the king. There is a narrowness to God’s salvation, only one way to be saved and yet also an inclusiveness, people from all nations.