Zephaniah Chapter Three, Trusting In The Lord

Zephaniah 3:12 I will leave in your midst a meek and humble people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord.

Verse twelve continues to explain the future fortunes of Israel and the Jewish people. God the Holy Spirit wants to make it abundantly clear with the careful use of language here that these are not possibilities or mathematical potentials; no, this is a verified certainty. God is going to do for Israel all that He stated He would. 

Every punishment God predicted He would perform upon them had come to pass. Because this was so and can be historically verified, we may be assured that Israel’s fortunes as God’s earthly people are secure. Zechariah wrote, in a verse easily applicable to both verses 12 and 13, “The people shall dwell in it (Jerusalem); and no longer shall there be utter destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited,” Zechariah 14:11. Isaiah contributes to this revelation, stating, “What will they answer the messengers of the nation? That the Lord has founded Zion, and the poor of His people shall take refuge in it,” Isaiah 14:32.

Again Isaiah, when considering the future fortunes of Israel during the reign of Messiah, wrote, “He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore,” Isaiah 2:4. Isaiah foresaw a time when not only Israel, but all of the world would be at rest in a way it had never previously known. As mentioned in our prior post, the battle at Armageddon would be the final military conflict the world would ever know. Messiah’s arrival in glory would usher in peace: first peace for Israel, and then through Israel, the world. When God finishes sifting the nations and punishing them, Israel will be properly humbled. Items that were formerly weapons will be repurposed for beneficial uses such as agricultural implements. There will be no need for a military presence since the entire world will serve Christ with one accord, abolishing national sovereignty. God created human government in the wake of the Flood with the inception of capital punishment. Now the ruler’s prerogative will belong entirely to Jesus Christ our Lord, Psalm 110:2, 5, 6, Psalm 2:8, 9.

God states that He will leave in the midst of Israel a humble people, implying that He will remove the proud and arrogant. Or rather, He will remove pride and arrogance from their hearts. It is pride, that ancient sin in which the Devil himself went astray following the dictates of, that prevented Israel from simple obedience. Malachi informs us that the Christ will, “purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness,” Malachi 3:3. Then, and only then will God draw near, Malachi 3:5. God will preside over all lawbreaking at that time, and be what He calls, “a swift witness.” When the dross is removed and only pure silver remains, they will be humble, and the Jewish people will reflect the glory of Messiah as the moon reflects the radiance of the sun; it never tries to take credit for another’s light, it merely focuses that light where it needs to go for the benefit of others.

Israel’s renaissance begins in earnest during the throes of the Tribulation, when 144,000 Jews from the twelve (not lost) tribes are sealed by the Holy Spirit with the express mission of evangelization, Revelation 7:4. It culminates when the Christ returns in glory to defeat the armies of the Antchrist, the false prophet and his godless coalition of world leaders, physically saving Israel from the impending destruction that many have dreamed of enacting, Zechariah 12:8, 9, Joel 3:12-14, Romans 11:26, 27, Revelation 19:19-21. The result is that the remainder or residue of the people trust in the Lord. They have seen a deliverance greater than their miraculous rescue from Egypt. As Micah wrote, “As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show them wonders,” Micah 7:15. In this divinely peaceful climate, we read what God does in Israel, “In that day, says the Lord, “I will assemble the lame, I will gather the outcast and those whom I have afflicted; I will make the lame a remnant, and the outcast a strong nation; so the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from now on, even forever,” Micah 4:6, 7.

The trust implied here is, of course, salvific trust. The remnant of the Jews saved by Christ’s divine intervention will place their faith utterly and entirely in Him. They will no longer turn aside to idols. They will not boast in the Law or the temple. They will glory in the Lord, Jeremiah 9:24.