Zephaniah 3:9-20

III. THE DAY OF YAHWEH’S BLESSING 3:9-20

Having finished the revelation dealing with God’s judgment of the world in a coming day (Zephaniah 1:2 to Zephaniah 3:8), Zephaniah now announced that He would bring great blessing to all humankind after that judgment (Zephaniah 3:9-20). As in the section of the book on judgment, he revealed God’s plans for the Gentile nations briefly first and then spoke extensively about His plans for Israel.

"Why did the prophets consistently close their books with messages of hope? For at least three reasons. To begin with, hope is a great motivation for obedience, and the prophets wanted to encourage God’s people to submit to God’s will and do what He commanded. God’s covenant blessings come to His people only when they obey His covenant conditions.

"A second reason is the prophets’ emphasis on the faithfulness of God. The Lord will keep His promises and one day establish the kingdom; and since God is faithful to keep His promises, we ought to be faithful obeying His Word. . . .

"Finally, the closing message of hope was an encouragement to the faithful remnant in the land, who were true to God and suffered because of their devotion to Him. It’s difficult to belong to that ’company of the committed’ who stand true to the Lord and His Word no matter what others may do or say. Knowing that God would one day defeat their enemies and reign in righteousness would encourage the believers [sic] remnant to persist in their faithful walk with the Lord." [Note: Wiersbe, p. 429.]