When God Sang (Part 2)
“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." Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV)
A man suddenly started feeling horrible and was sent to the hospital.
The next day, the doctor had a talk with the man’s wife. He said, "Your husband has been suffering from serious stress. If immediate action is not taken, he could die in a very short time."
The woman said, "What type of immediate action?"
The doctor said, "You must provide a stress-free environment in your home. For the next two weeks, make wonderful meals for him every day. Also, you must be sure that you don’t nag him or stress him in any way."
On the drive home from the hospital, her husband asked, "So what’s wrong with me, honey?"
The woman paused for a moment and then replied, "Sorry, honey, but you’re going to die."
Did u get a sinking feeling lately? Feel horrible about the world? Stressed out? Need some immediate action??? Your world is just about to get worse!! Because that’s how God feels!
A. PAIN: God is burning
1 The word of the LORD that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, during the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah:
2 "I will sweep away everything
from the face of the earth,"
declares the LORD.
3 "I will sweep away both men and animals;
I will sweep away the birds of the air
and the fish of the sea.
The wicked will have only heaps of rubble
when I cut off man from the face of the earth,"
declares the LORD.
4 "I will stretch out my hand against Judah
and against all who live in Jerusalem.
I will cut off from this place every remnant of Baal,
the names of the pagan and the idolatrous priests-
5 those who bow down on the roofs
to worship the starry host,
those who bow down and swear by the LORD
and who also swear by Molech,
6 those who turn back from following the LORD
and neither seek the LORD nor inquire of him…
17 I will bring distress on the people
and they will walk like blind men,
because they have sinned against the LORD.
Their blood will be poured out like dust
and their entrails like filth.
18 Neither their silver nor their gold
will be able to save them
on the day of the LORD’s wrath.
In the fire of his jealousy
the whole world will be consumed,
for he will make a sudden end
of all who live in the earth."
This is scary stuff!! Blood poured out like dust and entrails like filth??? Why did God announce such scathing words? Scholars believe that the conditions of the time of Zephaniah were in one word “disgusting”. It was during the time when the nation of Judah, was still reeling under the very evil reign of their two previous kings, Mannaseh, who reigned 55 years and Amon who reigned 2 years (2 Chron.33). Their reigns provoked God, as they led the nation into idolatry of the grossest kind that included child sacrifice, witchcraft and building of pagan altars in the Temple of God.
The intent of Zephaniah’s prophecy was to tell the truth of how God really felt. To put it bluntly, God was deeply angered and was to the point of being just plain fed up. It was an “in your face” rebellion, an outright assault on the holiness of God. The defiance, the pride, the depravity, the mocking of God, the insults of other nations (2:4-15), the arrogance of their so-called spiritual leaders, the oppression by the powerful elite (3:1-4), the complacent spirituality who believe that nothing is going to happen saying “The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad” (1:12) really got under God’s skin! God’s anger is more than justified. God’s anger is kindled. God’s on fire! God’s going to clean house! Just you wait and see, God is going to turn loose His terrible wrath, all hell will break loose, “in the fire of his jealousy, the whole world will be consumed” so warns Zephaniah.
Are you thinking what I am thinking? Is there not a striking similarity to the conditions of Zephaniah’s time to ours? Is there “in your face” rebellion, spiritual complacency and apathy? Is there the sacrifice of children on the altar of birth control and convenience under the guise of reproductive choice? Is there the witchcraft of dizzying displays and stories of so-called supernatural psychic phenomena, UFO or ghost or Elvis sightings that turns people away from seeking God? Is there idolatry of the grossest kind where images of little children are worshipped as sex objects, building of pagan pornography on Satellite/Cable TV and Internet altars in the homes, mocking of God as He is blamed for every natural disaster when they don’t even believe God exists. Is there a cult worship of “reality TV,” wealth of Donald Trump or a Martha Stewart, plastic surgery and clones of America’s next top models? Genocide, famine, war, injustice, all because of human grudges revenge, rage, squabbling, political maneuvering, . Do you think God is provoked to anger in our time? Do you think God will sit by idly? Nothing bad is going to happen??? If there is a holy and just God, what is He feeling as He sees what goes on here in our lives, in our cities, culture, our world? How will He respond as He examines each human heart and see that it is deceitfully wicked and beyond cure?
Do we not tremble now before God? Is there a fear of God rising up in our hearts? The Lion of Judah roars from the pages of Zephaniah. The fire of judgment is coming! But where’s this judgment? Isn’t that just scary OT stuff? Surely the NT is kinder? Surely things will go on as it always been, same boring daily routine, right?
The apostle Peter affirms this in the NT when he wrote in 2 Peter 3:7 (NIV),
“… the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”
B. PATIENCE: God is not done with us
But wait Peter does not stop there. LOOK at the context of that statement!
Read 2 Peter 3 with me!
1Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 2I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.
3First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4They will say, "Where is this ’coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." 5But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
8But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Do you see what God is after? Will you read 2 Peter 3:9 one more time? He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. Can you see how God is pleading for you, waiting patiently, wishing harm to no one, hoping for you to come back to Him, desiring more than anything to forgive and show His heart of love. Do you see Zephaniah was written to tell us how God really feels about our world? How frustrated He is, how utterly disappointed He is, how downhearted He is that people would not turn to Him? Our present world with all its problems and hurts and pains will all go down in flames one day because God’s through with it, but God is not through with us? He desires us, patiently waiting for each one of us to come back to Him in repentance!
Peter wrote to stimulate us to wholesome thinking – to recall words of prophets such as Zephaniah and by Christ.
That God is not out to kick us when we are down. He is here to pick us up when we are down.
A.W. Tozer (1955,p.38) in his book The Root of the Righteous said,
“A truth fully taught in the Scriptures and verified in personal experience by countless numbers of holy men and women through the centuries might be condensed thus into a religious axiom: No one can know the true grace of God who has not first known the fear of God.”
When folks read the OT out of context, sometimes they get the wrong notion that God is out to get us. The reality is God our God, is a Father who is passionate for His children and He is not embarrassed at all to share His feelings, His passion, His heart. He would let the whole world know the pain He patiently carries, because He loves them, even at the expense of displaying His Son bleeding, naked on the cross so that Jesus could be the substitute for the sins of the world. Taking my sin, your sin, the world’s and God says “That’s enough” – IT is finished, God’s anger and wrath satisfied with the death of His Son.
Our fallen nature before a holy God is a total mess! We would be terrified at His incredible wrath and holiness. Hell-fire is real… But here’s the good news! God so loved the world! That He Gave! That He Gave! His Only Son! The Son He treasures from eternity. So that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life!!!
C. PICTURE: God’s pleasure with us
Do we see this truth? - God will not abandon us! If He has abandoned us, we will not be here today. He’d wiped out humanity, this world and not allow our sad existence to perpetrate more misery and pain. The Bible tells us:
“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." Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV)
Not only is He with us, desiring to come near us, be in relationship with us, He is mighty to save! It is a picture of a mighty warrior who’ll overcome all odds to defeat the enemy. The hebrew “to save” gibur – is said with an emphatic ommph – God will be evident in His saving power, He’ll win in the struggle.
Not only that, but He will be taking great delight in His people. Picture of husband cherishing his wife – adoring. Picture of love, committed love, picture the adoring groom looking at the bride walking down the aisle! God’s really pleased as punch to show Himself to be kind. See that in story Jesus told of the prodigal son!
Not only that, Zephaniah further elaborates “he will quiet you with his love” – could be translated as “He will be at rest in His love” or as the NASB says “He will be quiet in His love”. This illustrates the idea of the groom totally satisfied, content, sweetly quietly enjoying, hebrew “charash” to be silent, at rest. God will rest in His love. Do u see how God burns with passionate love for His people? Do you sense how God longs for us patiently?
When was the last time you really had a lover’s chat with God, taking long silent look at God, meditating richly on His word, come near Him, exposed your ugly side and to find Him still loving you, saying you’re beautiful, a new creation in Christ, pure, undefiled, lovely as you plunge into the depths of how deep and how wide and how high is the love of Christ? It is His great delight for you to enter His holy chamber and let Him care for you! Do you see how God rejoices over us, “he will rejoice over you with singing”? Return now to your God! What a God!!! Yeah!
I can understand why Paul would pray this prayer in Ephesians 3
16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Take home with u today this gift… a picture of God singing over you with joy, who’ll do what it takes to win you and preserve you, who is satisfied and content with you for coming back to Him and receiving Jesus Christ as your Savior and God. Start sharing this joyous picture with others, allow the joy of God in your heart today, to be the witness to their hearts of the incredible love of God.
