Renewal of Life

KEY VERSE: “The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love.” —Zephaniah 3:17

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Zephaniah 3

ZEPHANIAH HAD PROPHECIED that desolation, darkness and ruin would strike Judah and the surrounding nations because of the wrath of God upon their sin. He repeatedly drove home the lesson that a judgment time was coming when their sin would be dealt with. In fulfillment of these prophecies, Judah was taken captive to Babylon shortly after.

Have we not frequently noticed that these very same conditions are present with us today, realizing that they point forward to the state of affairs which Jesus associated with the end of the Gospel Age? In Matthew 24:21, he said, “Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be [again].” Great distress will befall all nations as they seek answers to the perplexing, endless problems of the day, finding them all beyond human solution and with no way out of the impending doom.—Luke 21:25

The prophet symbolically described the Day of Jehovah in these words: “Wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey; for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.”—Zeph. 3:8

Zephaniah directed his eyes down the stream of time to look upon another side of the picture. After the day of wrath would be over, and God’s designed purpose of humbling his people has been accomplished, man once again will call upon the Lord. Hearing their cry, God will return to them, to dwell forever among them. This was described briefly by the prophet when he observed a repentant people, saying: “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 any more.”—Zeph. 3:15

Verse nine reveals one of the very first and most important works of Christ’s newly established kingdom on earth described in Zephaniah 3:15. Vital to the promised blessing of Israel, and indeed, to all mankind, the Lord said, “I will turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent.” No longer will God’s Word be heard as a confused message, a Babel of tongues, but man will hear the pure Word of truth, uncontaminated by human error or tradition. Truly, all men will finally be of one mind in the Lord.

It is through God’s Word and the influence of his Holy Spirit which will then be poured out upon all flesh, that God will reveal his glorious plan. Through the outworking of the features of his plan we fully see his divine attributes, justice, wisdom, love and power, in action, and can thereby come to know and appreciate the true and living God more fully.

The Prophet Jeremiah, describing the making of the New Covenant with Israel during the Millennial Age, assured us that the Lord “will put his law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be his people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”—Jer. 31:33,34

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