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Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Zephaniah 2

God has shown kindness to Israel and Judah over many centuries. Like a father who has taken care of his children in their every need, the Lord has provided well for the descendants of Jacob. Their rebellion against Him is a shameful thing. Like the betrayal of Jesus by His friend Judas, there is nothing that can be said on behalf of this betrayer Judah that could even remotely justify the nation’s sad attack against the love of God. They should be very ashamed, yet here the Lord calls them a shameless nation.

They must come to their senses if they wish to continue to serve God according to His generous covenant arrangement established through Moses, and later through David. They must gather together in the presence of their divine Benefactor and seek His mercy before the devastation that He has spoken of through his prophet takes effect. This is not a new situation. This is a road they have travelled before. There is no secret knowledge that they need which has not already been revealed to them many times over. They should seek the Lord. They should pursue righteousness in all godliness and humility, acknowledging their guilt before God and humbling requesting that He put off once again the day of their national demise.

Their help will not come from any of the nations around them. The Lord of all the earth is uprooting all the nations of that time and place. The Philistines will face destruction as well. Is it possible that their lands will one day come to Judah, as the prophet here announces? There will be more on this theme in the final chapter of this book as the Lord describes a coming restoration for His people. In these few verses against some of the neighbors of the Israelites we have some hint that there will come a day when the Lord’s people will have a new beginning, a new time of greatly restored fortunes.

Through all of His terrifying acts of discipline against the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, there has always been a strong sense that the Lord has a full plan of grace for His people that can never be stopped. Even when God is full of righteous indignation for the rebellion of His beloved children, He can never break loose from the chords of love that draw Him to them in eternal covenant faithfulness. They are not like Moab, the Ammonites, or the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah to Him. Whatever else He might say to show forth His holiness and to shake them from their deadly lethargy and foolishness, He will never give up on the love that He has for them, for they are His children, and He is their Father. When He hears the taunting of other nations against them, He remembers His special love for His people. The Lord simply must be against those who are against His children.

Zephaniah announces that the Lord will soon destroy even the dreaded Assyrians, that powerful empire that He used against His people for a time. They defeated Israel in the north, and harassed Judah in the south, especially during the days of Hezekiah, Josiah’s great-grandfather. He was a king of Judah who knew how to mourn before God. He knew how to call out for help and to be heard. God used the Assyrians for His purposes, but they were never His special covenant people. Nineveh would become a desolation. Wild animals would take over lands that were once the proud possessions of a very mighty host. The city that was the emblem of power and pride would be laid bare.

Who can win a battle against the Lord? Who dares to stand against Him and against His people. He is God over all gods. There is no one else in His league. By His own power He created the heavens and the earth. He is working out His mysterious sovereign will. Other nations He uses for a season, but He keeps His promises to Israel.

But now a new way of peace with God has been revealed that does not require one to be a descendant of Jacob by natural birth. A way of righteousness and salvation from the Almighty has been discovered through the Messiah Jesus Christ. Through faith in Him, there is now the hope of participation in God’s holy people for those who were once far off among the nations of the world who were strangers to His covenant promises. That new way into the household of God is through adoption, rather than through natural birth. Even some of the sons of Jacob have been removed from the glories of Israel for a time and have made way for Gentile sinners to be considered full sons of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.

This plan of the Lord’s favor for God’s elect among the nations of the world helps us to make sense of His forbearance with His Old Covenant people over the course of many centuries. Why did He speak of their restoration, when by the strict standards of His justice they should have been gone from the land forever? Why would He speak against the enemies that attacked His people or who simply made fun of them, when He Himself knew that they simply could never achieve His holy standards of righteousness? It would be only through the provision of a substitute in the life and death of Jesus that sinners would soon find hope for communion with God; not only from among the Jews, but even from the Gentiles, who for so many centuries had no way to come to His family table. This great plan is being accomplished even now. For this reason we join with the angels in heaven in rejoicing when one of the sons of Jacob comes home to Yahweh through Jesus Christ; and it is for this reason that we similarly celebrate when people who had no connection with Abraham or Moses in the story of their natural heritage have now been justified by Israel’s God, and are guaranteed a place in heaven among the sons of light.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 12:00 AM

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