JY: Welcome to GearTalk, a podcast on Biblical Theology. In the third and final lecture at Dallas Theological Seminary, Jason clarifies from Zephaniah 3:11–20 how Yahweh motivates his charge to wait for him by promising to save his global remnant in a way that satisfies both the redeemer and those he redeems.

JD: As a professor of God’s Word, I count it my responsibility and opportunity to be a lead worshipper. And this week, I have just delighted in being in a community that is serious about our God, that treasures Christ, that elevates the Word. I feel like there’s been a mutual encouragement in one another’s faith, and I thank you for this opportunity.

After calling his disciples to bear fruit, Jesus says, these things I have spoken to you, that my joy, the joy of the living God, may be in you, and that your joy may be full. John 15. I’ve titled this third and final lecture, “Rejoicing Then and Now, Pleasures on the Day of the Lord,” from Zephaniah 3:11–20. Please turn your Bibles to the Book of Zephaniah, Zephaniah 3, as I pray. Our reigning God, our reigning King, you have removed the judgments against us and are now in our midst, a God who is for us and not against us. Even through trials and persecutions, we need not fear, for you are with us and will indeed carry us to glory. Our hope and our joy rests in you alone. Minister to our souls today, supplying a joy that can remain steadfast even amidst pain. Heighten our longing for you and for the final realization of all your promises to us, even eternal life. Through Christ and for Christ, I pray.

What we hope for or dread tomorrow changes who we are today. This is the role that promises play throughout Scripture. Thus, Peter asserts in 2 Peter 1 that God in Christ has granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them we may partake of the divine nature escaping the corruption of the world brought about by sinful desire. Zephaniah castigates those in Jerusalem who ignored God’s promises of blessing and curse, who declared, “The Lord will not do good, nor will he do ill.” Like Yahweh’s other prophets, Zephaniah magnifies God’s promises to motivate his listeners to heed his exhortations. First, the prophet urges the faithful remnant to seek the Lord together and then motivates them by over viewing the lamentable state and fate of the rebels from both the foreign nations and Jerusalem. God’s fiery wrath would soon blaze against the wicked, and no unrepentant sinner would survive, even in Judah. Next, in 3:8–10, Yahweh charges those seeking him to wait for him, and now in 3:11–20, he offers the highest motivation for patiently pursuing our God: satisfying salvation.

Before overviewing 3:11–20, it’s important to recall Zephaniah’s hopeful statements in 3:8–10 that already supplied two reasons why the remnant of faithful in Judah and beyond, reaching to this room, should wait for the Lord. The prophet’s initial reason found in 3:8b is that Yahweh would in due course establish justice and eradicate evil throughout the world. Oh, may we hope for that day. The remnant can wait in hope for the faithful God has not forgotten those who are loyal to him and he will fight on their behalf all for the sake of his name. Next, according to 3:9-10, the remnant that should wait for God because the remnant should wait for God because he’s going to transform an international people gathered from the nations and the kingdoms of the earth, empowering them to call on his name in unity. These descendants of those scattered at Babel will now be priests in God’s presence. Realities that I have argued are now realized in Christ’s church. Thus, Zephaniah 3:8–10 associates this international worshiping community with Yahweh’s presence at the Day of the Lord. These truths shape the backdrop for the extended motivational section we are now to engage.

The flow of thought in Zephaniah 3:11–12, turn your eyes to your word. 3:11–20 includes two parallel promise units, each referring to the transformed Jerusalem and beginning with the phrase, “on that day.” you can see that both in verse 11 and in verse 16. First in 3:11–13, Yahweh declares that on that day that he rises as judge, he will not shame the New Jerusalem. Second, down in verses 16–20, on that same day, he will completely save the city and those associated with her. These two promises frame verses 14 and 15, which is parenthetical and provides the motivational high point for the book, and we’re going to focus significantly there today. Let’s consider each of these units.

Yahweh will not shame the transformed Jerusalem, Zephaniah 3:11–13. To stimulate patient trust, waiting, waiting in hope, Yahweh announces that despite Jerusalem’s previous rebellion and corruption, the transformed city will not remain before him in a shameful state. This is because he will remove Jerusalem’s proud ones, 3:11, and he will preserve her humble, 3:12-13. Thus Yahweh announces, on that day you shall not be put to shame because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me. For then I will remove from your midst all your proudly exultant ones, and you shall no longer be haughty in all my holy mountain. But I will leave in your midst a people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord, those who are left in Israel. They shall do no injustice and speak no lies, nor there shall there be found in their mouth a deceitful tongue. For they shall graze and lie down, and none shall make them afraid. In Hebrew the pronoun you in 3:11 is feminine singular. It addresses the new city, Jerusalem, God’s bride. This is where the multi-ethnic group of worshipers gathered in 3:10, for it is where Yahweh dwells. God promises to forever erase pride by expelling the haughty and the self-reliant from his presence at his holy mountain. Additionally, he will leave an afflicted and needy people humble and lowly. Who will find refuge in the name, Yahweh. Because Zephaniah 3:9-10 portrays an international remnant worshiping before Yahweh’s presence, the remnant of Israel in 13, now associated with Yahweh’s holy mountain, the New Jerusalem, may actually be the same group.

Now as I consider this possibility, I fully recognize the context in which I now stand. So if you’re a student, staff member, I strongly encourage you to be a Berean of the Word. Talk to your professors, wrestle as I begin to exposit this text. Within the context, who is the remnant of Israel in 3:13? Earlier in 2:9, Yahweh declared that the remnant of my people and the survivors of my nation would plunder and possess Moab and Ammon. What the remnant possesses or inherits becomes theirs and is fully identified with them. Thus, if the remnant of Judah claims not only foreign turf, but also foreign peoples as their own, those peoples gain new identities and a new God. Think Ruth. This is what is envisioned in texts like Psalm 87:3–6, which declares with language quite similar to Zephaniah 3:8–13, “Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. Among those who know me, mention Rahab and Babylon. Behold, Philistia and Tyre with Cush. This one was born there, they say, and of Zion it shall be said, this one and that one were born in her. The Lord records as he registers the peoples. This one was born there.” Much like Paul celebrating spiritual adoption and declaring that the Jerusalem above is our mother, Galatians 4, Korah’s sons in Psalm 87 foretell how God would give foreigners new birth certificates associated with the future Zion. This Psalm and the prophecies of Isaiah are texts that likely influenced Zephaniah’s preaching. Isaiah envisions the nations gathering to a transformed Jerusalem in the latter days. Using the exact same verb to possess, as is found in Zephaniah 2:9, Isaiah anticipates how Israel’s restored house will inherit some from foreign nations as servants. He also anticipates how the outcast of Moab will sojourn in Zion’s midst when the Davidic king reigns, Isaiah 16. This Davidic king he later names Israel, whom God calls to bring the preserved of Israel, the people back, but also to serve as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth, Isaiah 49:3, 6. Using a conceptually related verb, Isaiah also charges this new Jerusalem as Yahweh’s bride to enlarge the place of your tent. Why? Because your offspring will possess the nations, Isaiah 54. This implies Jerusalem’s family size will expand, and this will happen because the righteous suffering servant’s atonement will sprinkle many nations and declare many righteous, Isaiah 53. Similarly, Amos envisioned that those who are a part of the restored Davidic kingdom will possess nations called by God’s name, Amos 9. And James uses this text to support Peter’s conviction that the time to include Gentiles in God’s one people had arrived. Acts 15. I have many more texts that will be in the print version, but I offer these texts as outside support for my claim that Zephaniah here portrays the transformed global worshipers from Zephaniah 3:9-10 to be potentially the remnant of Israel in 3:13. They are now members of God’s family, his new nation as Peter calls it in 1 Peter 2:9. Using Paul’s words in Galatians, with the removal of the proud from the transformed city and the gathering of the purified peoples from the world, they now together make up Abraham’s offspring, Galatians 3, the Israel of God, Galatians 6, with the heavenly Jerusalem as their mother, Galatians 4. And with God having purified them, Zephaniah says in 3:13 that they shall walk in justice and in truth. No injustice, no lies, nor a deceitful tongue. They will turn from sin. Why? Because they will experience rest with none to make them afraid.

A parenthetical charge to rejoice. Zephaniah 3:14-15. Look with me there. Zephaniah’s excitement over the hope of 3:11-13 now erupts in an intrusive call to celebrate as if the promised deliverance had already occurred. “Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exalt with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away the judgments against you. He has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord is in your midst. You shall never again fear evil.” Four command forms urge the remnant to praise. Sing aloud, shout, rejoice and exalt. Those who in 3:10 are called the “daughter of my dispersed ones” are now referred to as the daughter of Zion, Israel, the daughter of Jerusalem. There is both continuity and discontinuity between old Jerusalem and the new Jerusalem. The new Israel descends from the earlier Zion, but is now transformed and includes some from the peoples of the world. Why should this changed remnant rejoice? There’s two unmarked reasons given in verse 15. God has removed the curse of enemy oppression, and Yahweh, the king, is near. What is striking in 3:15, look with me there, it says, what’s striking, is that rather than treating the coming wrath and salvation as a future reality, Zephaniah acts as though the time of judgment has already passed. Thus, he says, the Lord has taken away the judgments against you. Everywhere else in the book, God’s judgment is future. And the shift here to past tense is therefore unexpected. And it indicates that for Zephaniah, the future salvation that was so certain should create present joy, even amidst injustice and pain. Zephaniah’s audience is still awaiting the day of the Lord, awaiting the judgment to the living God. The remnant is still living amid injustice and corruption, but they can delight in their day because their desire for complete freedom from oppression and darkness will indeed be realized. And it’s so certain the joy can begin now. They must rejoice in hope, waiting for the Lord to act. Notice who is with them. It’s the King of Israel. Yahweh is in your midst. You shall never again fear evil. By calling Yahweh the King of Israel, Zephaniah emphasizes that he is the true sovereign over all things. Because he will be in Jerusalem’s midst, she ought to never fear again.

It’s very likely that the Apostle John alludes to Zephaniah 3:14-15 when he narrates Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem in John 12:13, 15. Interpreters commonly recognize that the Apostle cites Psalm 118 and Zechariah 9 in his account of Jesus’ journey into Jerusalem. “So they took branches of palm trees and they went out to meet him, crying, ‘Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel.’ And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, ‘fear not, daughter of Zion, behold your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.’ “ Now what some miss is that the Psalm does not include the phrase, “the King of Israel,” nor is it the fact that Zechariah’s opening charge is, “fear not,” he actually says, “rejoice!” These differences in John’s Gospel imply that John is actually also alluding to Zephaniah 3:14-15, which is the only place in the Old Testament where we find the grouping, the King of Israel, fear not, and daughter of Zion. Nowhere else. Within Zephaniah, these verses interrupt his motivational promises that Yahweh will cleanse and renew his creation on that day of his judgment. John therefore sees Jesus initiating God’s end time reign and the salvation for which Zephaniah longed. In Christ, Zephaniah’s eschatological day of the Lord has dawned. Jesus is the warrior king who judges the enemy. Now is the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out. John 12:31. With this, Jesus is working a great ingathering of the nations. So we read, “The Pharisees said to one another, you see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him. Now among those who went up to the worship at the feast were some Greeks.” That’s John’s language right there in John 12:19-20. Then Jesus declares in 12:32, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” John’s allusion to Zephaniah 3:14-15 further supports that Jesus’ first coming initiates Zephaniah’s vision of the day of the Lord as both punishment and renewal, and that through the church, God is fulfilling his promises related to the transformed Israel.

NEW CREATION, DAY OF THE LORD

Yahweh will completely save, Zephaniah 3:16-20. We now come to the last unit. Repeating the phrase, “on that day,” 3:16, that we found in 3:11. Yahweh now adds his second promise to motivate faithful waiting. Here we have a future speech that Yahweh—that prohibits fear on the day of the Lord. So Zephaniah is not living in the day of the Lord, but the speech will be proclaimed when the day of the Lord is at hand. And then the implications of the speech are given in verses 19 and 20. This is how the ESV reads it, “On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear not, O Zion, let not your hands grow weak. The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you with his love. He will exult over you with loud singing. I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival, so that you will no longer suffer reproach. Behold, at that time I will deal with all your oppressors. I will save the lame. I will gather the outcast. I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. At that time I will bring you in. At the time when I gather you together. For I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before their eyes, says the Lord.” On that day, when the Lord reestablishes order in his world, an unnamed messenger will charge the new Jerusalem, Zion, to neither feel afraid, “fear not,” nor act fearfully, “let not your hands grow weak.” The city, filled with the international in-gathering of worshippers, need not fear because the Savior-Warrior, will be with them and will be readying to deliver, “a mighty one who will save.” he will also celebrate over his redeemed. He’ll rejoice, he will quiet, he will exult, matching the remnant’s threefold chorus in 3:14 line by line. The Day of the Lord includes not only the remnant’s joy, but also Yahweh’s joy in those that he’s redeemed. And one day, his mirth-filled melody will ring across the universe on behalf of those he saves. We read in 3:19, behold, at that time, Yahweh pledges to save, transform Jerusalem. He will remove her oppressors, receive her through, though she is lame and outcast. He will then establish the remnant for praise and renown in all the earth, which indicates not only that others will honor God’s redeemed people, but also that the redeemed themselves will display Yahweh’s fame throughout the globe. Zephaniah then in 3:20 reaffirms this glorious hope.

The community’s chorus and the Savior’s song. Zephaniah opens with one of Scripture’s most ominous and graphic depictions of the day of the Lord as punishment. But the book now ends with one of Scripture’s most breathtaking and hope-filled pictures of the day of the Lord as renewal. Motivating the charge to wait for Yahweh’s saving work are promises that the New Jerusalem will know no shame and will be saved completely. At the center of this glorious salvation is pleasure. The remnant joy in God and God’s delight in those he saved. Because of the certainty of our coming deliverance, the redeemed should already be singing praise, ringing forth a new song that the Lord will join when what Christ has finished becomes complete. Zephaniah does not describe what songs the delivered remnant are to sing, but Isaiah clarifies the nature of the singing and rejoicing that are to fill the mouth of the Lord. Isaiah clarifies the nature of the singing and rejoicing that are to fill the mouth of the Lord. For example, with allusions to the prophetess Miriam’s song at the first Exodus, Isaiah highlights that in that day of the Messiah’s second Exodus, the multi-ethnic redeemed community will proclaim with one voice, Isaiah 12, “I will give thanks to you, oh Yahweh, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my song, he has become my salvation.” Similarly, Isaiah later notes that in that day when God destroys death and wipes away all tears from our eyes and saves his saints, they will cry, “Behold, this is our God. We have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord, we have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation,” Isaiah 25. Then the prophet says, in that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah. “We have a strong city, he sets up salvation in his walls and bulwarks. Open the gates that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock,” Isaiah 26. Zephaniah recognizes that joyous salvation always finds its consummation in praise.

The New Testament authors, too, highlight how such praise will indeed characterize the redeemed both in this age and in the age to come. In the heavens, the new song is ringing out in praise to the Lion-Lamb King. “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed some for God from every tribe and every language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom of priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth,” Revelation 5. John also “heard the victorious saints singing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations, who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name, for you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed,” Revelation 15. God’s creatures will glorify him with these and many other praises forever. Yet we are not the only ones who will sing.

The Mighty One will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness, quiet you by his love, and exalt over you with loud singing. How can he justly celebrate over sinners? It’s because the humbled remnant becomes part of the new Jerusalem, of whom we are told, the Lord has taken away the judgments against you. He has cleared away your enemies, Zephaniah 3:15. He works toward the weak who recognize their need and who call upon him in the day of trouble. Thus he declares, I will save the lame and gather the outcast. Are you among them today? What do you imagine you’ll hear when God’s melody rings forth? Moses recalled how Israel at Mount Sinai declared, “If we hear the voice of Yahweh our God anymore, we shall die, Deuteronomy 5. Similarly, David as a psalmist reflected, “The voice of the Lord over the waters, the God of glory thunders, the voice of the Lord is powerful, the voice of the Lord is full of majesty, the voice of the Lord breaks the cedars, the voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire, the voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness,” Psalm 29. Reflecting on God’s voice in the world today, John Piper helps us consider Yahweh’s song. “I hear the booming of Niagara Falls mingled with the trickle of a mossy mountain stream. I hear the blast of Mount St. Helens mingled with a kitten’s purr. And I hear the unimaginable roar of the sun 1,300,000 times bigger than the earth and nothing but fire. One million degrees centigrade on the cooler surface of the corona. But I hear this unimaginable roar mingled with the tender, warm crackling of logs in the living room on a cozy winter’s night.” With this, I consider God’s future song in the crash of Lake Superior’s waves and in the drops of rain in the Wisconsin woods. It sounds in the shriek of a soaring hawk and in a rooster’s crow from a coop, in the laughter of a boy’s jumping in a water hole and in the ding of a grandfather clock. Yahweh’s voice rings through the cheers of football fans and in a father’s lullaby as he rocks his daughter to sleep. But the coming day, when the maker’s melody—there is a day coming when the maker’s melody will be solely directed toward his bride. “A cry will go forth like the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, declaring, the marriage of the lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready,” Revelation 19. Then the royal groom will rise and celebrate over his queen with song. His ringing notes will make the night flee and his bride’s joy forever full. He will love, he will renew, he will celebrate, and we will stand in awe. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust, Psalm 103. Thus it is that Yahweh testifies, “I will rejoice in Jerusalem. I will be glad in my people. No more shall be heard in the sound of it weeping and crying of distress,” Isaiah 65. And again, I will rejoice over them for doing them good. May all who are in Christ stand expectantly and in awe. Come, Lord Jesus.

In conclusion, our God promises to sing over those he saves. And his joyous melody is to be matched line for line by his bride, rejoicing in his goodness. Our joy today is not based on present appearances, but on what God has done and what he promises to do. Already the Lord has put all things under his feet, Ephesians 1. Having disarmed the rulers and authorities, God has already put them to open shame by triumphing over them at the cross, Colossians 2. Already God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us, Romans 5, such that God is truly in our midst. God has already begun to gather his remnant, John 10, John 11. He’s already inaugurated a new creation, 2 Corinthians 5, Galatians 6. He’s already secured the complete and future victory for which Zephaniah rejoiced. Heeding his own prayer, the faithful Lord Jesus will establish and guard you against the evil one, 2 Thessalonians 3. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom, 2 Timothy 4. For the joy that was set before him Jesus endured, Hebrews 12. And as was true for him, the future joy for which we aim becomes our present joy that sustains. The King of Israel, the mighty one, who will completely save and sing over his redeemed, desires to satisfy us with his goodness. Our gladness resounds to his glory. So may we today patiently pursue the Lord together, rejoicing in hope and embracing the Savior’s invitation to satisfaction. Father, thank you for your Word. Thank you for your faithfulness, your steadfast love that endures forever. You take pleasure not in the strength of the horse or in the legs of a man. You take pleasure in those who fear you, in those who hope, hope, hope in your steadfast love. Satisfy us this morning with that steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days, even in the dark ones. For the sake of your name and for your glory, I pray, for the good of your people, through Jesus, Amen.

JY: Thank you for listening to GearTalk. As we mentioned last week, we’re launching a special podcast series next month. On March 13th, we’ll begin A Month in the Psalms. This series of podcasts will include more than just conversations about the Psalms. We are also including downloadable artwork, allowing you to use these materials as an aid in your own preaching or teaching or small group setting.