Zephaniah, who began his prophesy with what is one of most damning judgments in the entire Bible:
Zephaniah 1:2 “I will completely remove all things From the face of the earth,” declares the Lord. 3 “I will remove man and beast; I will remove the birds of the sky And the fish of the sea, And the stumbling blocks along with the wicked; And I will cut off man from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord;
ends his prophesy with the most beautiful picture of God’s love found in the Bible.
Zephaniah 3:14 Sing for joy, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Israel! Rejoice and be jubilant with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! 15 The Lord has taken away His punishments against you, He has turned back your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; You will fear disaster no more. 16 In that day it will be said to Jerusalem: “Do not be afraid, O Zion; Do not let your hands fall limp. 17 “The Lord your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will delight over you with joy, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. 18 “I will gather those who grieve about the appointed feasts— They came from you, O Zion; The reproach of exile is a burden on them. 19 “Behold, I am going to deal at that time With all your oppressors, I will save the lame And gather the outcast, And I will turn their shame into praise and renown In all the earth. 20 “At that time I will bring you in, Even at the time when I gather you together; Indeed, I will give you renown and praise Among all the peoples of the earth, When I restore your fortunes before your eyes,” Says the Lord.
The Lord is now in our midst. As God revealed to Jeremiah and as Peter explained on the day of Pentecost, in the New Covenant the Holy Spirit has been poured out on all who repent of their sins and trust in Christ. Again, the Lord now dwells with His people!
Zephaniah 3:14 Sing for joy, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Israel! Rejoice and be jubilant with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! 15 The Lord has taken away His punishments against you, He has turned back your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; You will fear disaster no more. 16 In that day it will be said to Jerusalem: “Do not be afraid, O Zion; Do not let your hands fall limp.
God has taken away the punishments that we deserve and is now living with us, in our midst. We have no reason to fear. God has done that which was impossible for us to do for ourselves. The wages of sin is death, Romans 6:23, but Christ paid our debt.
Sing for joy… shout in triumph… rejoice and be jubilant with all your heart.
Have you ever been paralyzed by worst-case scenario thinking?
Have you ever been gripped by anxiety?
Have you even gone limp from fear?
Have you ever felt that things were out of control?
As we grow in the knowledge of God, Christ delivers us from fear with joy. Christ, who overcame death on our behalf, is in control.
Although they were afraid and let their anxiety overwhelm them the disciples learned that because Christ was in the boat with them, the storm they feared was irrelevant.
A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Mark 5:35-41
Similarly, Christ is with us, and asks; Why are you so afraid? Christ promises; He will quiet you with His love. Zephaniah 3:17 It is Christ’s joy to save us.
Zephaniah 3:17 “The Lord your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will delight over you with joy, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.
Christ is a victorious warrior. He came, as Promised to Adam and Eve, to destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8. He came to defeat our oldest enemy death. 2 Timothy 1:10, Isaiah 25:8
Why did Jesus leave heaven and endure the cross?
Jesus… for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, scorning its shame. Hebrews 12:2
What is the joy that Christ kept before Him? You are the joy.
You are the prize.
You are the reason that Christ made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Philippians 2:7-8
Christ became a man and endured torture and death so that He could redeem you and present you to His Father. God the Father is inheriting a glorious gift from His Son. And that glorious gift, which the Son paid for within His life, is you. Christ purchased us with His blood, Galatians 3:13, brought us into His family, placed us in community, and is making us an everlasting delight to God the Father.
He will rejoice over you with singing.
The Son left heaven on a mission to redeem us. Satan, though he tried, could not thwart the Son. Satan tried to have Herod murder the new born child. Matthew 2:16 Satan tempted Christ to abandon His mission. Matthew 4:1-11 Satan manipulated the authorities to crucify Christ. Matthew 27 But Christ triumphed as the victorious warrior; our warrior. He saves us. He quiets us with His love. And because of His faithfulness God now delights in us.
God sings with joy when the Son presents us, those saved by Grace, to the Father.
And God invites us to join in and sing with Him. But there was a time when the people could not join in and sing.
Zephaniah 3:18 “I will gather those who grieve about the appointed feasts— They came from you, O Zion; The reproach of exile is a burden on them.
This is a reference to the Day of the Lord, the day when Judah was taken captive by Babylon in 586 B.C. and exiled. The people mourned the loss of the temple and mourned the loss of their feast days.
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? Psalm 137:1-4
The Babylonians demanded that their Judaean slaves sing for them. But because of their captivity their joy had turned to mourning.
But Zephaniah announces that there will be a time when God will gather the exiles and they will return to Judah. And after 70 years in captivity that is just what happened. They were allowed to return to Jerusalem. But that was only a foretaste of the final fulfillment of Zephaniah’s prophesy.
As we have seen, the greater event to which Zephaniah looked forward to was, not just the return of the Jewish people to their homeland, but the return of the nations of the world to their homeland, the Kingdom of God. The personal relationship that Adam and Eve squandered, the Kingdom of God that they lost, is now being gathered and restored through Christ.
The reproach of exile is now gone, not only for Judah but for the people in the entire world.
Can you see why God is singing?
Can you see why God wants you to join with Him in singing the songs of Zion; the songs of salvation?
Zephaniah 3:19 “Behold, I am going to deal at that time With all your oppressors, I will save the lame And gather the outcast, And I will turn their shame into praise and renown In all the earth.
Isaiah had told of a time when the outcasts would be saved; Isaiah 61. And when Christ began His work on earth He read the exact same passage to announce His ministry:
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the captives and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Luke 4:18-19
Since the beginning, mankind has been held captive to the lies of Lucifer.
The two great pillars upon which the kingdom of Satan is erected are ignorance and error… It is one of the arch devices and principal methods of Satan to deceive men into sin: thus he prevailed against our first parents, not as a lion, but as a serpent, acting his enmity under the presence of friendship, and tempting them to evil under the appearance of good… My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Hosea 4:6 Westminster Confession of Faith, p4
But Christ came to proclaim freedom for the captives… that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will. 2 Timothy 2:26
Zephaniah 3:20 “At that time I will bring you in, Even at the time when I gather you together; Indeed, I will give you renown and praise Among all the peoples of the earth, When I restore your fortunes before your eyes,” Says the Lord.
How will we have renown and praise?
Peter explains:
Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God… 1 Peter 2:12
What’s does Peter mean?
Quite naturally the unbelievers, the folks that Peter calls the pagans, follow the teaching and logic of the father of lies, the one who accuses Christians of wrongdoing, Revelation 12:10, Lucifer.
One of the oldest deceptions in Lucifer’s catalogue is convincing people that they are not bad and certainly don’t deserve the wrath of God. Be honest. You know yourself. While we don’t like to admit it, we all know our lies, our devils, our deeds, and our deceptions; things that we tell ourselves to convince ourselves that compared to that other guy, we are not really bad at all.
Like the father of lies, we are accusers. We look at others and in an attempt to deflect our guilt we accuse others. When unbelievers look at Christians and see the Christians living and sinning just like them they conclude that Christianity is hollow and worthless. Peter issues a warning asking:
If Christians are really no different from pagans in their behavior, how can Christianity be true or worthwhile?
Unbelievers think that Christianity is you doing all the righteous things you hate and avoiding all the wicked things you love in order to go to heaven. No, that’s a lost man with religion. A Christian is a person whose heart has been changed; they have new affections. – Paul Washer
Before we were Christians we were chasing after all kinds of experiences and idols, seeking after happiness, fulfillment and peace of mind. But somehow our idols, our friends, our experiences, and our behaviors never could give us the lasting satisfaction that we longed for.
Why?
We were created to do more than just seek fleeting pleasures.
God has set eternity in our hearts. Ecclesiastes 3:11
As St, Augustine explained it:
You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until we find rest in You.
The Apostle Paul puts it like this:
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12:2
In other words stop clinging to those idols that could never satisfy: self, greed, possessions, power, sexual immorality, mind altering drugs, seeking the accolades and approval of others; the pattern of this world. Instead we are to be made new through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit renewing our minds. Our hearts are changed through the process of Sanctification. The Holy Spirit changes our way of thinking and acting.
How will we have renown and praise among all the peoples of the earth?
As the people living in the nations come to God the world will notice.
You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:14-16
Unbelievers, seeing the changes in our lives, the changes in our attitudes, the changes in our actions, and our genuine and lasting joy, will take notice. As they notice these things their accusations against will ring hollow. Some of the unbelievers, longing for forgiveness, longing for freedom from their shame, freedom from the fear and uncertainty of death, longing for meaning, purpose, and security in their lives, will listen when they hear of our relationship with the Savior. They will listen when they learn of our assurance of salvation. And some will see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
The whole process is actually counterintuitive. We rationalize that we can attract unbelievers to the Kingdom of God by becoming like them. But as Os Guinnes pointed out, the churches passion for relevance will become its road to irrelevance.
In other words:
Scripture does not come alive when we twist it to say what the world desires to hear. Scripture comes alive when our lives are conformed to it. – Dustin Benge
As we boldly and valiantly speak and live the truth that God, by grace, has given us, God says:
I restore your fortunes before your eyes.
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