those who are left in Israel; they shall do no injustice and speak no lies, nor shall there be found in their mouth a deceitful tongue. For they shall graze and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.”
These words close a book of judgment. God has sifted a nation and removed the proud. He then describes the small group left by how they speak and how safely they live. So who are they, and what turns people known for deceit into people with no lie in their mouth?
Who is left
The verse names a people who are left over. One writer sets this at a coming judgment, and says who is removed and who stays.
F. B. HoleGod will fulfil Zephaniah 3:11-13. Judgment will take the transgressors away. The afflicted and poor people who trust in the name of the Lord will be left to enjoy the blessings of the coming kingdom. These are "the remnant of Israel."
The end of lying
The verse names two sins: wrongdoing and lying. One writer explains where such deceit comes from, and why only grace ends it.
William Kelly"Those who are left in Israel... shall do no injustice and speak no lies." These are the very faults they have been so notorious for during their sad and often persecuted stay among the Gentiles. Deceit has especially marked the Jew in exile. It tends to be the character of a downtrodden people. People who have things their own way can afford an outward, natural honesty. But this people were hunted and destroyed for ages, so no one should wonder at it. Where people do not know grace in Christ, persecution breeds this deceit in speech, and wrongdoing in many other ways. But the change is at hand… There will be the removal of all the old occasion for outward fear; and even before this, the grace of God will have worked a moral change inside them. Outward things can never really form the heart.
Cleansed first
The verse says what this people will not do. One writer points to what God does first, before any of it is true of them.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe restored nation will not need to be ashamed of anything they have done. The Lord in His infinite grace will have cleansed them from their iniquity. They are no longer proud and haughty, but a humbled remnant, trusting in the Lord… They will then be a righteous nation, do no iniquity, nor speak lies… But when that day comes the deceitful tongue will not be found in their mouth. They will feed and lie down and none shall make them afraid. They have become once more the sheep of His pastures, gathered by the Good Shepherd.
Both writers trace this change to God, not to easier conditions. Kelly has it starting before their circumstances improve. Gaebelein ties it to God cleansing the nation.
Why the mouth matters
Why single out the mouth? One writer shows how seriously Scripture treats lying, right to its last page.
H J VineIt is striking and significant how Scripture constantly condemns lying. The last two chapters of the Bible speak with great seriousness about those who "make a lie." The last on the list of those cast out to the second death are "all liars." Satan is the father of lies. Those marked by lying in life and speech may read their doom here, unless they come to the One who can save and sanctify them. The hypocrites at this time make a "refuge of lies" (Isa. 28:15-17); but "those who are left in Israel... shall do no injustice and speak no lies" (Zeph. 3:12-13). Neither pride, nor deceit, nor lying will mark these servants. They take hold of the glorious name of the Lord and rejoice in Him with true confidence, for their righteousness is in Him.
Fed and unafraid
Grazing and lying down is shepherd language, and the writers hear the twenty-third Psalm in it. The security is not self-made; it comes from the One caring for them.
The Christian's FriendThey are restored, and under the care of the Shepherd of Israel. He makes them lie down in green pastures and leads them beside the still waters. So the end is reached in the fulfilment of all their hopes and blessing… Their judgments have been taken away for ever. The enemy has been cast out. The Lord once more dwells among His people, in a far more glorious way, and they will see evil no more.
Summary
- Left — judgment removes the proud and the transgressors. What remains is the afflicted and poor who trust in the Lord's name: the remnant of Israel.
- Cleansed — God first takes away their iniquity and their pride. The clean record follows the cleansing.
- Changed — deceit marked a hunted, downtrodden people. Only God's grace working inside them ends it, because outward things never form the heart.
- Truthful — Scripture keeps testing people by their speech. Hypocrites shelter in lies; on the last page of the Bible, liars are cast out.
- Unafraid — they feed and lie down as the sheep of the Good Shepherd. The enemy is gone, and every old cause of fear with him.