Zephaniah 3.15b-The Third and Fourth Reasons Why the Future Remnant of Israel Will Rejoice
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday September 8, 2016
Zephaniah: Zephaniah 3:15b-The Third and Fourth Reasons Why the Future Remnant of Israel Will Rejoice
Lesson # 87
Zephaniah 3:14 Shout for joy, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! 15 The LORD has taken away His judgments against you, He has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; You will fear disaster no more. (NASB95)
“The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst” is composed of the following: (1) masculine singular construct form of the noun melek (מֶלֶךְ), “the King of” (2) masculine singular noun proper noun yiśrāʾēl (יִשְׂרָאֵל), “Israel” (3) masculine singular proper noun yhwh (יהוה), “the Lord” (4) preposition b (בְּ), “in” (5) masculine singular construct form of the noun qereb (קֶרֶב), “midst” (5) second person feminine singular pronominal suffix ʾat (אַתְּ), “your.”
The noun melek (meh-lek) means “king” referring to the governmental head of the nation of Israel which is indicated by the word which it stands in construct relation to which is the noun yiśrāʾēl, “Israel” which refers to the nation of Israel.
The construct relation of the noun melek means that it is governing the word which follows it and is expressing a genitive relation with this word which is the noun yiśrāʾēl (yeese-rie-ale), “Israel.”
The genitive relation between the nouns melek and yiśrāʾēl is a genitive of subordination meaning that yiśrāʾēl specifies that which is subordinated to or under the dominion of the construct noun melek.
This indicates that this king (Jesus Christ) was “over” the nation of Israel.
Thus, this genitive expresses Jesus Christ’s sovereign authority over the nation of Israel.
The genitive relation could also be interpreted as possession or relationship meaning that yiśrāʾēl possesses a relationship with melek expressing the fact that the nation of Israel possesses a relationship with Jesus Christ.
This king which is sovereign over the nation of Israel is identified by the proper noun yhwh (Yahweh) as being “the Lord.”
It again, as was the first time the word appears in this verse, functioning as the covenant keeping personal name of God emphasizing the personal covenant relationship that the future remnant of Israel living during the millennial reign of Christ will enjoy with God.
The noun qereb (keh-rev) means “midst” since it pertains to the location of something or someone in the middle, the center or “the midst” of something or someone or a group of people.
Here it refers to “the midst” of the future remnant of Israel.
This is indicated by the construct state of this noun.
This means that qereb is governing the word which follows it and is expressing a genitive relation with this word which is the second person feminine singular pronominal suffix ʾat, which means “your” referring once again to the future remnant of Israel.
The noun qereb is also the object of the preposition b (bay), which means “within” since it functions as a marker of position or location within a geographical area, defined by the objects around it.
Therefore, this prepositional phrase indicates that the Lord is located within the midst of this future remnant of Israel.
“You will fear disaster no more” is composed of the following: (1) negative particle lōʾ (לֹא), “no” (2) second person feminine singular qal active imperfect form of the verb yārēʾ (יָרֵא), “you will fear” (3) masculine singular adjective raʿ (רַע), “disaster” (4) adverb ʿôd (עוֹד), “more.”
The verb yārēʾ (yah-ray) is used of this future remnant of Israel and pertains to being in a state of feeling great distress and deep concern of pain or unfavorable circumstance.
The verb’s meaning is emphatically negated by the negative particle lōʾ (לֹא), which means “absolutely never” since it is used as a marker of emphatic negation.
The direct object of this verb is the adjective raʿ (rah), which pertains to that which causes harm or destruction or misfortune.
The word means “disaster, calamity” in the sense of God permitting evil Gentile nations to successfully attack Israel and cause her citizens to suffer death and for those who survive, great hardship.
The adverb ʿôd (ode) is a temporal marker and means “anymore” since it is a constituent adverb having to do with duration or continuation in a temporal sense.
Here it marks the point in which Jerusalem will no longer need to fear disaster.
In other words, it marks the point in time when the Lord Jesus Christ removes fear of disaster from the nation of Israel.
The imperfect conjugation of the verb yārēʾ refers to a completed action as part of a temporal sequence.
It is expressing this future remnant of Israel absolutely never fearing disaster or calamity anymore as taking place in the future from the perspective of Zephaniah in the seventh century B.C. when he received this revelation from the God of Israel.
Zephaniah 3:14 Sing a song expressing joy, daughter of Zion! Each and every one of you shout because of your victory! Rejoice, yes express great joy with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem! 15 The Lord has caused the lifting of the judgments directed against you. He has caused your enemy to be turned back. The King ruling over and in a relationship with Israel, the Lord is in your midst. You will absolutely never fear disaster anymore. (My translation)
The third declaration contained in Zephaniah 3:15 which serves as the third reason why the remnant of Israel should obey the commands in Zephaniah 3:14 asserts that the king ruling over and in a relationship with the nation of Israel, the Lord is bodily in her midst.
This is a prophecy of the king of Israel, Jesus Christ ruling bodily in the midst of this future remnant of Israel during His millennial reign.
This third declaration which appears in Zephaniah 3:15 is echoed again in Zephaniah 3:17 and is alluded to in other Old Testament passages of Scripture (cf. Ps. 46:5; Is. 9:7; 44:6; Ezek. 37:26-28; 48:35; Joel 3:17, 21; Zech. 2:10; 14:9).
The Scriptures teach that Jesus Christ Himself will reign bodily in Jerusalem for a thousand years as the King of the earth and Israel will be head of the nations.
Jesus Christ will establish His millennial reign at His Second Advent.
He will come from heaven with the elect angels and the church to deliver Israel from Satan and the non-elect angels and Antichrist, the false prophet and the Tribulational armies.
During the millennial reign of Christ, Satan will be incarcerated for a thousand years.
Israel will be regathered and the four unconditional covenants that the Lord established with the nation will be literally fulfilled.
There will be perfect social, economic, environmental and political conditions during the millennial reign of Christ.
During this time, God will make a display of the absolute authority of divine government through the rule of the Messiah.
Men will be subjected to and tested by the authority of the King.
The word “millennium” denotes a biblical doctrine taught in Revelation 20:1-6 and throughout the Old Testament.
It describes the penultimate triumph by the Lord Jesus Christ over Satan and the kingdom of darkness and the establishment of the kingdom of God on planet earth.
The distinctive feature of this doctrine is that Christ will return “before” the thousand years and therefore will characterize those years by His personal presence and exercise of His rightful authority, securing and sustaining all the blessings on the earth which are ascribed to that period.
The millennial kingdom will be a glorious kingdom because of the bodily presence of the Creator, Jesus Christ on the earth in a glorified, resurrection body (Is. 24:23; 4:2; 35:2).
The King will administer to every need and there will be complete comfort and rest in the millennium because of His bodily presence (Is. 12:1-2; 29:22-23; Jer. 31:23-25; Zeph. 3:18-20; Zech. 9:11-12; Rev. 21:4).
There will be the administration of perfect justice to every individual because Jesus Christ will not only be bodily present but He will be ruling as King not only over Israel but also over all the earth and every nation (Is. 9:7; 11:5; Jer. 23:5; 31:23; 31:29-30).
The last declaration contained in Zephaniah 3:15 which presents the fourth reason why the future remnant of Israel should obey the commands issued to her in Zephaniah 3:14 asserts that this future remnant will absolutely never fear disaster anymore.
She will absolutely never have to fear disaster anymore as a result of Jesus Christ living in her midst.
The nation of Israel will not fear anyone because her time of discipline will have ended.
She will no longer fear anyone or anything because Jesus Christ has destroyed all her enemies.
She will no longer need to fear anyone or anything since all their sins were paid for by Jesus Christ at the cross of Calvary (cf. Zech. 12:10-13:1; Rom. 11:26).