The Messianic Age Series

ZEPHANIAH 3: 9-20 [IN THAT DAY SERIES]

THE MESSIANIC AGE

[Psalm 67; Zechariah 14:8–9]

Following the prophetic custom, Zephaniah concludes his book with a message of hope (e.g., Hos 14:1–9; Joel 3:18–21; Amos 9:11–15). These verses mark the end of the prophet’s long list of indictments and announcements of judgment. God punishes, but He prefers to purify and redeem. He is a compassionate God of grace, love and forgiveness.

Zephaniah begins his closing oracle by declaring the future worldwide conversion of the Gentile nations and then he communicates God’s promise to restore His chosen people. As Zephaniah looks to the final outcome he shifted from predictions of destruction to prophecies of blessing and peace. These comforting promises of love, mercy, and restoration look forward to the Millennium when Christ will rule as King on the earth.

I. THE CONVERSION OF THE NATIONS, 3:9–10.

II. THE PRESERVATION OF THE REMNANT, 3:11–13.

III. ISRAEL'S JOYFUL SALVATION, 3:14–17.

IV. THE RESTORATION OF THE NATION, 3:18–20.

Just when things looked darkest during the great judgment threatened in the preceding verses, Yahweh will take center stage and the long-awaited redemption promised by so many prophets will commence. Zephaniah first predicts that the nations will be renewed both morally (v. 9) and spiritually (v. 10).

Verse 9; “Then at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord and serve Him with one accord.’

The word “then” (?az, Heb.) means “at that time” signifies a major pivot in the prophet’s message both in tone and in content; he shifted from frightful predictions of destruction to prophecies of blessing and peace.

At that time the Lord will cleanse the speech of the nations. The Hebrew word translated “to restore” or “change” is a vigorous word meaning a turning around, a turning away, a transformation, a collapse, or a total change. It is not a slow, developing change, but a sudden and radical break with the past (Gen. 19:21, 25, 29; Deut. 29:33; 1 Sam. 10:9). This radical change amazingly will affect the Gentile nations. The polluted speech of the nations will become pure.

When God promises to restore a “pure language,” He is referring to more than a type or quality of speech; human language is the outward indicator of the inner life and person (Isa. 6:5–7). Thus the promise of a radical change of language was another statement of the quality of God’s re-creative work. [Answering Isaiah’s confession that he was “a man of unclean lips” in Is. 6:5.]” God will purify man’s lips and the inner disposition which they symbolized.

Now mortals with new hearts reflected by their speech will “call on the name of the LORD.” But worship is not only through words, but also through deeds so the nations will “serve Him,” The term serve or work (‘abad) is literally, “with one shoulder,” or as we say in our idiom, “shoulder to shoulder,” or “with one accord” [lit “in the same yoke]. When a team of oxen were yoked together, the task went best when they pulled the load as if they were one. In the day of the Lord, amazingly, “all” theGentile nations will worship and serve God alongside Israel with one accord. [Walter C. Kaiser and Lloyd J. Ogilvie, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, vol. 23, The Preacher’s Commentary Series (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1992), 237–238.]

“The Lord,” the God of the Hebrews, will be the one only object of worship. Until the Holy Spirit purifies the lips, we cannot rightly call upon God (Is 6:5–7) or serve Him.

Verse 10 states that worshipers from all over the earth will bring offerings to the Lord. “From beyond the rivers of Cush my worshipers, the daughter of my dispersed ones, shall bring my offering.

As a result of this purification, pure undefiled worship will be established. The Hebrew for “Ethiopia” is Cush, include not only Ethiopia, but also the region of the Tigris and Babylon, the southern limit of the known world at that time. It is where Nimrod, Cush’s son (Ge 10:8–12), founded Nineveh and acquired Babylon, and where the ten tribes are mentioned as being scattered (1 Pe 1:1; 5:13; compare Is 11:11). [The restoration under Cyrus of the Jews transported under Pharaoh-necho to Egypt and Ethiopia, was an earnest of the future restoration under Christ. Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 1 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 710.] In its context it would be originally understood as from the farthest reaches of the earth. “Ethiopia” is probably to be seen here as signifying the remotest part of the earth. [W. A. Criswell et al., eds., Believer’s Study Bible, electronic ed. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991), Zep 3:9–17.]