Zephaniah 1:1:3-20; Revelation 10:1-11; Psalm 138:1-8; Proverbs 30:11-14
Zephaniah, another semi-obscure prophet of God, has come
to warn Israel about the impending destruction and doom. Sounds sort of
familiar, huh? But here’s what I love about Scripture, and the OYB format
really helps us to see it: God is very, very clear. How could anyone miss the
message all these prophets are delivering?
We’ve been on this journey for almost a year. We see the
same things of God throughout all the Scriptures. His character and purpose
seem so clear when you look at the Bible as a whole. That’s why I love reading
it in its entirety and not just in bits and pieces.
Lots of people like to quote Zephaniah 3:17 - “The Lord
your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you; he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”
What an amazing message and truth that is. But when
people quote that verse, I wonder if they have read all the verses around it as
well. Or did they just pick that one out because it sounded like a happy, pick-me-up
kind of message? While it may be those things, the real power of that verse
comes from the preceding two chapters. Let’s look at some of the words found in
the first two chapters of Zephaniah:
- “I will sweep away everything” (1:2).
- “Be silent before the Lord for the day of the Lord is
near” (1:7).
- “Their blood will be poured out like dust and their
entrails like filth” (1:17).
- “Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be
sheltered on the day of the Lord’s anger” (2:3).
The message is clear, destruction is coming. Yet God is
with us. Just like Habakkuk, Zephaniah doesn’t find comfort only in the
deliverance from trouble, but rather through the presence of
the Lord in the midst of trouble. They
know they are not going to be delivered, at least not immediately, but they
find an amazing ability to trust and even to rejoice in the midst of this
impending doom.
I can almost picture it like one of the great action
movies where chaos is everywhere and stuff is exploding and everything looks
like it’s going to be lost forever. Then the movie goes into slo-mo while
our hero and his girl look at each other meaningfully and the music switches
over to a calm, sappy song while bits of buildings and stuff fly all
around them. Am I describing it right?
That’s the picture I get with Zephaniah. He’s in that
slo-mo frame with the Lord. He’s not bothered by the debris that falling
all around him. He’s being quieted by God’s love. He’s being rejoiced over with
singing.
Can we do that today? Can the words of
Zephaniah comfort us, not because we lack any kind of trouble, but because we
know he is with us in the midst of it? Can we enter that slo-mo frame?
Can we wait and trust, knowing that one day we will too will be restored? God’s
promise is the same for us - “'I will gather you; at that time I will bring you
home.…I [will] restore your fortunes before your very eyes,’ says the Lord"
(Zeph. 3:20).
- Mary Matthias
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