SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/17/2016 10:24 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Nation will be Restored
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Zephaniah 3:18-20
Message of the verses: “18 “I will
gather those who grieve about the appointed feasts-They came from you, O Zion;
The reproach of exile is a burden on them. 19 “Behold, I am going to deal at
that time With all your oppressors, I will save the lame And gather the
outcast, And I will turn their shame into praise and renown In all the earth.
20 “At that time I will bring you in, Even at the time when I gather you
together; Indeed, I will give you renown and praise Among all the peoples of
the earth, When I restore
your fortunes before your eyes," Says the LORD.”
These are
the last three verses in the book of Zephaniah and we may need more than one
Spiritual Diary to cover them, and as I look at the commentary from Warren
Wiersbe he has a lot of what I would call extra things after his commentary on
these three verses and I will have to go over them to see what I will want to
include in future Spiritual Diaries on the book of Zephaniah.
As we look
at verse eighteen Zephaniah speaks of the appointed feasts that are spoken of
in the book of Leviticus chapter 23.
When the Jews went into exile for seventy years while in Babylon, and
then in 70 AD when the Romans conquered them and sent them all around the world
they were not able to celebrate any of those feasts, and even today when Israel
is back in their land they have no temple to celebrate any of these feasts, so
it has been a long time, almost 2000 years since Israel has celebrated these
feasts, but the Lord says that there is coming a day when they will once again
celebrate these feasts. When we studied
the book of Ezekiel, chapters 40-48 we saw a lot of what the Millennial Temple
will look like and also the feats that the Jews will be able to celebrate
during the Millennial Kingdom. Dr.
Wiersbe writes “Of course, the types and symbols of the Old Testament Law have
all been fulfilled in Christ, including the feasts and sacrifices (Heb. 10),
but Zephaniah intimates that these feasts will be restored in the Kingdom Age,
and Zachariah 14:16-21 seems to support this interpretation.”
The
question is why should the Lord restore religious practices that have been
fulfilled? While studying the book of
Ezekiel the thought came up that the sacrifices will look back at what was
fulfilled in Christ while on the cross, and Dr. Wiersbe writes “Possibly as a
means of teaching Israel the meaning of the doctrine of salvation through Jesus
Christ. The feasts described in
Leviticus 23 picture ‘salvation history,’ from the slaying of the Passover lamb
(John 1:29) to the Day of Atonement (the cleansing of Israel) and the Feast of
Tabernacles (the Kingdom Age).”
We see from
our verses in Zephaniah that during this time God will gather His scattered
people, those who are lame and sinful, and He will rescue them and forgive them
so that they will not bear the shame of their wicked deeds as seen in Zephaniah
3:20 “I will bring you home.” God’s
promises are all going to be fulfilled at some time in the future. We will look at some more of this in our next
SD.
3/17/2016 10:44 PM
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