What Would God Say?

Zephaniah 2:3, 3:11-13

You know, for those of you who are experts on the book of Zephaniah, you know, I ask your patience so that those of us who aren’t as expert on the book of Zephaniah can be brought up to speed. Does that sound fair? How many experts in Zephaniah do we have here today? Yeah, I’ve actually never preached on the book of Zephaniah, so this is my first time. And I think as we look at the book of Zephaniah, we hear God saying things to the Israelites that I kind of think he might say the exact same kinds of things to you and to me and to our world today. The book starts off by introducing us to Zephaniah. 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. Context. Josiah was, if not the best king of Judah, he was in the top two or three. He was a God-fearing king. And man did the Israelites need it because Josiah’s grandfather, Manasseh, was described in the Bible as the worst king that the nation of Judah had ever had. Manasseh built altars to Baal. Manasseh sought spiritists and mediums and seemed to encourage the people to seek spiritists and witches and mediums. And not only did he do those things, he also, quote unquote, caused his son to pass through the fire, which we think means that he offered one of his children as a child sacrifice. Ugh, this is really, really bad. And he reigned for 55 years. And so he had a huge impact on the nation of Israel. Just huge. His son Ammon was the same kind of guy. And he only reigned for two years, and then he was assassinated. I’m not sure, but I think he’s the only ruler of the southern kingdom who was assassinated. I didn’t double-check that, so I may be wrong on that, but I think he’s the only one who was assassinated. Josiah becomes king at the ripe old age of eight. Yes, he’s eight years old, and he’s the king in the land. That’s crazy. But apparently Josiah had some godly people around him because Josiah is a godly man. And Josiah sets about to try to get rid of a bunch of the garbage that his grandfather and father had brought into the land. He destroys the altars built to Baal. He destroys some of the high places, which was another place where heathen worship was taking place. He drove the spiritus and the mediums out of the land. He did a whole bunch of stuff. One of the big things he did was he repaired, refurbished, remodeled, however you want to think about it, the temple. And while they were remodeling the temple, they discovered the book of the law. It’s either the book of Deuteronomy or it’s the entire Torah, the first five books of the Bible. We’re not sure which. We think it was probably the book of Deuteronomy. Can you imagine the people of God were so spiritually obtuse that they had lost part of the Bible? That’s wild. And as the book was read to him, he tore his clothes because he realized how far away from God they had drifted. And so one of the things he did was he reinstated the Passover observance. Wait, again, the people of God were so spiritually messed up that they weren’t celebrating the Passover? That would be like you and me not celebrating Christmas and Easter. Really? I mean, that’s kinda unthinkable, isn’t it? And yet that’s where we were. God always was faithful and was sending prophets. And at the time of Zephaniah, there were several others. Jeremiah was a contemporary of Zephaniah. So was Nahum, so was Habakkuk. So you’ve got four faithful prophets of God. And you’ve got a godly king on the throne who’s encouraging people to come back to God. Surely things are gonna be looking up, or something’s gonna be coming up. You’re gonna be looking up, right? Verse two. “I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord. Wow. The Hebrew vocabulary is really similar to what God used when he talked about destroying the world with a flood. It doesn’t sound like things are looking up, does it? Not hardly. And then in chapter one, what God does is he goes through a whole litany of stuff that’s going on in the land, and none of it is good. We find out that in spite of Josiah’s attempts to reform, the people are continuing to worship Baal. They’re continuing to worship at the high places. Yes, they are making vows to God, but they’re also making vows to Molech, who is the God of the Ammonites, a God which, and that was a religion in which child sacrifice was practiced. God calls out the prophets, not Jeremiah and Zephaniah, but the false prophets who are prophesying lies and taking people away from the word of God. And it’s just this whole laundry list of just awful stuff going on in the land. What would God say to America? What would God say to independents, socialists, Republicans, Democrats, Green Partyists? What would God say to electricians and plumbers and doctors and nurses and school teachers and pastors? What would God say to Packers fans and Bears fans? I fear it wouldn’t be a lot different than what God had to say to the people at the time of Zephaniah, amen. I am guessing one of the things that God might say to us is the first official verse of our text, which is near the beginning of chapter two, where we read in verse three, “Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, “you who do it, he commands. “Seek righteousness, seek humility, “perhaps you’ll be sheltered “on the day of the Lord’s anger.” Just before that, God had described how the day of wrath was coming near. The cry of the day of the Lord is bitter for the mighty warrior shouts his battle cry. That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. In the fire of his jealousy, the whole earth will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live on the earth. What would God say to the United States today? Would it be any different? Just in case the Israelites are interested, God then broadens things out rather dramatically. God calls out judgment on the Felistans to the west, and on the Ammonites and the Moabites to the east, and on the Assyrians to the north and to the land of Kush to the south. Kush is probably modern-day Ethiopia. It talks about how they mocked the Lord, how they mocked his people, how they made fun of God, refused to listen to God. What would God say today? To China, to our west, to Europe, to our east, to Canada, to Mexico. Would it be any different? Does God see anything different in our world today than what he saw at the time of Zephaniah? Or do we continue to invite God’s jealous anger to be rained down upon us? Most importantly, what would God say to you and me, who are in theory the people of God? What marks our ways? Is it as Jesus talked about in the Beatitudes that we are meek, gentle, using our mouths to heal, using our words to encourage, seeking to bring peace? I look inside my head, I look inside my heart, and I shudder to see the garbage that’s in there. What would God say to me? What would God say to you? And then God turns his attention to Jerusalem, the quote-unquote holy city. If there was ever a place in the history of the world that had the chance to be a beacon of light to the world, it was Jerusalem. They were the place where the temple of God was. They were the place where the offerings to the true God were given. They were the place, it was the place where the Passover was called. The Passover was not celebrated anywhere else, only in Jerusalem. They had a chance to be a beacon of light to the oh-so-dark world. And suffice it to say, God hammers them. What would God say to you and me, the visible Christian church on earth, who have the chance to be the light of the world? That’s what Jesus calls us, right? Are we functioning in that way? Or are our lives just as dark? Just as earthly focused? Are we just as angry? Just as bitter? Just as resentful? Just as materialistic? Just as selfish as the world around us? Oh, I pray not. But again, I look into my head, and I look into my heart, and I just shudder. As I see myself failing to be the light of the world and the way I could be, as I see myself failing to be that beacon of hope, that beacon of light, that our world oh-so needs. I definitely wasn’t a beacon of light when I discovered the flat tire this morning. And so perhaps it’s with absolute amazement that we hear what God says as we get near the end of chapter three. He talks about how he’s gonna purify the lips of his people. He talks about how he’s gonna bring people from Cush, again, probably modern-day Ethiopia, and from all over the world to bring offerings to his name. What’s he talking about? He’s talking about the holy Christian church, that gathering of all his believers. And what does he say about us? On that day, Jerusalem will not be put to shame for all the wrongs you have done to me because I will remove from you your arrogant boasters. And this is the text, by the way. Never again will you be haughty on my holy hill, but I will leave within you the meek and the humble. The remnant of Israel will trust in the name of the Lord. They will do no wrong. They will tell no lies. A deceitful tongue will not be found in their mouths. They will eat and lie down, and no one will make them afraid. Can you imagine? He describes you and me as being spotless and blameless. Why? Because there in Jerusalem, that place that had the chance to be the beacon of light, that’s where the light of the world entered into the darkness of death, Jesus. So that he could wash you and me clean. So that you and I could become lights of the world. Wow. That God would speak so wonderfully about us is flat-out amazing. He goes on to talk about how we will sing, and we will shout aloud. We’ll be glad and rejoice with all your heart. For the Lord has taken away your punishment. He has turned back your enemy. The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you. Never again will you fear any harm. Wow. God promises to be with you and me always. God promises us that we don’t need to fear any harm because, after all, what’s the worst thing that can happen? We can be killed. In which case, where do we go? Heaven. So is being killed a bad thing? No, for us, it’s great because we get to go to heaven. And so what harm do we possibly have to fear? Flat tires, right? That we don’t need to fear any harm because the Lord is with you. And then, can you imagine, he even says this. At that time, I will gather you. At that time, I’ll bring you home. I will give you honor and praise among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your very eyes. And in fact, he even goes this far. God will take great delight in you. In his love, he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing. And some translations translated that he will boast over you with singing. Can you imagine? God is going to boast about you and about me. And say, yep, this one is one of mine. This one is my son. This one is my daughter. Look at him. Look at her. God rejoicing in us? That seems impossible. But that’s who your God is. He’s the God of the impossible. Who can cause Abraham and Sarah to have a baby at the ages of 100, 90, respectively? Who can take people dead in their transgressions and sins? And who can bring them to faith? Your God is the God of the impossible. Who has taken dark people like us and turned us into beacons of light? The light of the world. Reflecting Jesus’ light to others. Who now can use their lips, and of course, for us, it’s not only lips, but keyboards and whatever. Who can use our lips to heal and to encourage and to build up. Because your God is the God of the impossible. And I’ll notice he describes us as being meek and humble. He doesn’t describe us as being strong. He describes us as being a remnant. So would we expect us to ever be in the majority? Probably not. Could we become in the majority? Sure, because God’s the God of the impossible. But he describes us as the meek, the weak, the humble, the lowly. And you know what? That’s really good. And it’s really good for us to know. Why? Because when a person recognizes their weakness, what are they go looking for? Strength. And where is our real strength? It’s in Jesus. And so recognizing that we are the meek, recognizing that we are the weak, recognizing that we are the humble, blesses us wonderfully. Because it leads us to look to and cling to Jesus. As I read and studied, I learned a lot about Zephaniah this last week. As I read and studied, like I said at the beginning, I couldn’t help but thinking, I think God would say about the exact same things to us today as he said to them then. Because the world hasn’t really changed. Amen. Now here’s the sad thing. The people at Zephaniah’s time didn’t listen. And so the Babylonians came in, and they conquered the land, and destroyed the temple, and the people of God were scattered all over the place. And the challenge to you and to me today is very simple. They refused to listen. Will we listen? My sincere hope and prayer is that I will listen, my sincere hope and prayer is that you will listen too. May God grant it. Amen. And amen.