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Zephaniah, Prophet of divine protection, Part 9, The nations judged and saved

When we read in Zephaniah 3:4 that Jerusalem’s “prophets are reckless, treacherous men,” it is important to note that they are not referred to as false prophets. This suggests that these prophets have a genuine gift but that their gift is misused. As with the prophet Balaam in the days of Moses, his motive was greed.

Yet God spoke to him and through him, and some of his prophecies are included in Scripture itself. 2 Peter 2:15 says that he “loved the wages of unrighteousness.” God rebuked him, speaking through his donkey and thus “restrained the madness of the prophet.” Balaam was afflicted with “madness,” but even Peter did not call him false. A false prophet, then, is not necessarily one who prophesies things that are untrue, but one who prophesies things with fleshly motives, apart from agreement with the mind of God, or even through divine blindness.

Cutting Off Nations

Zephaniah 3:6, 7 says,

⁶ “I have cut off nations; their corner towers are in ruins. I have made their streets desolate, with no one passing by; their cities are laid waste, without a man, without an inhabitant. ⁷ I said, ‘Surely you will revere Me, accept instruction.’ So her dwelling will not be cut off according to all that I have appointed concerning her. But they were eager to corrupt all their deeds.”

The prophet had already listed some nations that God had cut off: Philistia (Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron), Moab and Ammon, Cush/Ethiopia, and Assyria/Nineveh. To this list, we should add Israel, which had been destroyed a century earlier. In the time of Zephaniah, Assyria was still the dominant power in the region. Nineveh was not yet destroyed, but God had “cut off” the city in the sense that He had already decreed its destruction. Hence, Nineveh was cut off and no longer under the divine protection granted to it when they repented in the days of Jonah.

Seeing these examples of divine judgment, the people of Judah ought to have repented in order to avoid similar destruction. So God tells Judah, “Surely you will revere Me, accept instruction.” However, “they were eager to corrupt all their deeds.”

Zephaniah 3:8 continues,

⁸ “Therefore wait for Me,” declares the Lord, “for the day when I rise up as a witness. Indeed, My decision [mishpat, “judgment, verdict, sentence”] is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out on them My indignation, all My burning anger; for all the earth [eretz, “land or earth”] will be devoured by the fire of My zeal.”

The scope of this verdict is not about setting the planet on fire, as some have envisioned. It is about destroying the land of Judah and also nations in the region. A certain level of fulfillment occurred shortly thereafter, but it has an end-time application as well—particularly for the land of Judah, which now is the Zionist state. The spiritual cause of such destruction remains the same as before; therefore, God’s verdict, being consistent and impartial, is also the same.

The Need for Purified Lips

The ultimate purpose of God’s judgments is not merely to destroy but to correct, cleanse, and purify. Zephaniah 3:9, 10 says,

⁹ “For then I will give to the peoples purified lips, that all of them may call on the name of the Lord, to serve Him shoulder to shoulder. ¹⁰ From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, My worshipers, My dispersed ones, will bring My offerings.”

This marks the reversal of the confusion of languages at the tower of Babel. At Babel, human language was confused, scattering the nations. But here, God promises to purify speech so that nations can be united in true worship. Instead of many tongues causing division, purified lips bring unity in calling upon the Lord. It is a universal call for the people of the world to return to the God of the Bible.

This is covenant language. Regarding the day of the Lord and its purpose, Joel 2:32 says,

³² And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered [or saved]….

Acts 2:21 quotes this, saying,

²¹ And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Paul enlarges on the scope of this salvation in Romans 10:12, 13,

¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him, ¹³ for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

The day of the Lord, then, though temporarily destructive due to divine judgment, is ultimately God’s way of correcting the nations, purifying their lips, and reversing the great rebellion and apostasy at the tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9. Zephaniah draws up this hope, applying it to the day of the Lord. Few people have truly grasped the mind of God in this, because they fail to understand the law of Jubilee and the nature of grace itself.

Paul makes it clear that one must call upon the name of the Lord in order to be saved. In other words, no one will be saved apart from repentance from sin. Yet God’s grace is a sovereign act of the New Covenant, which obligates God to turn the hearts of the people by His own will and power. So Paul tells us about the remnant of grace in Romans 9:5, 6 saying,

⁵ In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice. ⁶ But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of [men’s] works, otherwise, grace is no longer grace.

“Works” are not merely one’s deeds but includes the will of man, for John 1:13 says,

¹³ who were born, not of blood [bloodline] nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Natural childbirth comes by the will (desire) of men in a fleshly way, but the children of God are begotten by the Spirit according to the sovereign will of God. This is also seen in the two covenants. The Old Covenant was man’s vow to God by the power of his own will (Exodus 19:8), but the New Covenant was God’s vow (or promise) to man by the power of His will. Man’s will produces deeds, or “works,” while God’s will produces His deeds. Whoever makes the vow is the one responsible to keep it.

The primary example of this is seen in the story of Jacob and Esau. Romans 9:11, 12,

¹¹ for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, ¹² it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.”

Purified lips enable the nations to genuinely enter covenant relationship with Israel’s God. The New Covenant is the only covenant that can be fulfilled, because God is able to do all that He has promised. Hence, Jacob, the child of promise, was conceived through the New Covenant promise of God, while Esau, who occupied the same womb, was a child of the flesh. The twins were manifestations of the two covenants, and hence their lives and callings were very different.

So God called a remnant of grace within Israel in the days of Elijah, and He continued this pattern in the New Testament as well. This does not mean that the vast majority will be lost, but that they will call upon the name of the Lord at a later time, thereby qualifying for salvation. In the end, “every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Philippians 2:10). Furthermore, “every tongue will confess [“profess completely and without reservation”] that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:11).

Although Zephaniah himself does not give us the details as to how the nations will be saved, we know this from the apostolic comments on Joel 2:32.