The Book of Zephaniah Study No.4
4. PROMISES TO ISRAEL AND HER SPIRITUAL OFFSPRING (3:9-20)
Introduction
Right through the whole Bible we see clearly that God has always had a faithful remnant in both Israel and within Christendom. In the last days it will be the same for Israel and for Christendom. Due to replacement theology, which is growing in leaps and bounds within wider Christendom today, many are saying and their leaders teaching that the Christian Church has replaced Israel and now the Church is seen as “Spiritual Israel” or “The New Israel,” both terms not used in the Bible. God’s Word is also clear that this faithful remnant are not two separate people groups but those who are saved by faith in both Israel and within wider Christendom. Gentile New Covenant believers have been spiritually grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel and together with the faithful Jewish New Covenant believers have been made one new man in Messiah (Ephesians 2:11-22).
This remnant of Jewish and Gentile believers have had the former barrier between Jews and Gentiles broken down, however, this faithful Jewish and Gentile remnant have not replaced Israel as a nation, but are together still seen as part of the Commonwealth of Israel and the Gentile New Covenant believers are inheritors of the promises made to Abraham and to Israel (Romans Chapter 4). God has always had a faithful remnant in Israel in the Old Testament. The apostles at Jerusalem saw from the prophet Amos that God’s intention was always to spiritually graft believing Gentiles into Israel and not to replace Israel (Amos 9:11-12) (Acts 15:16-18). Rabbi the apostle Paul also affirmed this in his letter to the assemblies at Rome (Romans 11:17-18).
Pentecost was the spiritual rebirth of Israel, the former rain of the Spirit foretold in the prophets but a partial spiritual restoration that opened the way for Gentiles to be spiritually grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel as God had ordained. At the end of this age Israel as a nation will be fully restored spiritually and nationally. Pentecost will be repeated for Israel. This will be the latter rain of the Spirit which will also see many Gentiles come to salvation just before the Great and terrible Day of the Lord comes upon the inhabitants of the earth.
1948 saw the physical rebirth of Israel as a nation but it was a partial national restoration but as yet Israel does not have control over all of the land promised to them by God through Abraham, neither has Israel been spiritually reborn as a nation. We see this described in Ezekiel Chapter 37. We see there restoration to the land of Israel but they are in the land but not spiritually restored (Vss.1-8). Then we see their spiritual restoration after they have already been in the land (Vss. 9-14). Finally we see Israel in the Millennial Messianic Kingdom which will have been restored to Israel (Vss.15-27). These will be the faithful remnant chosen by God’s grace (Romans 11:1-6, 25-29).
Zephaniah’s prophecy not only applies to Israel but by extension, inclusion and through being spiritually grafted into Israel, the Gentiles who believe in Messiah through exercising saving faith in the Jewish Messiah, also inherit the covenant promises made to Abraham and to the Jewish people, Biblically called the Israelites or Israel. Now let’s look at this part of Zephaniah’s prophecy. Its context is the end of the age. Zephaniah was not only prophesying for his own time frame, but also telescoping to the end of this present age, something which was characteristic of all of the Hebrew prophets, the Messiah our Lord Jesus Himself, and the apostles who wrote the New Testament. Let’s look at this…
Exposition Chapter 3:9-20
(Vs.9-11) “Then I will purify the lips of the peoples, that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and serve him shoulder to shoulder. From beyond the rivers of Cush My worshipers, My scattered people, will bring Me offerings. On that day you, Jerusalem, will not be put to shame for all the wrongs you have done to Me, because I will remove from you your arrogant boasters. Never again will you be haughty on My Holy Hill”.
We read in the prophet Malachi what the LORD said through him; “Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and He will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the LORD of hosts. “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. “He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the LORD offerings in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years” (Malachi 3:1-4). This purifying work of God was seen on the day of Pentecost when, what looked like tongues of fire, rested upon the 120, the faithful Jewish remnant. God had filled His living Spiritual Temple with His Shekinah glory and presence, spiritually restoring David’s fallen tabernacle which would also include believing Gentiles spiritually grafted into Israel (Amos 9;11-12) (Acts 16:16-17).
At the end of the age Israel as a nation will be spiritually purified and it will be a remnant that will come forth to rule and to reign in righteousness and justice with the Messiah at Jerusalem (Zechariah 13:8-9; 12:10-13:1). His people will call on His name and serve Him shoulder to shoulder as His redeemed people. This remnant will also include believing gentiles spiritually grafted into Israel. They will together be one flock under one shepherd in the Millennial Messianic Kingdom of God on earth (John 10:16).
The Millennium will be an era in which all languages are pure. The division of languages and cultural and religious differences will be over. The Tower of Babel as it were, will no more be a symbol of human autonomy because the nations existing during the Millennium will serve the one and only true and Triune God. Those Israelites still alive on earth who will have been exiled again after the siege and subjugation of Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:2) will return and come to worship the Lord together and to present to Him offerings appropriate to the salvation they have experienced through the Messiah’s sacrifice for their sins revealed to them at His Second Coming (Zechariah 12:11-14). This will be the remnant chosen by God’s grace! (Romans 9:27).
This day will be a day of great celebration throughout the whole land of Israel, not only for Israel but for those nations that have survived the Day of the LORD. It will be a day of grace for the surviving nations. When the LORD has removed autonomy, haughtiness and wickedness from Israel only the people of God will be left. It will a time when all wrongdoing and all causes of shame will be removed. Indeed in that day “Israel will possess their possession” and “possess the gates of their enemies” that had formerly afflicted them (Obadiah 1:17) (Genesis 22:17). As for the Gentile nations that have survived the Day of the LORD, these will have to go up to Jerusalem year by year to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. This will be mandatory (Zechariah 14:16-19). As for the remnant of Israel they will enjoy their relationship with the Messiah and worship Him in His Holy purified Millennial Temple and there will no longer be the wicked and the profane living in the kingdom of Israel (Zechariah 14:20-21). Once the Messiah our Lord Jesus has returned Matthew tells us that “As the weeds are collected and burned in the fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will weed out of His kingdom every cause of sin and all who practice lawlessness. And they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:40-42). And then Zechariah continues to prophesy…
(Vs.12-13) “But I will leave within you the meek and humble. The remnant of Israel will trust in the name of the Lord. They will do no wrong; they will tell no lies. A deceitful tongue will not be found in their mouths. They will eat and lie down and no one will make them afraid. ”
Today within wider Christendom, believe it or not, many are saying and teaching that what is happening in Israel today is of no prophetic significance because they say that God has finished with the Jews and that the New Israel is the Church, a doctrine spawned by western ‘theologians’ tracing their roots back to Augustine, the ‘father’ of replacement theology, even though we see this replacement ‘theology’ starting to immerge within the Body of Messiah in Rome at the time Paul wrote his epistle to the assembly there.
Many try to apply the promises made to Israel to the Church but they have to ‘twist’ the scriptures to avoid accepting the plain teaching of the prophets concerning the complete spiritual and national restoration of Israel as a nation at the end of this present age. As it has been said, “If God cannot be depended upon to keep His covenant promises to Israel then how can He be depended upon to keep His promises to the Church?” God never reneges of His covenants. They are sealed forever in the blood of Messiah (Psalm 105:8-11) (Psalm 106:45) (Psalm 111:5) (Psalm 89:34). Added to this, the New Everlasting Covenant cut in the blood of the Messiah our Lord Jesus was made with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah, not with a Gentile Church (Jeremiah 31:31-37). Even though God has judged Israel down through the centuries because of their unbelief and especially their rejection of the Messiah our Lord Jesus, He has never rejected His people Israel. God always has a faithful remnant within Israel and even though two thirds of unbelieving Jews will perish at the hands of the beast empire of the Antichrist, God will bring a third of His people Israel through His purifying purposes to inherit the Messianic Millennial Kingdom with its capital in Jerusalem. Those survivors who were exiled into Islamic countries will come home to Israel (Zechariah 13:8-9; 14:1-2) (Jeremiah Chapters 30-31).
The faithful remnant has already been mentioned and they were first introduced in the call to repentance (2:3). A glorious future would await and belong to those who demonstrated humility, trust in the LORD and faithfulness. The “meek and the humble” (Vs. 12) would not only be those who would survive the Babylonian holocaust, but all those who had opened their eyes to the stark reality of man’s collision course with God. He not only would open the spiritual eyes of the faithful remnant within Israel in the last days as prophesied in the prophets, but also give spiritual sight to the future remnant which would include Gentile believers.
The godly in every age are assured that God looks for those who do not depend on themselves or their own strength and ability, but realise that those who are “poor in spirit”, who know their spiritual poverty, and are acutely aware of it, and of their inability to please God by works or personal merit, to them belongs the Kingdom of God (Matthew 5:3), not only to enjoy the life in the Messianic Millennial age to come, but to enjoy life for all of eternity forever and ever in the final and eternal state in the New Jerusalem. Those who do not depend upon themselves, or upon what they think or offer to God by way of personal merit, but who express humility show their fear or reverence for the LORD and who by faith shelter under the atoning blood of Messiah, will be spared on that day when God unleashes His wrath on a Messiah hating, Messiah rejecting world (Romans 5:9).
Those who are rebellious and are wicked do not respond to God’s call to have wisdom from Him was true for the people of Israel in the time of Zephaniah (3: 2, 7). It is the same today within the nation of Israel and within wider Christendom. In contrast the righteous living by faith in Messiah begins with trust in the LORD and a commitment of all their ways to Him and He directs their path. As it is written; “Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight“ (Proverbs 3:5-6). The faithful remnant of Israel in the Messianic Kingdom to come will do no wrong, neither will lies and deceit be found in their mouths and they will live securely as they eat and lie down with no one to make them afraid anymore. Today at present this is not the state of the people of Israel, however, after God has purified His people and the surviving remnant have encountered their risen Messiah who was crucified for them, Israel will be completely restored spiritually and nationally, an obedient people that become the chief nation in the whole world (Zechariah 12:10-13:1) (Ezekiel Chapter 37) (Isaiah 2:1-5) (Micah 4:1-5) (Deuteronomy 28:13).
The practical working out of godly wisdom is the expression of faithfulness to the LORD. Faithfulness is not only an attitude but also an expression of what one says and does. As the apostle James wrote; “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). The essence of Godliness in the Old Testament is found in Psalms 15:2-5; 24:3-6; Micah 6:8. It is the same as in the New Testament and obligatory on all who belong to the LORD through faith in the Messiah our Lord Jesus. Zephaniah was celebrating the joy of redemption for Israel as a nation but also for the faithful remnant in the city of Jerusalem. Safety and security will have at last come for the nation of Israel in the Millennial Messianic Kingdom. The celebration of this redemption continues…
(Vs.14-15) “Sing, Daughter Zion; shout aloud, Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, Daughter Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away your punishment; He has turned back your enemy. The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm.”
Notice that Israel will “sing” will “shout aloud” will “be glad” and will “rejoice will all of their heart.” Why? Because the past troubles are over, the nation has inherited experientially the redemption found only in the Messiah our Lord Jesus through His redeeming atoning blood (Ephesians 1:7). They will see that the list of their offences and sins and rebellion were nailed to the cross of the Messiah destroying the power of Satan forever and will see the nail marks in the Messiah’s hands and feet, they will recognise that He was the one spoken of by Moses in the Torah and by the prophets of Israel and by the other books in the Old Testament scriptures. The King of Israel the Messiah our Lord Jesus will dwell with His people as He rules and reigns on David’s throne at Jerusalem (Jeremiah 30:8-10, 18-22) (Ezekiel 37:21-28) (Genesis 49:10) (Isaiah 9:6-7) (Luke 1:32-33) (Isaiah 16:5) (Isaiah 24:23) (Jeremiah 23:5-6).
At present the Messiah our Lord Jesus in Heaven is reigning over the whole earth upholding all things by His powerful Word (Hebrews 1:3). For the faithful Body of Messiah we now reign with Him in heavenly places. It is God “who made us alive with Messiah even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace we have been saved! And God raised us up with Messiah and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might display the surpassing riches of His grace, demonstrated by His kindness to us in the Messiah Jesus” (Ephesians 2:5-7). However, for Israel as a nation to be restored, He is yet to physically reign of David’s throne which He will do after His return. The Kingdom of God is now a spiritual reality in us who believe, however, it is not yet in the sense of it being established as an earthly kingdom over which the Messiah is the King of Israel. In that day every Jew still living on earth will be saved.
As Rabbi the apostle Paul writes; “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.” “This is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins… for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:25-27, 29).
In that day the redeemed in Israel will exult the LORD as their redeemer and rejoice in the great power of their king who has put all of their enemies under His feet and that through the person of His one and only begotten eternal Son the Messiah our Lord Jesus (Ephesians 1:17-22). They will also rejoice in God’s kingship and as the one who has the absolute right and supreme authority to judge the nations, Judah and Jerusalem. They will rejoice because God their king is in their midst in the person of Messiah our Lord Jesus. In that day Zephaniah is telling us that all adversity, all oppression, all afflictions, all persecution, all adversity, all evil and all of their enemies will have been removed. The Messiah will be reigning in Righteousness and with justice which are the foundation of God’s throne out from which flow loving devotion and faithfulness that go before Him (Psalm 89:14). The Messianic Millennial Kingdom of God on earth is the harbinger or foreshadow of the new heaven and earth to come after the close of the Millennium (Isaiah 65:47-25) (Revelation Chapters 21 and 22).
The daughter of Zion (Vs.14) is a reference to the inhabitants of Jerusalem (Micah 4:10, 13) (Zechariah 9:9). It also applies to all of God’s covenant people in general both Jews and Gentiles as one new man in the Messiah our Lord Jesus (Isaiah 52:2; 62:11) (Zechariah 2:10). The song of the redeemed of all of the ages is not a quiet musing but a jubilant shouting of praise and victory. It is once again the song of Moses! The same LORD who removes pride and wickedness (3:11b) will also remove the punishment of the people. The LORD will also have dealt with their enemies as the source of their troubles. He will reveal Himself as their one and only Triune God, as king over Israel, who voluntarily comes to live in the midst of His people (Ezekiel 37:27) (Revelation 21:3, 22). He is the Emmanuel, God with us, God for us and God in us. With His presence there is no need to be afraid. In the Messianic Kingdom of God this will be a reality for the remnant of Israel under the reign of the Messiah our Lord Jesus and for the faithful Body of Messiah co-reigning with Him on earth in their resurrected glorified indestructible immortal bodies. In that day there will be one shepherd and one flock (John 10:16) (Ezekiel 37:15-27).
(Vs.16-17) “On that day they will say to Jerusalem, “Do not fear, Zion; do not let your hands hang limp. The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in His love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”
The song of the redeemed is rephrased as a proclamation. God quietly rejoices over His people and that His plans for them have been successful. The ultimate assurance all of us have as His redeemed people lies in the fact that God is quietly rejoicing because He always knows that His plans work out and that He can do all things and that no purpose of His can be thwarted (Job 42:2). He knows the beginning from the end and inhabits eternity where time as we know it down here on earth does not exist up there and that whatever He decrees happens.
As He says through the prophet Isaiah; “Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me. I declare the end from the beginning, and ancient times from what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish.’ I summon a bird of prey from the east, a man for My purpose from a far-off land. Truly I have spoken, and truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, and I will surely do it” (Isaiah 41:9-11). This is something that brings us a deep and abiding sense of security in this age and for the age to come!
Notice the LORD says to Israel; “Do not let your hands hang limp (Vs.16).” God was exhorting His people not to become incapacitated by fear. See (Nehemiah 6:9) (Jeremiah 6:24; 50:43) (Ezekiel 21:7). They need not fear because the LORD would be with them, an encouraging word for the faithful remnant in Judah who was seeking the LORD with humility and trust. He was the mighty warrior who could save His people and the one who had it in His heart to deliver them if only they would completely trust Him to do it. Those who would receive His salvation would be the humble and needy and who knew their spiritual poverty and in need of His grace. He would rejoice over them and would quiet His people with His love. This has never been the experience of Israel as a nation even though there was a time of prosperity under King Solomon, but this did not last. God is bringing Israel to the point where they will be in such a dire situation that if He does not intervene they will cease to be a nation. However, Israel will never cease to be a people before the LORD and when they face their darkest hour, in the time of Jacob’s Trouble, they will be saved out of it by the Messiah who will return and destroy all opposition and set up His Messianic rule from Jerusalem (Jeremiah 30:1-10). And then we see that the glorious King Himself will preserve a people in Israel for Himself.
(Vs.18-20) “I will remove from you all who mourn over the loss of your appointed festivals, which is a burden and reproach for you. At that time I will deal with all who oppressed you. I will rescue the lame; I will gather the exiles. I will give them praise and honour in every land where they have suffered shame. At that time I will gather you; at that time I will bring you home. I will give you honour and praise among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your very eyes,”
Verse 18 can be rendered “I will gather you who mourn for the appointed feasts and the loss of these feats will be a burden to you because of the reproach of those nations to which you have been exiled.” God will collect His people the Israelites who have been exiled and dispersed in their captivities which we see in 722BC when the Northern Kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians and were exiled. Then in 586BC we see the southern kingdom of Judah conquered by the Babylonians, the temple destroyed and the people by and large exiled to Babylon, which happened after the prophesies of Zephaniah. Then we see Judah conquered by the Romans in 70AD and another exile occurred. Finally in 135 AD the final Jewish rebellion led by Bar Kokhba was put down by the Romans, and the surviving Jews for the most part, were exiled from Jerusalem and the city levelled by Hadrian.
After almost 2,000 years of exile in one day Israel was reborn as a nation in 1948 which was prophesied by Isaiah the prophet (Isaiah 66:7-9). Another exile is to come which the prophet Zechariah mentions will happen at the end of this age and is fast approaching as we see the nations across the globe now turning against Israel (Zechariah 14:2). Israel is being abandoned even by her allies and the United States is leading the abandonment of God’s people Israel which is God’s Real Estate. However, the Messiah our Lord Jesus will return and deliver Israel! (Zechariah 14:1-5).
The exiles will return from the nations. Isaiah writes; “Then it will happen on that day that the LORD Will again recover the second time with His hand The remnant of His people, who will remain, From Assyria (most parts of modern-day Iraq as well as parts of Iran, Kuwait, Syria, and Turkey), Egypt, Pathros (Upper Egypt), Cush (lies partly in Egypt and partly in the Republic of Sudan). Elam (Iran), Shinar (Southern Iraq), Hamath (Syria), And from the islands of the sea (other nations not specifically named). And He will lift up a standard for the nations And assemble the banished ones of Israel, And will gather the dispersed of Judah From the four corners of the earth” (Isaiah 11:11-12). It is interesting that the specific nations mentioned are all Islamic nations today!
Today in 2024 the Jews are coming back to Israel but many are still remaining in the nations. However, after the nations start to persecute the Jewish people that is happening now on a global scale, after the final invasion of Israel and the subjugation of Israel, there will be another exile of Jews from Jerusalem. After the Messiah has returned to the Mount of Olives and destroyed all opposition He will establish his Messianic reign and then all the exiled Jews still living in every nation where they were scattered, will come home. To this the Hebrew prophets testify in scripture. The end theme of Zephaniah is that at the very end of the age the LORD will deal decisively with the nations that have oppressed Israel and rescue those who are lame, disadvantaged because they are Jews, those who are in need of spiritual restoration and a national identity free from persecution. The scattered remnant will be gathered again from all of the nations and God will once again give them praise and honour in every land where they were put to shame. In fact the nations will be subject to the Jews (I prefer to call them the Israelites, or the Israel of God, as this is the Biblical preference for the name of God’s redeemed people).
In Zechariah Chapter 8 in the whole chapter we see the complete spiritual and national restoration of Israel. A portion of the text reads; “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘It will yet be that peoples will come, even the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, “Let us go at once to entreat the favour of the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts; I will also go.” So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favour of the LORD.’ Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you” (Zechariah 8:18-23). At the time of the Jews return not only will the LORD give then honour and praise from the nations to which they had been exiled, but also from the nations of the whole world that have survived the Second Coming of Messiah. These nations before their very eyes will see the LORD restore the fortunes of Israel! In that day Israel will live under the reign of the Messiah and His reign will be glorious and Israel as a nation will be the head and not the tail!
