Zephaniah 3:14-15 (ESV)
Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! 15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil.
Bible Commentary
Zephaniah 3:14-15 is a Bible verse where God restores Israel’s joy and honor by clearing away her enemies.
There are a number of places in the Bible where God speaks about his beloved bride as the apple of His eye. As the church, we are the bride of Jesus Christ, and He eagerly awaits a dramatic and passionate reunion with His Own.
As we faithfully pursue the truth, He is faithful to clear away the enemies lodged in our hearts—bitterness, envy, and reproach of all kinds. Because we bought into Satan’s lies and pursued other gods we have been subjected to torture of the soul, mind and body.
We might not even recognize the fears and stresses of life as torture, but in essence that’s what it is. The good news is that Jesus died on the cross to save us and spare us from the pain and suffering in the world.
Follow Him Out
Though He uses the painful things in life to teach us and to grow our trust in Him, He desires to rescue His bride from any more pain or sorrow. Revelation 21:4 says, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
But we have a responsibility and role in this salvation. We must choose to accept His gift and follow Him out of the darkness and into the light. That can be a long process and journey. We live in the dark in so many different ways—in our attitudes, our speech, judgments against others and even in our finances.
When we accept Him into our lives, He takes us by the hand to lead us and show us how to walk in the light of His love. We can choose to go with Him or not. We choose to obey Him or not. It is all for our good and His glory.
As we accept the challenge of leaving the ways and attitudes of darkness behind, He gently and gradually restores the gifts of light and love. As we learn to trust Him more, He in turn trusts us more with the treasures of His kingdom.
Let Go and Let God
We gradually learn to let go and let God. We begin to believe that the treasures of Christ are greater than the treasures of the world. We experience the sweetness of His intoxicating love for us, and we follow Him because we adore Him.
We love Him because we have come to believe that He first loved us. As our belief and trust in His love for us grows, so does our spiritual and heavenly rewards, even while we live life on earth.
He lavishes out His perfect love, and as we participate in the sanctification process, the darkness departs and our enemies disappear. He is faithful to fulfill His promises.
In Christ, our judgments are taken away and He has cleared away our enemies (Zephaniah 3:15). We can sing and shout and exult with all our hearts (Zephaniah 3:14) because of His great love and mercy toward us!
He is ever-so patient as we dare to come closer to His light and His love. He never fails us and never will. The cross is proof of His great and amazing love for His bride…you and me.
Hallelujah and Amen! Study the Bible passage of Zephaniah 3:14-15 and rejoice in the faithfulness of the Lord Almighty!
