Zephaniah 2
CHAPTER 2 begins a distinct section of the prophecy of Zephaniah, addressed to the God fearing in Israel, in view of the judgment already declared and to be executed. In the manner of divine grace an invitation is sent to all the people (verses 1 and 2); they are called, “O nation not desired”, or more exactly, “O nation without shame”, for such was, and is, the truth as to them. How gracious of God to remind those who seemed so indifferent to His interests and to their own real blessing, that there was yet time to seek His face before the day of His anger should come upon them!
In verse 3 we come to the godly remnant, called “the meek of the earth”. Meekness is not thought much of in the world; those who make much headway in it are as a rule the opposite of meek, — pushing, self-assertive persons, given to demanding, and on occasion taking by force. But what God commends is a very different character, one which we discern in perfection in the Lord as He passed from the manger to the cross.
The meek of the earth are those who have wrought His judgment, or, as it has been translated, “who have performed His ordinance”— those who have regarded God’s word. To them it is said, “Seek ye the Lord”; “seek righteousness; seek meekness; it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.” This is very different from the hopes of the Christian, who knows that before the dawn of the day of the Lord he with all other living saints will be caught away to meet Him in the air; heaven, and not the earth is the home of those who are the Lord’s at His coming.
Strikingly the book of Genesis sets out in the history of two men an illustration of the prospects, on the one hand of the believers of the present dispensation of God’s grace, and on the other, of those who will be blessed in a new working of divine grace after the removal of the church to glory. Enoch’s translation without passing through death foreshadows the one (chapter 5:24) and. Noah, preserved through the deluge and blessed in the earth (chapters 8-9) exhibits in type the other.
The godly remnant of Israel, chiefly of Judah, for the lost ten tribes will not then have returned, will be preserved, apart from the godless mass of the nation, in the dark hours of the great tribulation, as Isaiah 26:20-21, Revelation 12:6 and Matthew 24:15-28 indicate; they will be “hid” in the day of Jehovah’s anger, and preserved, though with much trial, until the Lord appears.
Verses 4-7 deal with the Philistine strongholds on the west, and verses 8-10 with the Moabites and Ammonites on the east border of the land of Israel. More distant enemies are treated of in verses 12-15. There was a literal fulfilment of these declarations of ruin within thirty years of the time the prophet wrote, but the day of the Lord has not yet begun, and the scenes of judgment to come will be far more fearful than those of the past. How blest is the Christian who seeks to walk in obedience to the word of God, looking for the coming of his risen and exalted Lord before the judgments begin on earth!