Zephaniah 3:8 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Zephaniah 3:8

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But finally here is a closing message to believers: to believers who lived in Jerusalem at that time who were in a minority, to believers who would be among the Jews at the time just before the coming of Jesus Christ, and to believers throughout the world in the present day. ‘Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey.’ It is God’s announcement of retribution against those who have persecuted his children, and a day of relief for his saint who have had to bear so much for his sake at the hands of their enemies. They must wait patiently for him to act. God had not forgotten them, and he knew all their longing for better days. This situation cannot be permitted to continue indefinitely. If that were the case, God’s children would have real cause to question his love for them. But when he asks them to wait for a limited time, they are able to do so. He doesn’t tell them why they have to wait, but they trust him enough to know that he has a good reason. They have the assurance that whatever he requires them to do is done for their good, and will turn out to their advantage and to the glory of God.For Jewish believers those enemies included people of their own nation in that mixed multitude. But the prophecy is bigger than just a prediction about a local situation; it has a worldwide sound about it and a note of finality which points to the last judgment. ‘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.’ It won't last forever, there is a judgment coming and look at the way in which he describes it: ‘Until the day that I rise up to the prey’; that is very important. ‘In the light of all that I have been saying, wait, because these things will come about.’ The word translated ‘prey’ literally means an end, a terminus, an end point. It is put in the context of battle. Why did ancient kings go to war? Among other things, the great objective was that they would take possession of the land that they were attacking, and they would get the riches of that land, the wealth of that land, they would get the prey, the booty. And that is what God is saying here. A day of reckoning will come, the end of which, the purpose of which will be a gain, a prey, a booty – those are redeemed people. Isaiah tells us that; Isaiah 53 closes along those lines. It refers to how Jesus Christ will bring converts into the church, and they are described as spoil or booty. ‘For all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.’ It is the day of God’s long delayed vengeance. Somehow God will involve all nations, and thought they are engaged for reasons of their own, he will so affect them that they come to the place or the situation in which they will be caught as birds in a snare for their final and highly visible destruction. They will know too late that they have been opposing the Lord all along. They discounted him from their thinking, but now, too late, they see their terrible mistake. The nations of the world are being gathered in order to be devoured by God’s long pent-up jealousy for his name and for his people.

Application

A day will come of judgment upon the Jews, but the end product of that day of judgment is that there will be a minority of people, a remnant of people who have true faith. They will be returned in glory to Jerusalem to resume their worship. They are the prey, they are the end point of the judgment, they are the reason why it all happened. The wicked are judged in order that a remnant may be brought out. The same happens at the time of the coming of Christ. The Jews rejected Christ so there was a great judgment, but the end of that judgment was that there would be a booty, a prize. The prize was the salvation of the minority. They would truly believe in Christ, and so also would people out of every land and nation. Out of the rejection of the Jews would come a prey, a booty, people gathered in and saved from every land and nation. So too with the final day of judgment, when the final stroke of the clock comes. There will be a great judgment poured out upon the earth, but the end of it all is the gathering out of redeemed people who will dwell with God throughout the everlasting ages. That is the meaning of ‘prey’.

Questions

This eighth verse takes a little understanding. ‘Wait! A day is coming when I will gather the people for a great judgment.’ But remember that the Old Testament prophets never distinguish between the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ. Never forget that the day of the Lord in the language of the prophets is the whole of the New Testament age. The day of the Lord begins with the coming of the Messiah, it proceeds through the centuries of the church bringing in the elect of God, and it ends with the return of the Lord and the final judgment. That is the day of the Lord. So when you read that God is going to gather people, you are getting a hint of the whole age from the beginning of the coming of Christ – his atoning death, his resurrection and ascension, the day of Pentecost, the beginning of the New Testament church – all the way to the second coming of Christ, the final judgment, the marriage supper of the Lamb. But they are all included as one day, one event in the language of the Old Testament prophets. The distinction between these events awaits the clarification of New Testament revelation. Once you understand that, the verses that follow are no longer a contradiction.

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Zephaniah 3:8 Commentary and Bible Study

The meaning of Zephaniah 3:8 explained