Book of Zephaniah - Ch. 3, Vs. 9-20 (11/19/2023)

Alrighty, I'm going to get started because I'm hoping, although this may be wishful thinking that we'll be able to finish today, we've still got a good number of verses to start. So you can turn to Zephaniah 3, verse 9.

Last week we spent the entire lesson on verse 8, which was unplanned, but there you go. However, it's probably good that it ended up that way because it'll be quite the contrast from last week to this week.

Last week was all about, essentially, the battle of Armageddon, the final judgment of all the enemies of Israel. And prior to that was all about the judgment of Jerusalem itself, the rebuke of Jerusalem itself.

Now in verse 9, let's go ahead and read verse 9, and then we'll get into some stuff here.

It says,.

All right, so keep in mind, we just finished the day of his wrath, of his indignation, right? Now, this is where it gets pretty interesting because, again, immediately following the events of what will be Armageddon, in verse 8 that we talked about all of last week, the Lord turns the people to, as he puts it, a pure language.

Now the question is, of course, right on the backside of Armageddon, who are these people going to be? Who will be these people that are turned to a pure language and that call upon the name of the Lord with one consent?

Well, amazingly, though we're, again, right in the middle of a context talking about global judgment, global catastrophe, in verse 8, the battle of Armageddon included, in that same context we learned of a hope for not just Israel, not just Jerusalem, but all the nations after those events are over.

This, of course, is through, number one, the salvation of all of Israel that we learn about in Romans 11. So Paul tells us that at that time, when Jesus comes back in the clouds, all Israel will be saved.

So that's the first part of who some of these people will be that turn to a pure language, call upon his name with one consent. Another portion of the people will be Gentiles that no man could number.

We learn about that in Revelation 7. So Revelation 7 teaches us that throughout the Great Tribulation and all the way through the end of the battle of Armageddon and all of that, there will be a number of Gentiles that, again, no man can number, and they will be part of this group that will call upon the name of the Lord with one consent and be turned to a pure language.

And, of course, the glorified saints that will be resurrected or raptured prior to this moment in history, when the battle of Armageddon takes place, they're going to be part of this collective group as well that are all turned to a pure language, all calling upon the name of the Lord with one consent.

All of these groups together are who Zephaniah 3 .9 is talking about. Now, so verses 8 and 9 kind of go together in the sense that 8, of course, there's still crazy contrast because 8, again, the day of his indignation.

Verse 9, all of a sudden you have people calling upon the name of the Lord and serving him with one consent. But it's all part of that same singular day of the Lord because through the judgment brings purification.

It separates the wheat from the chaff, separates the sheep from the goats, so on and so forth. And so after verses 8 and 9, which are kind of all about the same event, the remaining passages that we are about to read together may seem a little bit strange at first glance.

And it might seem strange to us because, again, of the context. Just a quick review, the first seven verses of this chapter were talking about the moral crisis of Jerusalem, the very sorry spiritual state that God's own people were in.

And that segues right into verse 8 of chapter 3, as we've said, that talks about that global judgment, global catastrophe, his indignation being poured out, his fierce anger being poured out. Verse 9 kind of continues that but also gives us contrast because it's talking about the same day, but it's telling us that after the indignation is poured out and the purification, if you will, takes place, what's left are the people that will call upon his name and serve him with one consent.

But what we're about to read is so starkly different than how the same chapter opens that, again, it may seem a little bit bizarre, at first glance. Again, we're right on the backside of terrible sin of the people of Jerusalem and, of course, the evil nations that surround them later.

It's right on the backside of rebuke of Jerusalem, of judgment of Jerusalem. However, we need to remember a couple of things, and this kind of helps clear up the reality that this isn't all that bizarre, actually.

It's not that strange to kind of all be grouped into the same context. The first reason, the first thing to keep in mind is, think about this for a second. What we're about to read about in verses 10 through 20 of this final chapter of Zephaniah is essentially the redemption, the ultimate redemption of God's people.

Now, it's talking about Israel specifically, but we know that we're going to be included in that as well because there are other books of the Bible that speak to that part of it. But it talks about the ultimate redemption of God's people.

But in order to receive redemption, you have to have something to be redeemed from. So when you think about that alone, the context of chapter 3 actually flows together quite nicely. It starts with the sin nature, the depravity, the human nature, and it talks about that, talks about the repercussions of that.

We see the rebuke from God Himself through the prophet Zephaniah. And then it transitions into the redemption, the redemption from that sin, and into the glorified state, essentially. So we've got to keep that in mind.

In order to be redeemed, you have to have something to be redeemed from. But secondly, something important that we always need to keep in mind in passages like this, is Isaiah 55 .8, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

This isn't necessarily how human beings may construct events like this. And yet, here we are. Now, keep in mind for a second, this concept of my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways.

Oddly, I believe that this isn't considered by a lot of, well, frankly, Calvinists, that would otherwise subscribe to something that we would call replacement theology. Now, the reason it's odd is because any Calvinist would affirm the divine degree of God and His exhaustive sovereignty, right?

And yet, kind of in a paradox form, you have the same people that would otherwise affirm God's sovereignty and the reality that His ways are not our ways. They come back and they construct this odd, again, what we would call replacement theology.

They would call it something else, because they realize that's a little bit of a derogatory term. And I believe it stems, the whole reason they have this construct, stems from not considering or not factoring in that idea, that reality that God's thoughts are not our thoughts, His ways are not our ways.

In their view, they have this, and by the way, what is replacement theology? They believe, me, Dave, and Dad were talking about this in detail recently, they would believe, in very simplified terms, that the church replaces Israel.

So if there are any unfulfilled promises in the Old Testament that haven't been fulfilled just yet, they will be fulfilled through the church or have already been fulfilled through the manifestation of the church, not ethnic Israel.

So, hence, replacement theology, church replaces Israel. That's what they believe. So in their view, because of Israel's absolute abandonment and absolute rejection of their Messiah the first time He came, there's no way that the unfulfilled promises made to Israel in the Old Testament are for ethnic Israel anymore, but rather the church, who is now, as they would consider, quote-unquote, true Israel.

So that is kind of the logic. They look at sections of the Bible, like verses 1 -7 of this same chapter, or how about in Jeremiah 33, when God issues His bill of divorcement. They look at areas like that.

Of course, they look at the Pharisees, but also the nation as a whole, and again, the total rejection of their Messiah at the first Advent. And they say they were given chances time and time again, opportunities for thousands of years, and it all culminated into the rejection of this very Son of God as He was on earth.

There's no way that, you know, like they had their chance is kind of what it comes down to, what it boils down to. They had their chance and they lost it. Now the church is going to come in and fulfill the promises that are yet to be fulfilled.

That is the logic that flows from passages like that. But when you consider, neither are your ways my ways, the future physical and spiritual restoration of not just a spiritual Israel, but ethnic Israel, the people of Israel, it's actually not that far-fetched.

Because despite their rejection of Him, of Jesus, the Son of God Himself, Jesus will restore the people of Israel. Why will He do it, though? Well, He'll do it, number one, you could say just quickly, He does it because He's going to fulfill His promises.

But He takes it even further than that, and He's going to fulfill it for the sake of the patriarchs, for the sake of the Old Testament saints that He made all of these promises to. In Romans 11 .28, it says, As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes.

This is Paul talking about Jews being made enemies for the sake of the Gentiles for a time. They, the Jews, are made enemies for your sakes, but as touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's sakes.

When he says the Father's sakes, he's talking about the fathers of the Old Testament, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, the prophets. And, of course, Romans 11 is all about the breaking off of the natural branches, the grafting in of the wild, which would be us, and then the talking about telling the wild branches not to get boastful because the natural branches could be grafted in just as easily.

And so, for the sake of the patriarchs, God is going to fulfill those promises through ethnic Israel, not just some spiritualized version of that. Now, as we move through the following verses, what we're going to see is we're going to see this kind of grand, ultimate redemption unfold for us.

And even with as many passages as there are in the Bible that speak directly to the restoration of Israel, when I say that, I'm, again, talking about actual, physical, ethnic Israel, there are not so many quite as clear as the ending of Zephaniah.

So, again, while there are plenty of places you can go to make the argument for, yes, they rejected their Messiah, but there will come a day when they are restored, ethnic Israel is restored, and the promises that were made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be fulfilled through them, not in a spiritual sense through the church, but in a spiritual and physical sense through ethnic Israel.

The ending of Zephaniah is one of the strongest passages you could go to to make that argument, as we will see as we go through these final verses. So, now, we'll begin our final section of this study called The Redemption of Israel, and this will make up the final 10 verses.

The Redemption of Israel

So, let's pick it back up in verse 10 of Zephaniah now, chapter 3. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering. The word suppliants there, you could insert worshipers, is perhaps a better word for us at this point.

From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, my worshipers, even the daughters of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering. Now, this verse is kind of reminiscent of another one that we spent a lot of time on in our last study, and we've actually referenced this verse a few times in this study as well, but Malachi chapter 1 verse 11 says, from the rising of the sun even into the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall be offered into my name in a pure offering, for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts.

Now, in Malachi, he's making a point there to bring this prophecy of the Gentiles to light because he's in the process of reminding the priests and these defiled priests that you're not doing your job, and just because you are of the blood of the tribe of Levites doesn't matter because someday the Gentiles, the very heathen, will be bringing me pure offerings and you're bringing me defiled offerings.

So that's kind of the context there. But in verse 10 of Zephaniah chapter 3, it talks about from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, my worshipers, even the daughter of my disperse, shall bring mine offering.

It's a little bit more of a broad collective picture of what it will be at that time because the Gentiles will be included in that, but so will a purified people of Israel. Verse 11 says, In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all my doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against me.

For then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain. So in verse 11 here, it's really interesting because God, through Zephaniah, is essentially, it's like he's talking to the remnant for a second.

It's like he's honing in and he's telling the remnant of true believers of Israel right here, don't worry because not only are your enemies going to be removed at this time, but I'm even going to take out those that rejoice in thy pride.

There won't be any more haughty people because of my holy mountain. I'm going to cleanse not only the enemies. I'm not only going to cleanse the world of your enemies, but I'm going to cleanse Israel itself and remove the prideful, remove the haughty.

Now, and then he said, what's the result? Well, he starts with the result, and at the top he says, thou shalt not be ashamed for thy doings. If you contrast that with verse 5, which we covered about maybe a couple weeks ago at this point, just go right up in the same chapter.

In verse 5, Zephaniah chapter 3, it says, The just Lord is in the midst thereof. He will not do iniquity. Every morning doth he bring his judgment to light. He faileth not, but the unjust knoweth no shame.

So there's a little bit of a contrast there because the unjust that are living within Jerusalem at this time, they have no shame. But at this time, by the time you get to verse 11, he says that the remnant living within Jerusalem, you won't be ashamed anymore.

There will be no more being ashamed of all thy doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against me. Even the remnant that has sinned, all of that will be removed. So it's quite the change in just a matter of verses.

From having no shame in their wrongful doings whatsoever, to you will not be ashamed anymore because of my holy mountain. It's pretty amazing. Now, as we said earlier, in order for redemption to occur, you have to have something to be redeemed from, right?

In Israel's case, they were a terrible, prideful, and haughty nation in every sense, in the collective sense. But despite that, even they, as a collective nation, not just a few people, but as a nation, they will experience national redemption.

Their true national identity that was established with Abraham would be fully restored or redeemed at this particular time that we're reading about here. When we read the phrase at the beginning of verse 11, in that day, this is, again, really interesting to me because what we're doing is just in that simple phrase, we're seeing a transition from the day of the Lord or the day of the Lord's wrath and seeing the first glimpse of the millennial kingdom because it's still talking about the day, but it's no longer talking about the wrath of Armageddon.

It's now talking about their shame being removed and their pure language being given to them and all of them serving God with one consent. So it's still talking about the same day, if you will, but, you know, it's like, this is it.

This is what it looks like after all of the catastrophe is concluded. In that day, thou shalt not be ashamed anymore. So, again, we kind of get our first glimpse of the millennial kingdom as it is being ushered in in real time before us here in Zephaniah.

In that day, Israel will be cleansed and restored. They won't have any shame before God anymore because their sins at that point have been removed. And that is what Paul was talking about in Romans 11, all Israel shall be saved.

When they see their king coming back in the clouds, at that point, there'll be no more doubt. They rejected him the first time, but the generation that sees him coming back, they won't reject him. And at that point, not only will they receive him, but their sins will be removed.

They will be redeemed. They will call upon the name of the Lord, which I think is interesting that that phrase is used in verse 9. They may call upon the name of the Lord, given that that's the same phraseology that Paul uses in the Romans Road.

And so the faith, the belief will be expressed in the same way as it is by us in this age when we experience our spiritual birthday. And so they will be redeemed at that point in that day. The Hebrew word, just a quick note here.

So look at verse 11 one more time, just the first sentence. In that day, thou shalt not be ashamed for all thy doings. Now, when you see the little phrase there, all thy doings, it sounds innocent enough.

Whatever it is they're doing, however they're living their lives, going about their lives at that time, you're not going to be shamed about it. The Hebrew word, though, for thy doings is alilah, and it literally means wantonness or practicing evil deeds.

And so when it says, you will not be ashamed for all thy doings, it reminds us that what were their doings prior to this moment? They were evil deeds. They were as far from God as you can be, humanly speaking, and yet they will be cleansed from that.

They will be cleansed from their wantonness, their evil deeds, the practice of those evil deeds. They will all be removed. All right, verse 12 says, I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord.

The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lies. Neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid. The final sentence of verse 13 there, for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid, it's kind of reminiscent of Psalm 23, but less so in an individual sense, but more so as a nation.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. Think about that in the context of the nation of Israel, and that's essentially what they're experiencing at this time.

For they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid. It's like the fold of a shepherd with him present with his staff, keeping them safe, watching over the flock. He's not having to go off and find any that went astray.

He's present. They're all there together. They're in the green pastures. They're lying down. They're feeding. That is kind of the mental picture that Zephaniah is giving to us here, is what it will be like as the millennial kingdom is ushered in.

Israel, for all of human history, they've been defiled. They've been beaten. Of course, they've been exiled more than once, scattered all over the planet more than once. They've been ravished. But at last, at this particular time, in the future, they will have perpetual rest as a nation.

And what's crazy about it is they'll have perpetual rest, but they will have that in the middle or among all the nations of the world without fear. So like right now, what's one of the reasons they can't have any rest or stability or peace?

It's because they are surrounded by the nations of the world quite literally, and, of course, the ones closest to them are some of their greatest enemies. At the millennial kingdom, part of that will change, but not all of it.

The part that will change, of course, is that their enemies rather than them having enemies, their closest neighbors will actually be blessing them, as we'll find out here in just a minute. They are going to have a positive reputation, not a negative reputation,.

Throughout the whole world.

So they will still be surrounded by the nations of the world, but it will be in a totally different sense because those other nations will be, again, blessing them rather than cursing them.

All right.

Pick it up at verse 14.

It says,.

Sing, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O Israel. Be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. As we read these verses, I want you guys to keep in mind what we started with, the concept of replacement theology that many people believe in today.

I mean, it's nothing new. It's been around for a long time, and if I could be so bold, I believe it's nothing more than kind of a latent form of anti-Semitism, and it stems from a lot of the Reformers, believe it or not.

But you can read their stuff, and they make it abundantly clear. They weren't shy about it. But again, it's people that believe that the church replaces Israel in every sense. You might ask, if that's true, just purely logically speaking from the human viewpoint, if it were true that God had no purpose for them anymore and that because of their egregious abandonment, their egregious rejection of their Messiah, which that part is true, if it's true that because of those, He's done with them once and for all after the first advent, after the death, burial, and resurrection, He's done with them once and for all.

Now the church is born. Actually, what they would say at 70 A .D. is when He was done with them once and for all. And then the church is born prior to that. There's kind of an overlap in ages, as they would put it.

And now the church is the one that gets to live out all of the unfulfilled blessings and promises. If that were true, why on earth is Israel, or not Israel as a nation, why are Jews even alive anymore, around anymore?

Think about, don't you find it interesting? So you look at stories like Esther, and you see what Haman tried to pull off. And it makes a lot of sense that the devil was working in the way that he was because he was trying to thwart the plan.

He was trying to kill, and it started with Cain and Abel. He was trying to end the line of the Messiah, going all the way back to the very first two born sons of all of human history,.

All the way through.

You come to Haman, he tries to wipe out all the Jews. And, of course, all of us can look back at that and think, yes, that he was trying to serve an evil purpose in ending the line of the Messiah. But the Messiah came.

Jesus was born. He failed. So don't you find it interesting that he continued, the devil has continued to wipe them out, even though he already failed at ending the line of the Messiah. Think of the Holocaust.

You think of the pogroms, the Russian pogroms, some 70 years before that. And, of course, the fact that every nation surrounding Israel from the time they were reestablished until present day has tried in all of their power to wipe them out.

And then, I guess it was last Sunday, Dad was talking about the whole from the river to the sea thing. I mean, it's the one nation that has ever existed where there is global sympathy for the concept of the genocide of a people.

And so why on earth would they have survived all of that if there wasn't a purpose, just logically speaking? I don't know how those that I don't like, I honestly don't know those who believe in replacement theology why they would think they even exist as a people anymore.

Because they're so small, less than a percent of the entire global population, and they have had constant terrible attacks of the worst kind to try to wipe them out as a people for all of human history.

But even after the cross, why would they have been able to survive all that had it not been for God's specific hand of protection in order to preserve the nation, preserve the ethnic blood of Israel into this day that we're talking about so that they as a nation, as ethnic Israel, could fulfill these promises.

So keep that in mind as we read these. Because again, the end of Zephaniah is one of the greatest defenses against replacement theology because it's just so clear. Sing, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel.

Is this the church? It sounds like physical Israel to me. Be glad and rejoice with all thy heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. Again, with everything I just said aside, let's not forget about how this chapter began.

Chapter 3, the first seven verses, it began with sorrow, it began with torment, it began with rebuke for these same people we're talking about now. But now you get to verse 14, we have a tremendous shift to joy and triumph when the fears of Israel turn into shouts of praise.

So it begins with sorrow, rebuke, all these terrible things. Again, the moral crisis of Israel is how the chapter began. And now here it is with rejoicing of the heart and with singing. Verse 15 says, The Lord hath taken away thy judgments.

He hath cast out thine enemy, the King of Israel. Even the Lord is in the midst of thee. Thou shalt not see evil anymore. Again, we are seeing the Millennial Kingdom play out in these verses. The beginning of the Millennial Kingdom, this is how it all starts.

These shouts of rejoice will be the result or the effect, if you will, of their Redeemer being in their midst. The Messiah and King that they had been promised will once again, and we need to make a point, once again for the second time be physically with them.

We can certainly acknowledge the fact that He has been with them before and He Himself in, I believe, Luke chapter maybe 13, I can't remember off the top of my head, Jesus was mourning over Israel as He looked down upon Jerusalem.

I'm paraphrasing big time, but it was essentially, if they had known that their King was with them, I would have ushered in the Kingdom. But they're rejecting me. And so He's been with them before. It's not the first time.

They did reject Him the first time. And because of that, from the human viewpoint, when His Kingdom could have been ushered in at that point, no, now we have had 2 ,000 years of, well, one side, it's two sides of the same coin.

It's been 2 ,000 years of torment, persecution, torture, martyrdom, trials and tribulations that you can hardly comprehend throughout church history. On the other side of that coin, though, you also have 2 ,000 years of Christ's power being manifested in the saints that are able to do that.

The peace that surpasses all understanding, that are able to endure the martyrdom and the torture and all of these things to be a testimony to those that see it so that God's elect can be continuously gathered from generation to generation until ultimately it's all consummated in His second return.

So He's been with them before. They did reject Him, but this time He's with them again physically. He's in their midst, but they're rejoicing this time. They have received Him this time. This time they'll know Him and they'll call upon His name rather than rejecting Him.

Now, we get a glimpse of this in Isaiah 9, and what's really cool about it, you guys recall when Jesus went into the temple, around the time His ministry began, He opened up the scroll of Isaiah and He read a portion of it.

And He said,.

This has been fulfilled in your ears on this day, and then He closed it. And then if you go to that passage in Isaiah that He read from, you can read the verse that He quoted, and you know He just said that has been fulfilled, and then the following verse is talking about His judgment, His wrath, and all these things.

That part was a future fulfillment, of course, when He comes the second time. So just in that example that Jesus gave us, we have an example of nearer prophecy from the viewpoint of Isaiah that had just been fulfilled by Jesus Himself, but there was still prophecy yet to be unfulfilled way out in the future.

In Isaiah 9, we have another example. Let's start in verse 6.

It says,.

What is that prophesying? Obviously, it's prophesying about Jesus' first coming, right? But look at verse 7. Immediately after, it says,. So you have to ask, we know that verse 6 was fulfilled because a son was given, a child was born, but have we seen physically yet the government, the increase of His government on earth, the peace with no end on earth upon the throne of David as He sits?

We haven't quite seen that just yet. And so in Isaiah, verses 6 and 7, it's talking about, it's prophesying about His first coming, and it's prophesying about His second coming, but all together in one unified flow of dialogue, if you will.

And so in verse 7, we see Isaiah prophesying what now Zephaniah is showing us fleshed out. Like Zephaniah is showing us what Isaiah talked about. Zephaniah is showing us what it will look like. Did that make sense?

Kind of had a hard time getting that out. But the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. He will sit upon the throne of David, His kingdom to order, establish it, judgment, justice forever and ever.

All right, so wrath from God's hand, which we saw in verse 8, battle of Armageddon, all that kind of stuff. And then you had oppression from the enemies of Israel, which we'll see as well in a couple of future verses.

All of that will be gone, and the Lord King will be with them physically, and fear will be absolutely demolished for the people of Israel. Let's go back to Zephaniah and continue. Verse 16, it says, In that day...

Notice that phrase. The whole theme of this book is in the day of the Lord or the day of the Lord. In that day is one of the key phrases to link the events it's talking about to that day. But we're on the post-catastrophic part of that day.

Armageddon has already happened. The judgments, all of the vials and bowls and seals of revelation have already happened. All that's behind us now, but it's still talking about that day, and it's the moments that the millennial kingdom are beginning.

In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not. And to Zion, let not thy hands be slack, for the Lord thy God is in the midst of thee, is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice over thee with joy.

He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing. All of this is just right on the backside of the bloodbath of Armageddon. Again, big-time contrast from our topic last week when we looked at verse 8 pretty closely.

The millennial kingdom will be a time of peace for His historically troubled people. Israel will rejoice, as we see in verse 14. But even more amazing than that, look at what it says in verse 17. It says that God Himself will rejoice.

Now, oftentimes when we think about awesome passages like Revelation 4 and 5 where the worship in heaven is taking place, or how about the opening passages, I believe, of Isaiah 6, the opening verses of chapter 6, when Isaiah, they have to put the coal on his tongue because he's a man of unclean lips, and he's seeing the worship of heaven take place.

We often think about God sitting there, Jesus sitting there, just soaking in the glory, the worship, the singing, the praise, right? But in verse 17 here, we get a different look, a different angle that maybe we don't consider as often, and that is the fact that He Himself will be rejoicing with joy.

He's resting in His love. Think about this, He will joy over thee with singing. So think about Jesus Himself singing. That's a pretty awesome picture, isn't it? It's awesome enough thinking about the seraphim, the cherubim, and the elders under the throne, and those worshiping and singing, and the singing's going to be magnificent.

But think about Jesus Himself on the throne of David, post-return and enemy separation of the sheep and the goat already taking place, and now He is singing. It'll be unbelievable. In fact, that delight and that joy, the singing that He will be doing Himself, the reason He'll be doing it is because His ancient promises to His people will have been consummated again in His return and His kingship on the throne of David.

So He's long-suffering, but He's sitting up there as we speak, and He knows those promises He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to Moses, and to Joshua, and to David, and to the prophets. He knows those promises.

They're still in play. And He, having emotions, being the God-man, having emotions, you've got to know He's just anxiously awaiting for that time when He gets to fulfill those promises once and for all.

And so here, He's singing because it's done. He's finally fulfilled those promises. In His perfect timing, of course, but He's excited all the same. He's rejoicing Himself. He's singing Himself. Now, as we enter the final verses of the book here, I think I can wrap this up.

As we finish the final verses here, in my opinion, what's going to happen is Zephaniah points his focus kind of in an indirect way back to the faithful remnant of believers in his day. So remember, this prophecy, we're talking about the Millennial Kingdom, things that will be even in our future.

But this prophecy is being written at a point in history, roughly around B .C. 630, a good while before Jesus came the first time. So there's a point in history in which God's people in Israel are receiving this scroll of prophecy.

And during that time in history, there was a faithful remnant. There's always a faithful remnant. And so I believe that in these final words, what Zephaniah is about to do is he's going to leave, again, right on the backside of a pretty rough prophecy, honestly, because it's full of rebuke and judgment.

Yes, on the part of Israel's enemies, but also of Israel themself. He's going to leave that faithful remnant with reason to continue to have hope, reason to continue to have strength and to have comfort.