Closer Day By Day

Zephaniah is another minor prophet that we seldom refer to.

The setting is Jerusalem sometime between the prophet Isaiah and the prophet Jeremiah. Jerusalem knew that her days were numbered.  The Babylonians would be coming soon to bring the city to its knees.  It was a terminal judgement.  Nothing good was on her horizon… it was just a matter of time.

What kind of message would Zephaniah be bringing to the people.  Only doom and gloom I’m sure.

Am I sure?

Bible Passage:  Zephaniah 1-3

Zephaniah has spent the whole first chapter explaining to Jerusalem just exactly why she deserves the fate that awaits her. He speaks for God, “I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”

The main theme of Zephaniah is the coming of the Day of the Lord.

That will be when God will severely punish not just the stiff necked, idol worshipping Judah, but also the other nations that have gone against Him.  Indeed the stark horror and graphic imagery of the coming wrath of God is terrifying, especially when we read the verses slowly and imagine what will happen.

If the fiery rhetoric of vengeance at the hand of an angry God does not stir you - Consider!  Have we become like the people of Judah at that time… knowing full well the pending judgement of God and yet choose to do nothing about it.

It would be terrible if this is the only message we find in Zephaniah.  But let me just focus on this verse today…

“ Do not fear;
Zion, let not your hands be weak.
The LORD your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.”

Zeph 3:17

In the midst of all that was happening… we see the light of God’s compassion, love and mercy.

It was so totally unexpected.  But that is God!

Just when we think that all is lost and there remains no hope - He is there!

Just when you think that only punishment, sufferings await - He is there!

You may be going through a rough patch in your life right now.  Things are not going smoothly.  The world seems to be falling apart.  You have no control over your feelings.  You feel like there is no hope.

I challenge you to read the above verses again and not feel better.  If you don’t… read them again and see.

The Lord your God is with you

Have your recently thought about your status as a child of God?

Yes!  That is GOD.  We call Him Lord - the Great I Am.

Right!  He who is our all powerful defender, our provider and protector. Our awesome God!

The God whom we cannot escape from His presence.

That is a good thing.  For in your deepest sorrow, and in your greatest triumph, His presence goes with you.

He is with you right now!

He is mighty to save.

MIGHTY to save!

What a marvellous promise to hang onto.  Especially in our time of distress and need.

He is ever ready to dive in to rescue you.

We may feel that we are frail and constrained by our weakness.  We lament why is it that we do not have the strength to change - to be different and not repeat the same things over and over again.

But when we learn how to trust in the Lord of the Universe and Creator of all things - we know that He will come to our aid.

He is mighty to save you.

He will take great delight in you.

Come on!  Tell me the truth!

You love it when someone is happy with you!  Right?

You long to see the delight in your parent’s faces when you do well in your studies or career.  You rejoice when your friends enjoy your company and find you a blessing.

You are delighted when others are delighted with you! (ok… bad pun (: )

But here, the thought of GOD taking delight in me is almost more than I can comprehend!

Very often when I think of God, I would think about His loving care, his careful protection and righteous guidance.  But DELIGHT?

This very word brings to mind a whole side of God that I very seldom consider.

God finds delight in us!  It may be He is happy because we follow in His footsteps.  Like a father who bursts with joy when his child does something to make him proud, so is our Heavenly Father when we do His will.

Does God chuckle at our silly antics?  Does he laugh along with us in our joy?  I’d like to think so.

Let us consider the ways we can continually delight our God.

He delights in you.

He will quiet you with His love.

I just had dinner at a great steakhouse.  When I was there, I saw a young toddler running around happily with a balloon.  One waiter was serving a flaming skewer of meat and the balloon got too close to it and burst!

You can imagine the scene right away.  The child starts to cry - out of shock and loss.  Even we an adults were startled too!

Then this toddler’s father picks him up and quieten him, comforting him.

This same picture comes to mind when I think of how our Heavenly Father is there to pick us up when we have fallen to the depths of despair.  You can almost hear Him saying “SSshhhh, there now.  It’s alright, I’m here.”

He picks us up and enfolds us into strong arms and carries us to a safe place. Gone is the need to obsess over the “what if’s” and the “if only’s.”  We can rest in the security of His deep and abiding love.

Rest in Him today.

He will rejoice over you with singing.

When I read this part today, I found it absolutely amazing and wonder how I could have missed it before.

If the thought of God taking delight in me is amazing, then the idea of God singing and rejoicing over me is … just incredible!  Way over the top!

What would your life be like if you could open your hears to hear the sound of not just the heavenly choir singing - but they were just the backup choir to the Chief Soloist - our Lord singing His joy over us?

Just consider this… Our God is mighty and strong.  He freely rejoices over us out of the abundance and steadfastness of His heart. Now, the intensity of His delight in us is so great that it overflows in song.

As the trials or even the mundane of life threaten to make you lose heart, remember the unchanging, ever-present, mighty warrior God delights in us so much that right now in heaven He is bursting into song.

Take time to shut out all the other voices that vie for your attention and listen for the voice of God singing over you in love.

God rejoices over you… in a song!

When God sings… I want to be there!  But for now, I would just like to share a few songs.  The first one sings about Our Mighty God who saves.

Although there were many people in Judah who have abandoned God, there remained a remnant whom God knows that have done no wrong, spoke no lies and had no deceit in their mouths.  Despite all the world around them going astray, they chose to seek the Lord and found Him.

Let us strive to seek God while He may be found so that He will delight in us and sing over us…