PT-2 The Nation will be Restored from Zeph. 3:18-20

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/18/2016 9:44 PM
My Worship Time         Focus:  PT-2 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.”
 As we have gone through the Old Testament prophets we have seen some common threads in all of them, that is that we see that the Lord gives hope to Israel as many if not all of them have something to say about the end times when the Lord will restore the nation of Israel with Messiah, Jesus Christ to be the ruler of the restored Israel and reign from David’s throne in Jerusalem.  We have seen in the book of Zephaniah that the main theme is the “Day of the Lord,” and in reality the Day of the Lord will take place near the end of the Tribulation Period, but as we have seen before in the prophets that we will see a little picture of the Day of the Lord that these prophets write about that will take place close to the time that they are prophesying and then the larger picture of it as they talk about the end times Day of the Lord.  When Judah was taken by the Babylonians this was a picture of what will happen during the end times and is what many of the prophets wrote about.  Now Zephaniah is the last Minor Prophet to write in the time before Babylon captures Jerusalem, and the other three Minor Prophets write during the exile period or when the Jews were permitted to return to Jerusalem.  I still am not sure if this will be our last SD on the book of Zephaniah as for sure this will conclude the text of the book, but as I said earlier in our last SD Dr. Wiersbe has written rather extensively at the end of his commentary on Zephaniah and we may look at some quotes from his writings.
 We will begin with this paragraph from Dr. Wiersbe:  “The state of Israel was ‘born’ on May 14, 1948, but that event, significant as it is, was not the fulfillment of God’s promise to regather His people and restore their fortunes.  That promise will be fulfilled in the end times, after the Jews have experienced the Day of the Lord and been prepared to see their Messiah.  But God’s promises will be fulfilled, and God’s people Israel will be restored and bring worldwide glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  I totally agree with this statement, and would like to add that as you look at all of the end time prophecies and there are many, many of them, one thing is for certain and that is that Israel has to be in their land before any of these events can take place.  I have believed for a long time that the event that took place in May of 1948, that is Israel becoming a nation, was a fulfillment of what Ezekiel wrote of in chapters 36-37.  This, to me, is the first step or perhaps the preparation of end times.  Daniel writes in the famous 9th chapter that the beginning of the Tribulation Period takes place when the antichrist makes a treaty with the nation of Israel for seven years and so as stated earlier Israel has to be in the land for the end time prophecies to happen.
 Dr. Wiersbe now writes:  “But there is a present-day practical lesson here for any of God’s people who have strayed from His will and experienced His chastening.  When you come to Him with a broken heart, confessing your sins, He will receive you the way a loving mother receives a disobedient child.  He will love you and even sing to you!  He will bring peace to your heart and ‘quiet you in His love.’  Yes, we suffer for our disobedience; and sometimes we carry the scars of that disobedience for the rest of our lives.  But the Lord will forgive us (1 John 1:9), forget our sins, and restore us into His loving fellowship.
 “Dr. William Culberson, late president of Moody Bible Institute, sometimes ended his public prayers with, ‘And Lord, help us bear the consequences of forgiven sin and to end well.’  There are consequences to forgiven sin; for though God in His grace cleanses us, God in His government says, ‘You will reap what you have sown.’  After King David confessed his sin, the Prophet Nathan assured him that the Lord had put away his sin, but the rest of his days, David suffered the tragic consequences of what he had done (2 Sam. 12:1-1 5).
 “Jehovah is ‘the God of hope.’  Therefore, He can fill us with ‘all joy and peace in believing’ so that we can ‘abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit’ (Rom. 15:13 NKJV).
 “Is that your experience today?”
3/18/2016 10:12 PM