Zephaniah 3:18

"I will gather them that sorrow for the solemn assembly, who were of thee, to whom the burden upon her was a reproach."

"I will gather them that sorrow ..." Christ seems to have been very familiar with this passage, for, in the Sermon on the Mount, he said, "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." The great concern of Christianity has always been for the meek, the poor, the lowly, the sorrowful. Thus, Zephaniah is still speaking of conditions within the kingdom of Christ. As Keil said:

"The fulfillment of all this commenced with the founding of the Christian church by the apostles for Judah and for the whole world, and has been gradually unfolded more and more through the spread of the name of the Lord and his worship among all nations."[36]

In Micah 4:6-7, a similar promise brings into the solemn assembly the lame, that which has been driven away, and the afflicted. No other system ever known to mankind has ever concerned itself with the downtrodden and dispossessed in the same degree as that which marks the onward sweep of the Christian religion.

We do not wish to leave this passage without pointing out that such scholars as Eaton and Carson believe there is a reference in these verses, by implication, to the Bridegroom, Christ, and to his holy Bride, the Church. Whether or not this is so may be questioned, but the intimacy of the terminology surely seems to suggest it. "He is further represented as the Bridegroom, who in his love for his Bride, now proclaims his joy, now falls into rapt silence."[37]