New Sayings
Zephaniah 3:1-5 ESV
Zephaniah 3:17 ESV
It’s a ratchet: Everything is just a messed up failure.
We’ll get to that later…
First we need to establish some kind of timeline for the scripture. Zephaniah prophesied during the reign of King Josiah who reigned from 640 to 609 BCE. King Josiah was a good king.
Zephaniah prophesied Nineveh would be destroyed and that was in 612 B.C.
There are times (days) we have all had that are etched in our memories forever as being a totally messed up awful day.
I haven’t had more than a handful of those, but my mom sure has.
I suppose if a body has made it around the sun 95 times that’s not unusual.
For my Mom, she’s buried every parent, every family member of her generation, and two husbands. She’s lost every lifetime best friend, every sibling, and possibly every classmate she went to school with.
She’s endured it all.
She stands by God as she faces each new day. She frequently says she’s ready, she’s ready, she’s ready.
In my mind, that kind of faithfulness is what God wanted for Israel.
God had been faithful to Israel because God loved them,
God wanted their love in return.
In Chapter 2, Zephaniah issues a last chance edict of judgment against the nations. Zephaniah warns all to seek the Lord while they can. He issues a judgment against the Philistines, against the Moabites and the Ammonites. He issues a judgment against Ethiopia and Assyria.
As Chapter 3 opens Zephaniah warns Jerusalem again and again with a series of ‘she does not’ statements.
We learn in Zephaniah 3:1-5:
“Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled, the oppressing city!
She listens to no voice; she accepts no correction.She does not trust in the Lord; she does not draw near to her God.
Her officials within her are roaring lions;her judges are evening wolves that leave nothing till the morning.
Her prophets are fickle, treacherous men;her priests profane what is holy; they do violence to the law.
The Lord within her is righteous; he does no injustice;every morning he shows forth his justice; each dawn he does not fail; but the unjust knows no shame.”
That day was a really really bad awful very bad day for Israel. It was a ratchet.
Through the prophet, God revealed how He saw His people. They were His beloved children, and they were rebellious. They wouldn’t listen.
They didn’t trust God.
Israel’s leaders were compared to roaring lions and ravenous wolves. The prophets were fickle and the priests made a mockery of what was holy and they did not revere the law of God.
Still, God stood by her every morning with His justice.
In Zephaniah 3:17 the prophet reminded Israel, “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”
Even though Israel had failed God, God did not fail Israel.
Through it all, God was faithful to His children.
Zephaniah’s message was that even though His children forgot about God and God’s faithfulness, God had not forgotten about them.
God was in their midst and wanted to save them. God wanted His children to turn to Him.
God rejoiced over them.
God promised He would quiet them with His love.
What God wanted more than anything was that they would realize that God was standing by to exult over them.
God sings a love song. He sang to Israel and He sings it now. He sings His love song to all the faithful ones who will listen.
Do you hear? Do you hear God’s love song He sings for you? Day and night, night and day, God sings…
Spiritual Practice: God’s Song
Sit with God. Listen as God sings His love song calling you to Him.
In God, Deborah
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