It is likely that Zephaniah was a young man of only 20 years old when he began to prophesy in around 630 BC. At the same time King Josiah was also very young, probably around only 17 years old. However, he had already been king for nearly ten years by then, as he became king when he was only eight. Interestingly, these two very young men shared the same great-grandfather, King Hezekiah. So what did Zephaniah say and did his distant relative listen?
The climax of the prophecy is the conversion and restoration of Judah but these were fulfilled neither in the years following Zephaniah, nor in New Testament times. The conclusion must be that they await fulfilment sometime in the future, and that time will be when our Lord Jesus Christ returns and sets up His kingdom on earth, when God’s will is to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
