Zephaniah: The meek will inherit the Holy City

Matthew 5: 5.  Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Zephaniah said: "But I will leave within you the meek and humble, who trust in the name of the LORD." Zephaniah 3.12

That sounds lofty and noble. That sounds spiritual, doesn’t it? Perhaps it’s because we aren’t hearing the inflections in voice of the prophet. Perhaps it’s because we can’t see the expression on his face. Perhaps it’s because we have some preset opinions as to what ‘piety’ looks like.

I’ve known more than a few ‘pious’ folks who had developed an affect of ‘meekness’ and ‘humility.’

What if our religious cultural conditioning has ignored the harsh realities of the prophecy? Here’s what we see in a literal rendering of Zephaniah 3.12 And I will leave in your midst a people poor and weak, and they will trust in the name of Yahweh.

It isn’t just “poor and weak,” but actually it infers someone who is “depressed, in mind or circumstances” “afflicted, humble, lowly, needy, poor.” No piety found there…instead, there is every reason for pity and compassion. They have no resources; they have to trust in the Lord.

What was Jesus saying? Was this a reference to the same prophetic event as Zephaniah’s?

“Blessed are the meek (the mild; the humble) because they will inherit the earth.” Matthew 5.5

"But I will leave within you the meek and humble, who trust in the name of the LORD." Zephaniah 3.12

Zephaniah was saying that any hopes for God’s children are based upon their trust in God. It requires a trust that comes from having absolutely nothing else in which to place our hope. Jesus was saying that ultimately these “meek” (humbled) people are the ones who will inherit the earth.

Zephaniah said that it would be these “poor and weak” (depressed, in mind or circumstances; afflicted, humble, lowly, needy, poor) who would be the ones left standing in the Holy City after all the dust of conquerors and conquered settled.

11. “…the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. 12. For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.” Ecclesiastes 9.11-12

Not to the strong is the battle, not to the quick is the race…we must humble ourselves, therefore, in the sight of God.