Zephaniah 2:7

"And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed their flocks thereupon; in the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening; for Jehovah their God will visit them, and bring back their captivity."

When Jesus said, "The meek shall inherit the earth," he said essentially what Zephaniah says here. The feeble fulfillment of this verse in the return of a few Israelites from Babylonian captivity is only a mere token of all this passage means.

"And bring back their captivity ..." Christ himself explained this phrase in Luke 4:18, where "releasing captives" means delivering from sin. Christ indeed came for the release of the captives, but he never got anybody out of jail, not even his friend and relative John the Baptist I This verse is, therefore, Messianic. The temporal description of blessings in Christ's kingdom is a common feature of the prophets (Job 42:10; Hosea 6:11; Amos 9:14).

"The remnant ..." here does not at all mean exclusively a remnant of Judah. The remnant is a prophetic term for the redeemed of all ages. Deane was certainly correct in his observation that:

"The full accomplishment of this overthrow of Philistia is of a spiritual nature, and must be looked for in the Messianic era, when the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of Christ; and so in the subsequent predictions."[19]

Carson also concurred in this understanding. "It is not simply that Judah will be restored nationally but that looking on down the centuries of time God's chosen people, the new Israel of God will arise."[20]