Zephaniah 3:16-20 - Honour and praise

3:16,17

There is a complete change in the attitude of the Lord towards Israel, and a complete change in the status and nature of Israel. Before all this Israel was oppressed, and this had an effect on her attitude. Now her attitude should change. We too should have a change of heart. We were under the oppression of the enemy, and too often we still think as if we are on our own. Because of the cross things have changed! We need fear no longer. The Lord is now with us, and He is a mighty warrior. This is an aspect of God’s character that is often ignore. He is a mighty warrior and He is for us, not against us. He delights in us, and instead of rebuking us He rejoices over us with singing. Now, of course, the full realisation of this will not happen until Christ returns, but we start to receive the first fruits now. We need to start to learn to live in the future!

3:18

The translation of this verse is quite difficult. If you look at NIV and ESV you will see that they say something quite different. NIV has:

“I will remove from you

   all who mourn over the loss of your appointed festivals,

   which is a burden and reproach for you.”

While ESV has:

“I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival,

so that you will no longer suffer reproach.”

It seems to be referring to those who mourned for the loss of the festivals that Jerusalem used to celebrate, and reproach will be removed, but beyond that it is difficult to be certain about the meaning of the verse.

3:19,20

Those who oppressed Jerusalem will be dealt with. At various times in history Israel has been persecuted. The church is periodically persecuted. Sometimes the persecution is most severe. The Bible is quite clear that those who carry out this persecution will be punished. This applies to the New Testament as well, with Revelation making the fate of the oppressors very clear. We are to love our enemies, but we should also know that God will bring justice.

The exiles will be gathered and restored. They will receive praise and honour in the lands where they were put to shame. There is a complete reversal of the situation they found themselves in.

“At that time”, all this is looking ahead to a time in the future. In the future the people of the Lord will be given honour and praise among all the peoples of the world. We need to know our destiny, and we are fools if we ever choose to go along with the world’s ways rather than God’s ways.