Prophetic Prospective Daily Devotional

These verses, written by the ancient Jewish prophet Zephaniah for our reading today are a prophecy of a day yet future for the Jewish people. The prophecy will be fulfilled in the coming "kingdom period" promised to the Jewish people.

There was an interesting phrase used in verse 14, the word "daughters" before Zion and Jerusalem. The prophet used "daughter" because in Hebrew, the name of a city is in the feminine gender and "daughter" is referring to the residents of the city. The people of Jerusalem, Zion, which are synonymous, mean the same city and the daughters are the residents of that city.

These residents will rejoice in Jerusalem because God has given the Kingdom to Jesus, the Messiah King and has taken away the judgment of almost 2,000 years from the Jews, verse 15. The "King", King Jesus, the one who comes from the family of King David, will be in the midst of the Jews on His throne in the eternal undivided city of Jerusalem.

The Jewish people, because of disobedience, have been scattered around the world for almost 2,000 years. In this coming "kingdom period", the Lord will not only gather them "back home" but the nations from which these Jews have been gathered will praise the Jews as compared to today when they are dishonored, oppressed, and often persecuted.

This will be a new age for the Jewish people. Ironically, the world should be honoring the Jews today - they are the "chosen people" of God. God is not finished with the Jewish people.

Today, the world finds it difficult to honor the Jews and instead easy to mock them. This type of treatment focused on the Jews will continue until the Messiah Jesus comes. Then the world will realize that the Lord has another plan for His "chosen people".