Zephaniah Chapter Three, Israel's Restoration & Peace

Zephaniah 3:13 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.”

Following on the heels of verse twelve, Zephaniah informs his readership that the result of God leaving a humbled people in the midst of Israel was a righteous nation. Before delving further into this idea, however, we should skip ahead to the latter portion of this verse.

The prophet first informs us what Israel will be like and will do in the thousand year reign of their Messiah. In the latter portion of the verse we are told why. God fulfills His word by ushering in unprecedented peace. Ezekiel, in a lengthy passage, words it thus:

“As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land; I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in good pasture, and their fold shall be on the high mountains of Israel. There they shall lie down in a good fold and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I will feed My flock, and I will make them lie down,” says the Lord God,” Ezekiel 34:12-15.

In the latter days, in the Day of the Lord, during the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ on earth, this will be accomplished. The great blessing God desired for obedient Israel–described in Leviticus chapter 26–will be poured out on them during the reign of Messiah. Ezekiel and Zephaniah concur when they describe the state of blissful peace Israel will enjoy when at last God gathers His people to their land. And His earthly people is not the church; Christians are not the inheritors of the earthly, OT promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Scripture, when speaking of Christians, states that we are in the world, but not of it, John 17:14-16, Philippians 3:20. When the church is removed via the Rapture, the final week of Daniel’s prophecy continues on, and the world is once more viewed through a Jewish lens through the majority of the book of Revelation, which happens to be a culmination of the OT prophets’ view of the Day of the Lord.

God gives them peace as He personally shepherds them, having come to dwell and walk among them as their Shepherd: a title Christ our Lord claimed for Himself, intimately associating Himself with Jewish fortunes and the identity of Yahweh, Israel’s God, John 10:11, 14. No one shall (any longer) make them afraid. Before Islam and Hitler, the Roman Catholic Church did much to harm the Jewish people. Even Martin Luther did not have a friendly disposition toward them, by the 1540’s devolving into rampant antisemitism. The Jewish people had much to fear from the nations of the world, as God forewarned they would when they rejected Him and turned from blessing to punishment, Leviticus 26:36-39. But in this time, the Jewish people have seen, repented, and celebrated the return of their Messiah. Christ will sit enthroned on the seat of David and reign over Jerusalem, Israel, and the world. The remnant that God always faithfully keeps of His earthly people (see Romans 11:4, Revelation 14:1-5) will inherit the blessing. In fact, Revelation 14:5 states, “in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God.” 

The Jewish faithful that survive the Tribulation will be the inheritors of the Promised Land. They will have gone through the furnace of affliction, been purged of pride and arrogance–see Ezekiel 34:16–and now serve in honest integrity, unafraid and obedient.