srael bring the
meat-offering in a clean vessel unto the house of the Lord." It is in
this verse that it clearly appears, that Zephaniah depends upon it; and
it is by the offering of the spiritual meat-offering that his
dependence is recognized. The subject in "they bring" is the Gentiles,
to whom the message of salvation has been brought. They, having
themselves attained salvation, offer to the Lord, as a meat-offering,
the former members of His Kingdom who were separated from it. It is
they, not the Gentiles who have become believers, who in the second [Pg
361] part of Isaiah, are throughout designated as the _brethren_.
Salvation is first to pass from Israel to the Gentiles, and shall then,
from them, return to Israel. The two verses before us thus contain a
sanction for the mission among the heathens and among Israel. Vers. 18
and 19 divide the conversion of the Gentiles into two main stations; it
is only when the Church has arrived at the second, that the missionary
work among Israel will fully thrive and prosper. To the _clean vessel_
in which the outward sacrifice was offered, correspond the faith and
love with which they, who were formerly heathens, offer the spiritual
meat-offering. Ver. 21: "And of them also will I take for Levitical
priests, saith the Lord." Of them, _i.e._, of those who formerly were
heathens; for it is to them that, in the words preceding, a priestly
function, viz., the offering of the meat-offering, is assigned. Of them
_also_; not merely from among the old covenant-people, to whom, under
the former dispensation, the priestly office was limited. The fact that
the priests are designated as Levitical priests, is intended to keep
out the thought that the point in question related only to priests in a
lower sense, beside whom the Levitical priesthood, attached to natural
descent, would continue to exist in full vigour. Priests with full
dignities and rights are here so much the more required, that,
according to what precedes, the point in question does not refer merely
to a personal relation to the Lord, to immediate access to the throne
of grace, but to the priestly office proper.

Vers. 11-13 describe the internal condition of the redeemed Church of
the future,--a condition so different from the present one. The
expression, "they that proudly rejoice in them," is from Is. xiii. 3.
[Hebrew: ki] in ver. 13 is to be accounted for from the fact, that
wherever there exists the blessing promised b