Zephaniah Chapter Two, Intervention

Zephaniah 2:6 The seacoast shall be pastures, with shelters for shepherds and folds for flocks. [7] The coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; They shall feed their flocks there; In the houses of Ashkelon they shall lie down at evening. For the Lord their God will intervene for them, and return their captives.

In this passage we get a glimpse of what is theologically referred to as the Millennium, or the thousand year reign of Jesus Christ on earth from the throne of David, in the city of Jerusalem after the conclusion of the seven year Tribulation period.

There is a certain and visible serenity born from a natural peace that the verses’ language conjures. The seacoast, formerly the home of Israel’s enemies in the form of the Philistines, is now emptied of its occupants; threat of invasion and death has passed. The Jews now begin to spread out and inhabit the fullness of the land under God, free from the machinations of the nations that compassed them and plotted their demise. Yes, Israel occupies this land now, but it is not safe. The Muslim governed countries that surround them also hate them. The Koran teaches that Israel’s destruction is imperative to Allah’s goals for Islam. The Six Day War, fought in 1967 against Egypt, Syria and Jordan, was predicated off of the desire to obliterate Israel and to drive her into the sea, ridding the middle east of any Jewish presence. As of time of posting, now 58 years ago, Israel remains in their land, though embattled with her many enemies.

Later in Zephaniah, the prophet offers a little more insight into what is happening in this passage. He writes, “I will leave in your midst a meek and humble people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. The remnant of Israel shall do no unrighteousness and speak no lies, nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth; for they shall feed their flocks and lie down, and no one shall make them afraid,” Zephaniah 3:12, 13.

We learn in Malachi that the same moment God sets Israel at liberty He also subdues all of her enemies round about, Malachi 4:1, 2. These enemies also happen to be His enemies, because whoever touches them touches the apple of His eye, Zechariah 2:8, 9, Psalm 110:1, 2. This God has promised to do, even right here in this very verse. He is referred to as the Lord their God, the God of Israel, a title which is given to Yahweh in excess of 200 times. Jeremiah, a contemporary of Zephaniah whose prophetic career ranged beyond Josiah into the downfall and aftermath of Jerusalem’s ruin had much to say about this. I will quote him at length about the fortunes of Israel and how they are directly tied to God’s integrity.

“Thus says the Lord: ‘If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, My ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.’” Moreover the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, “Have you not considered what these people have spoken, saying, ‘The two families which the Lord has chosen, He has also cast them off’? Thus they have despised My people, as if they should no more be a nation before them. “Thus says the Lord: ‘If My covenant is not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, then I will cast away the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, so that I will not take any of his descendants to be rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will cause their captivity to return, and will have mercy on them,” Jeremiah 33:20-26.

The covenant referenced in Jeremiah hearkens back to Genesis 8:22, and what God said when Noah made an offering to Him. He spoke of the permanence of the earthly cycles we daily experience even now. James Ussher, painstakingly cataloguing history, gave the date of 2348 BC when this promise was given. Since this promise was made 4373 years ago (by his estimation) and continues unabated today, we may rest assured that God likened this promise to Israel for a purpose. He wanted the readership (read: us) to understand. Israel as an entity is not going to vanish away. His people, the Jews remain today. There are no lost tribes. America and Britain are not the missing tribes. The church is not Israel. God promised a literal fulfillment of the stationary nature of planetary function in Noah’s time; He fulfilled it. Why do we look to allegorize its comparative prophecy? The man of David’s lineage is easily and simply fulfilled in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Levites or priests are believers who have placed their faith in Him and go about, diffusing the fragrance of Christ, 2 Corinthians 2:15-17. Furthermore, during the thousand years Levitical sacrifice will be fully restored as evidenced in Ezekiel 43:18-27.

God promised that Israel would be a nation, ruled by the lineage of David; and if these things were not so, then His covenant with nature itself would likewise be annulled. Jeremiah finishes this prophetic utterance with nearly identical language to Zephaniah’s, explaining that He will return Israel’s captives. Israel has experienced partial blindness in this dispensation. But even today Jews can–and are–turn to Christ as Messiah and receive eternal life in His name. We further know that this momentous prophecy will reach a literal fulfillment when God’s dealings with rebellious Israel continue and climax in the Tribulation, giving away to the battle at Megiddo and the thousand year reign when Israel enjoys its national conversion and peace under Christ’s kingship.