Title I will make you praise and fame.
Contents
♡♥♡ You will get praise and fame. / Zephaniah 3:14-20
*** Introduction
The book of Zephaniah, which includes the text, is a word of God's warning and restoration, written at the last time when Judah, the southern part, was on the road to destruction. One of the twelve minor prophets, the prophet Zephaniah, was the last prophet to minister before the destruction of Judah and the exile. So the central theme of Zephaniah is “the day of the Lord.”
The ‘day of the Lord’ means the day of God’s wrath upon all people. All people include all the wicked people of Israel, the chosen people, and even the Gentiles who have been tormenting Judah. It is a day of wrath, a day of sacrifice and suffering, a day of dark and dark fear, a day of desolation and destruction.
The reason God is so angry is because of false worship of God. In Jerusalem, where God's chosen people were supposed to serve God, they forsook God and served foreign gods. They expressed it this way about God. Zephaniah 1:12. “The Lord will not bring down a hall, nor will he bring down his woe.” This is disbelief in God and denial of the existence of God.
Against this kind of Israel, God recommended final repentance through Zephaniah and warned of judgment and destruction again and again. Now the deadline is only 20-30 years. God knew that Israel would be proud and would not repent, and would eventually be destroyed. So God tells them, “Wait for me until the day I rise up and punish you” (Zep 3:7-8). And God will be gracious to all the nations of the world and to the remnant of Israel. In the end, the remnant Israel will be restored by God's grace. This promise of restoration is the main text of this hour.
1. The promise that God will restore is given to the remnant.
Let's read verse 17, a verse that many saints love so much. “The Lord your God is in your midst, the Almighty who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy, he will quietly love you, and he will rejoice over you with singing and rejoicing.”
Who is it that God is so pleased with? In verse 14, he says, “a man who rejoices in God with all his heart and rejoices in God. These are the people who were left behind by the grace of God, keeping their faith until the end. Let's look at verses 12-13 at the beginning of the text. “I will leave a wretched and poor people among you, and they will be protected in the name of the Lord. The remnant of Israel will do no evil, they will not tell lies, and there will be no deceitful tongue in their mouths, and they will eat and lie down, and no one will startle them.” Those who receive the grace of God are the ones left to the end. Jesus also said in Matthew 24:13, “He who endures to the end will be saved.” Therefore, the goal of faith that you and I must run is to become ‘a remnant who keeps the faith to the end. To do this, you must have a life of sincere faith that believes and depends on God.
In medieval monastic times, there was a priest with good faith. He always went to the temple and prayed at the appointed prayer time. However, as the years went by, his prayer, repeated every day, gradually became a formal prayer. He prayed, but he never thought that God would hear his prayers. I just prayed unconsciously, following my habit.
Then one day, I went to the temple at the appointed prayer time as I had done every day and began to pray. As he prayed, “O living God, have mercy on us and bless us!” there was a voice clearly audible in his ear. “Yes, I will bless you.” A voice so clear and clear came from heaven. However, it is said that the priest, who encountered an unexpected situation, was so shocked that he passed out on the spot.
In order to prevent such a situation in advance, the Lord said, 'Be sober and sober and pray.' 1 Peter 4:7. “The end of all things is near; therefore, be sober and sober, and pray.” You must have a living faith, not a formal faith.
2. What kind of grace is given to the remnant?
Even at the time when the word of judgment was proclaimed through the prophet Zephaniah, there were people who kept the faith. God promises to not forget them even in judgment and to reward them for their faithfulness. In the text, the reward is described in two main ways.
1) God is with you.
Let's look at verses 15-17. “The LORD has taken away your punishment and has cast out your enemies, and the LORD, the King of Israel, is among you, and you will never fear woe again. On that day a man said to Jerusalem, 'Do not be afraid. Zion, do not let your hands hang down. The LORD your God is in your midst, the Almighty who will save. He will rejoice over you with rejoicing; he will keep his love for you, and he will rejoice over you with singing and rejoicing over you.’” God said to the remnant, “Do not let your hands hang down.” He said, “He is doing this because of you with joy.”
Here, the remnant of those who 'hang down their hands' expresses 'the look of discouragement due to surprise and concern'. But God says, "Don't let your hands hang down." Why does God say, 'Do not lose heart'? The reason is that God has removed the punishment, cast out the enemy, and God is with him. Not only that, but because the God who is with him loves him so deeply that he cannot overcome his joy because of the remnant. This Immanuel God is the God who is with us now.
2) He promised complete restoration.
Let's look at verses 19-20. “I will gather those who are grieved because of the assembly, and they belong to you, and your disgrace has become a burden to them. At that time I will punish all who trouble you, save the lame, gather the outcasts, and bring praise and fame to those who are reviled in all the world. At that time I will lead you, and then I will gather you. When I restore your captivity from your sight, I will make you famous and praised among all the peoples under the world. I am the LORD, saith the LORD.”
The second reward that God has promised is ‘complete restoration’. However, we are specifically introducing those who will recover. They are “those who are grieved over the conventions.” These words mean those who grieve for not being able to keep the feasts of God because of their captivity in a foreign country. In other words, they are people of sincere faith who grieve over the reality of not being able to worship God.
God has prepared a special gift for those who grieve for not being able to fully worship God without complaining or crying because of suffering even in a poor environment. The primary gift will gather these scattered saints and punish those who tormented them. And he said that he would give praise and fame to the saints who kept their faith and endured shame. The primary gift is the gift you will receive on this earth now.
The second gift is the glory of the Day of Restoration. This day is a 'day of restoration' and a 'day of glory' for the believers who kept their faith. However, it will be a dreadful ‘day of judgment’ when God’s justice will be revealed to the whole world. Those who remain on this day are given the grace to “get praise and fame among all the peoples under heaven.” In other words, the secondary gift is the final reward to be given at the end. If this gift is expressed in the words of the New Testament, it is ‘the glory of reaching the kingdom of God’.
This grace will be given to us as we keep our faith in God and remain in Jesus Christ. In other words, all believers who are convinced of God's grace in Jesus Christ belong to the "remnant" who will enjoy God's glory. Therefore, let's depend on God and follow Him, regardless of the actual conditions and our own circumstances. If you do, you will surely gain praise and fame on this earth and in the kingdom of God.