And in the midst of this gloomy scenario, the prophet also calls for the righteous to wait for the Lord. He says he’s going to gather the nations and pour out on them his indignation.
8 “Therefore wait for Me,” says the Lord,
“Until the day I rise up for plunder;
My determination is to gather the nations
To My assembly of kingdoms,
To pour on them My indignation,
All My fierce anger;
All the earth shall be devoured
With the fire of My jealousy. Zephaniah 3:8
Also, he’s going to restore a pure speech to the peoples. In chapter 3, a famous passage where he says in verse 9,
9 “For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language,
That they all may call on the name of the Lord,
To serve Him with one accord. Zephaniah 3:9
Some have actually referred that to the fact that in modern Israel they’ve restored the ancient language of Israel. You could see that as a partial fulfilment of this prophecy. But I think it’s more than that. It’s speaking about restoring a language to praise the Lord. People will call upon the Name of the Lord, even restoring some kind of a heavenly language. It does not speak here about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but maybe that’s part of it. God is going to restore a living language in which we can communicate with the Lord by the Holy Spirit and bring all people together as one so that we are no longer divided as we were at the time of the Tower of Babel, as people were divided by different tongues.
So they were divided by cultures, by religion, by race. God wants to bring us together into one in the Lord to worship him in spirit and in truth. And calling on the Name of the Lord is a passage used in the Old Testament for true worship. True worship of the Lord, the true God as opposed to worshiping the false gods which are around them.
And Zephaniah goes on to say that God will leave behind a meek and a humble people who will trust in the Name of the Lord. That the meek shall inherit the earth is one of the things which Jesus says.
5 Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5
And a large part of the end time passage here, I believe, does speak about the coming time when Jesus is going to return in person, in power and in glory and reign on the earth.
Many Christians don’t actually believe in a literal Millennial Kingdom but it’s there in the Bible. And the Bible says that the same Jesus who died the first time and was sacrificed for our sins, went up to heaven, and was resurrected is going to come again, but this time in a different form. This time He will come as King of kings and Lord of lords and dwell amongst us, and restore the earth to the way it was before Adam and Eve fell.
He is going to bring an end to war, bring an end to violence, bring an end to all of the things which are defining the world today. And in the passage here it says,
15 The Lord has taken away your judgments,
He has cast out your enemy.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
You shall see disaster no more. Zephaniah 3:15
And it goes on to say,
17 The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17
Now, I believe that by the Spirit, the Lord is with us today because Jesus said,
20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:20
But this is talking about some kind of more visible presence of the Lord on the earth at the time of the Second Coming of Yeshua, Jesus, the Messiah. It says, ‘The King of Israel is going to be in your midst. And when He’s in your midst, you’re going to see disaster no more.’
At the time of the Second Coming, Jesus is going to bring an end to all the disasters, all the troubles, all the negativity which we see taking place in the world today, bring an end to sin and rebellion and, above all, bring an end to the role of Satan, the enemy in ruling over the nations.
Satan will be cast out and placed into the abyss from which he can no longer deceive the nations. So at that time, the King is going to be in your midst. And, if we are believers in Yeshua, I believe we’re going to be coming back with Him and reign with Him during that time when Jesus is reigning on the earth and bringing peace and justice to the world.
I would very much like to see that happen, wouldn’t you? I would like to be there when it happens because it’s going to be a glorious time.
Today, we live in such a distressing world, where turning on the news is almost a torment and you just hear one disaster after another. Imagine hearing about one glorious event after another, about one restoration after another, about peace between peoples, about all the things which we would long to see taking place. All this is going to happen when Jesus returns.
And the wicked will be cast off, but those who are saved will be with the Lord in that glorious time. And Zephaniah is promising this. He says,
He will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17
The Lord likes to hear us singing to Him, but the Lord is actually going to sing to us! So, that’ll be good, won’t it? I guess He’ll be more cheerful than we are. But you can imagine that He’s so rejoicing over His people and over the restoration that He’s singing for joy at what He’ll see taking place on the earth. It will be a glorious time and a glorious deliverance from the evil which is taking place.
It goes on saying God is going to deal with the afflicted, He is going to save the lame and those driven out, those who are excluded from the assembly of the nations in this present evil age, those who find themselves as ‘outsiders’ because of either their faith in Yeshua, or because of their race, particularly if they’re Jewish, and they’re going to be brought in into the Kingdom of God.
And God is saying that those who have been excluded will now be included. And those who have been included in this present evil age will be excluded if they’re not right with God.
16 So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.” Matthew 20:16
So, there’ll be a reversal of the present state:
20 At that time I will bring you back,
Even at the time I gather you;
For I will give you fame and praise
Among all the peoples of the earth,
Zephaniah 3:20
Finally, he says,
When I return your captives before your eyes,”
Says the Lord. Zephaniah 3:20
So, there’ll be the final complete restoration of Israel at the time of the Second Coming of Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, which is something to look forward to.
