The forest fires raging in California and Western Canada have caused an incredible amount of devastation. Homes have been destroyed, communities erased, and lives lost. Many wonder if things will ever return to normal. After returning from the exile, life in Judah was not the same as it used to be. The Jewish people returned to a land devastated by war. No longer an independent nation with their own king, they had become a province in the mighty Persian Empire.

Into such discouraging circumstances God sent the prophet Zephaniah with a message of hope. God had not abandoned His people (v. 17). While their situation might have given them the impression that they were alone, the reality was that God was with them as He always had been. God was a mighty warrior, intent on saving them (v. 17). This portrait of God was designed to encourage them to have hope for the future.

After decades in exile, followed by decades of malaise, the Jewish people needed hope that God’s wrath could be assuaged, and that they would see the other side of Him again. He declares in Zephaniah that the time for rebuke is over. Instead, He will respond to them with delight and singing (v. 17). More than that, He will undo the effects of their sin. Oppressors who had been sent to afflict them will be removed (v. 19). The lame and exiled who find themselves helpless will be rescued and brought home to a hero’s welcome!

God will return things better than they were before. After enduring the punishment for their covenant violations, Israel could rest in the knowledge that their God had never abandoned them, and that He was a God who restores.