“Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The LORD hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more.” (Zephaniah 3:14-15)
The last few verses of Zephaniah show us the end of judgment. You might think that such a woeful book would end in tears, but the opposite is true. This book of judgment goes on for 3 chapters prophesying of the coming sorrow and judgment of sins of the people of God and all of the world, but God’s judgment always leads to pleasant outcomes. The last seven verses are not only happy verses but a command to sing, shout, and rejoice with all our hearts because God’s judgment has come and has had its peaceable outcome.
“Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.” As Zephaniah has prophesied, the Day of the Lord is at hand, and that day will be full of tears and weeping for the judgment that comes. But thank God it is the Day of the Lord, and as all days come to pass, so will His day of wrath and anger pass over like a storm. Then will come the calm after the storm, the day of singing, shouting, and rejoicing that His storm of wrath has blown away iniquity from all corners of the earth, and there will still be a remnant standing! This will be the group singing, shouting, and rejoicing, those who were covered over and saved from His wrath. It is only in Jesus Christ that we find shelter from the storm of His judgment, for He became our shelter on the cross of Calvary when all the floods of wrath were poured out on Him in those hours of darkness, and as the song goes “The Lord’s our rock in Him we hide, a shelter in the time of storm!” This promise is to national Israel and will be physically fulfilled sometime in the future; it is in Jesus that they too will come to trust, and they will be hidden from wrath as we are today.
If you are in Jesus Christ, then the day of God’s wrath has passed over and you should sing, shout, and rejoice with all your heart because “The LORD hath taken away thy judgments.” All of them are gone, not a single one is left to be dealt with. When the Judge looks at your file, it has not a single misdemeanor, Jesus Paid it all! Before we were in Him, there was a thunderhead gathering over our heads, swelling larger and larger with every sinful deed, like a cloud grows heavier and heavier with every vapor rising from the earth and condensing in the clouds. So do men's sins rise from the earth into the record books of our Just God, and those vapors of sin have been rising now for 6000 years, and soon the sins that went up shall fall down in judgment as they did in Noah's day. Yet in Christ, all the judgment is passed! He bore it all! I will never cry, "Why hast thou forsaken me!" He was forsaken on my behalf. Sing, shout, and rejoice with all thine heart, "The LORD hath taken away thy judgments.”
We should sing, shout, and rejoice because "He hath cast out thine enemy." The accuser of the brethren has been defeated and will be defeated! Jesus made a show of him openly as he ascended on high. The resurrection was proof that sin and its power could no longer hold us! Not only has the penalty of sin, death, been cast out, but the power of sin no longer animates our life. We have victory in Jesus. We are no longer dead in our trespasses and sins but have been quickened together with Christ! Sing! Shout! Rejoice with all your heart! "Our enemy is cast out!"
Sing, shout, and rejoice because “The king of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of thee.” Our God no longer dwells in a tabernacle made by human hands, nor do we have to travel thousands of miles to worship him. He is in us! Jesus told his disciples, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” (John 16:7) We are at no disadvantage today not having the resurrected Lord with us, for Jesus told us it was good for him to go away. Now he is not just with us, but in us! We have become the temple of the Holy Spirit, sealed unto the day of redemption. Surely this is cause for rejoicing!
In Christ Jesus, “Thou shalt not see evil anymore.” Being in Him means that He is the Lord of our life, the master of every detail, and even those things that seem evil cannot work evil ultimately for us, “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” As Joseph testified, so can we, “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good.” It was in this very truth that Paul sang, shouted, and rejoiced; “Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” Dear Christian, Sing, Shout, and rejoice with all thine heart for, “The LORD hath taken away thy judgments, He hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil anymore.”
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