Covenant Joy (Zephaniah 3:1-20)

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Well, good morning church. If you want to go ahead, grab your Bibles, open up to Zephaniah three. We will wrap up Zephaniah this morning. Zephaniah three. It is summertime. If you’ve been here at the church for any length of time, you know what I’m thinking about in summertime, which is our family’s almost annual trip to Lake Placid. But it reminds me of a time I was on the younger side, probably upper single digits, and I had three older siblings who had had a rough go of it in the spring, and my parents had had enough, and so not long before the trip, they informed my three older siblings that they would not be going that year. They’d be staying home with my dad. Well, my mom took the younger ones. We went out. And actually my brother, who didn’t get to go, his friend, was planning to go, he came with us. Still, they stayed at home. It was a big moment, of course, but they were allowed to come up for that second week because of some changes that you know had happened during that time, when they arrived for that second week of our vacation, there wasn’t any more negative motion. It wasn’t like we were living in the anger or the sorrow for past misdeeds. I’m sure there was some regret, but even most of that was gone. It was just joy. The punishment was over. It was time to have fun, joy for them, of course, but honestly, even joy for my parents, who were just glad, like, Okay, this, this is what we wanted to have happen. We wanted to have the whole family together and living together the way we’re supposed to do that is exactly the experience we get at the end of Zephaniah, the punishment is over, and it’s time for joy. And so we move from judgment to restoration, from pain to pleasure, from sorrow to joy. That is why our subtitle for the series is delivered to delight, just true confession time. All right, how many have been sitting here looking at this graphic for the last two weeks going, first of all, delight, and then, second of all, why is it like Summerfest? In the graphics back there, they’re singing, they’re dancing. It’s like Lollapalooza with more clothes, like, I don’t know. Well, we’re gonna find out why today. This is exactly the right graphic for this series in three scenes that kind of progress pretty rapidly from judgment all the way through to joy. So Scene one, Zephaniah, three verses, one to eight. Scene One is the destruction of the rebellious. Let me read three, one to eight. Woe to the city of oppressors, rebellious and defiled. She obeys noone. She accepts no correction. She does not trust in the Lord. She does not draw near to her God. Her officials within her are roaring lions. Her rulers are evening wolves who leave nothing for the morning. Her prophets are unprincipled. They’re treacherous people. Her priests profane the sanctuary and do violence to the law. The Lord within her is righteous. He does no wrong. Morning by morning, he dispenses His justice, and every new day he does not fail. Yet the unrighteous know no shame. I have destroyed nations. Their strongholds are demolished. I have left their streets deserted with no one passing through. Their cities are laid waste. They are deserted and empty of Jerusalem, I thought surely you will fear me and accept correction. Then her place of refuge would not be destroyed, nor all my punishments come upon her. But they were still eager to act corruptly in all they did. Therefore, wait for me, declares the Lord. For the day I will stand up to testify. I’ve decided to assemble the nations, to gather the kingdoms, and to pour out My wrath on them all, my fierce anger the whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger. We have to remember that there were no chapter breaks in the original presentation of this material, Zeph and I would have gotten up and just proclaimed, just proclaimed this prophecy. And here’s how it would have sounded, by the way, I’m going to start in chapter two, verse 15. Remember in chapter two, the last part there, he’s speaking to Assyria, you know, to the city of Nineveh in particular. And he says, this is the city of revelry that lived in safety. She said to herself, I am the one, and there is none besides me. What a ruin she has become, a lair for wild beasts. All who pass by her scoff and shake their fists. Woe to the city of oppressors, rebellious and defiled. She obeys no one. She accepts no correction. If you were a Jew listening to Zephaniah this time, What city do you think we’re talking about in three one, we’re still in Nineveh, aren’t we? And so you’re not in your head because you don’t really like Assyria. So you’re like exactly they are oppressors, rebellious and defile. That’s right. They’re not obeying anyone. She does not trust in the Lord. Of course not. They only got their own God. They don’t draw near. To God, her officials within her rulers, yep, they’re terrible people, absolutely. Then you get to verse four, and you start hearing about the prophets, and you’d be like, Okay, I mean, yeah, I guess they’ve got prophets too. Her priests profane the sanctuary and do violence to the law. And at this point you’re confused, because they don’t have the law, they don’t have priests, they don’t have the sanctuary, the same way the Lord within her is righteous. And at this point you go, Oh no, because the Lord’s only within one city at this point. And that’s Jerusalem. You see how it was just seamless right there. So they’re going, absolutely, if this is what Assyria is like, they deserve what’s coming to them. Oh, no, he’s talking about us, and that means we deserve what’s coming to us. Would be a devastating rhetorical blow so effective. Remember the end of chapter two. He’s talking about the nations being judged as a warning to Judah, to Jerusalem, change or suffer the same fate. And here in chapter three, it becomes clear they’re not going to change, and they will suffer the same fate because they rebel against God’s rule. They defile themselves with sin. That word defile there is always about individual sin, and they use their power to oppress others, by the way, just to bear in one, verse three adjectives, you can see how comprehensive their sin is, because it affected their relationship with God, with themselves and with everybody else. They’re in trouble. And so in verse two, we then get four accusations. These are all sins of omission, things they are not doing. They don’t obey, they don’t accept correction, they don’t trust, they don’t draw near. The background here is in Deuteronomy. Remember, we talked about week one, they just found the book of the law. They just found Deuteronomy while they were doing temple repairs. And so it’s in Zephaniah’s mind as he’s prophesying toward them, encouraging them to continue the reforms they have begun. And how many times in Deuteronomy do we hear that phrase, hear Israel? And that’s the word that’s there in verse two, and it says, She obeys. She does not hear, she doesn’t listen to anyone. But I mean Deuteronomy six famously, hear Israel, the LORD your God Deuteronomy, 51 up on the screen. Hear Israel. This is what it means to hear hear the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them. That’s what it means to hear God’s word. But they’re not doing it. And they’re not doing it, even despite the special privilege that God Himself is speaking to them just a few verses earlier in Deuteronomy 433, as God’s drawing out the special relationship he has with Israel, he says, Has any other people heard the voice of God Speaking out of fire as you have and lived so you see, they’re like, they’re like, spoiled Trust Fund babies just absolutely oblivious to the awesome privilege they’ve been granted. There’s no sense of gratitude for it. And you think, Well, what about us, if they’ve been granted that privilege, how much more have we? Because we have the fullness of God’s revelation in Christ, we have the New Testament as well. And not only that, we gotta bound hidden leather embossed with our names on the cover. We carry it around in our pocket with us at all times you think of the privilege that we have to have the word of God available all the time, even today. Of course, there are parts of the world where to have this book would be dangerous, and we can. We can have it out open wherever you want. I rarely go into a coffee shop where I don’t see somebody having a quiet time Bible open before them, right? That awesome privilege that we have as well. And so here we should listen to it. We should listen even to the hard sayings, because even the hard sayings in Scripture, like Zephaniah are gracious, but Judah accepts no correction. Why does God correct us in Proverbs, 623, correction and instruction are the way to life. Correction is for our good, so that we can continue to live. I’m in the middle of a course right now to get my my boat license for our trip to Lake Placid. And you know, they keep going over all these rules and regulations, and they say it over and over and over again, like, we’re not doing this be mean. We’re doing this because we don’t want you and the people on your boat to die.
So like, this correction, this instruction, it’s for your good, and that’s what God is saying here, but they refuse to listen to it. Why? Because they trust themselves, like Assyria we saw last week. They’re self reliant. They’re trusting in their military strength or their riches or their religious rights, even, and probably trusting the success that. Surrounding nations as well. Why would we worship Israel’s God when Assyria is doing way better than we are? Maybe we should worship Assyrian gods or Babylonian gods, a temptation that is always there for us too. Where you’re looking at people going they got a bigger house than I do. Maybe I should be doing what they do instead of what God would call me to do, and yet Jeremiah 17 five Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh, whether that’s your flesh or somebody else’s flesh, and whose heart turns away from the Lord, doesn’t draw near, turns away from the Lord. Why does God curse the one who trusts in flesh because it won’t work. It is God’s grace that brings us to the end of ourselves, so that we know we cannot do this on our own. And at that point, the big question becomes, will we turn away, like Jeremiah said, or will we draw near, like Zephaniah talks about here, now, to draw near to God at this time, of course, would mean to go into the temple to worship the Lord in his sanctuary. That’s not how it works today. Of course, the temple is all of us who trust in Jesus. We’re all living stones built into this living house where God dwells by His Spirit. How do we draw near? Well, we draw near by opening this word, by praying to God, listening to him as he speaks to us, by gathering in fellowship as well. So when troubles come, what’s your first instinct? Is it self reliance, or is it drawing near to God? Is your first thought? I need to fix this, or I need to fall down before him. These four accusations there in verse two are followed by four groups of leaders, all of whom are corrupt in verses three and four, the officials, the rulers. You know, they’re devouring the vulnerable, like lions devouring their prey. And then the rulers. The word there is judges, often translated judges, like the book of Judges. They’re like wolves in the evening, that’s a good time to be a wolf. It’s a bad time to be prey, because they can’t see the predators, and so they get eaten more. And so that’s what the judges are doing. They’re they’re devouring people again. And you’re reading this, and you’re, well, first of all, you got to know the irony there. If you were here last week, you know the end of chapter two, Nineveh is desolate, and so the beasts move into the city. That’s bad. Well, in Jerusalem, the beasts are already in the city and they’re running it. That’s even worse. So there’s the irony. But we’re reading this and we’re thinking, okay, that makes sense. We all know politicians have issues. No new information there, true. And every time, every place, okay, except that we keep going. Then, in verse four, the prophets. But the prophets are part of the problem. They’re tickling people’s ears and even deceiving God’s people. Who knows why? Maybe to win the king’s favor. You can read a lot of stories like that in Kings and Chronicles, for example. And the priests even are defiling the place they’ve been tasked with keeping pure and holy. I think of Eli’s sons way back in the beginning of Samuel and and they’re using this position they have as priestly rulers to do what to enrich themselves and sleep with all the women in the nation, like the earliest example of spiritual abuse in the church, so with leaders like these, I mean, what hope do the people have? It’s a good question and such an important reminder for those of us who are in authority today. I mean, this is a real danger with pastors, for example, who are functioning like prophets and priests in many ways, and one of your jobs here, the member of the congregation, is to watch out for us, to watch our life and doctrine, to make sure that we don’t go off course and then lead the people astray. So pastors, yes, but that’s not the only people in leadership, of course. What about parents? I mean, how do you lead your family spiritually. What example are you setting for your kids, or what if you’re a teacher or a boss or whatever influence you have? In other words, I love this passage because it reminds us that when we go astray, society suffers. We are not a collection of isolated individuals like we’re woven together in like a fabric of society. So you rip one piece and the fabric rips, and that’s what is is happening here. So we’re supposed to say, like Paul does in Corinthians, Imitate me as I imitate Christ. And for sure, that’s what the. Rulers, the priests, the prophets should have been saying, but they’re not doing it. Because look at the contrast between them and the Lord. Because we hear all about the Lord in verse five, and it’s interesting, we get four descriptions of the Lord that match exactly like the polar opposite of these four descriptions of the rulers, just in reverse order. So the officials. The beginning of verse three, the officials fail, but end of verse five, God, well, he never fails. He never leaves his post. The rulers. Remember that word is judges. They’re out to satisfy themselves, but God dispenses true justice every day. The prophets are treacherous, but God does no wrong, and the priests defile, whereas God, in His holy city, where the temple is is righteous, by the way, same with the people and the same thing in that reverse order, they don’t listen, even though God keeps speaking because he’s not absent. They don’t accept instruction, even though he’s dispensing true justice. They don’t trust even though he’s trustworthy, they don’t draw near to Him, even though he is there in the city. So no wonder we get to verses six and seven. God judged and destroyed nations as a warning to his people, and he thinks to himself, surely they will listen. But no, they persist toward perdition. Actually says they’re still eager to act corruptly in all that they do. And that that phrase still eager, it reads literally that they woke up early. So I lived this this week a little bit. We had a birthday party. The boys had a birthday party this week, and they were up so early they’re not allowed to leave the room until seven. The clock turns green. They’re allowed out. You know, it’s prison until then, kind of thing. They were up way before that. They had, like, gotten themselves ready, which they’re incapable of doing all the rest of the time, of course, but not on this day, they were up. They were ready to go parties at like, four in the afternoon, seven o’clock. They’re like, let’s get in the car. Shoes are on. Let’s go. They were eager, right? They woke up early because they were eager for the party. That’s how Judah’s acting. They’re waking up early because they’re so ready to sin again. I can’t wait to exploit people, to be sexually immoral, whatever it is. They’re so eager to do it because they don’t fear God. They don’t fear God. They’re not standing in awe of his majesty, His might, His love, His holiness, His justice. So they need to be taught to fear. And for that to happen, God’s going to have to escalate the correction. Again, parenting. Good example, kids aren’t listening right away. What happens? You escalate? Voice gets louder at first. You do that, dad, step right where they all know, like, Whoa. Okay, nope, I’m listening. Now you start taking things away. There’s no phone, there’s no video game console. You’re in your room. You don’t have friends anymore. Okay, we’ll talk next year about where you just keep increasing until you go. Are you ready to listen? Now that is what God is saying. And so in verse eight, he draws the conclusion right begins that word, therefore, here’s the sum of everything I’ve just said, therefore a day is coming when God will testify against the nations. Which is interesting. He doesn’t say against Jerusalem. He says against the nations. Because remember, at this point, Judah is just another one of the pagan nations. They’re not even God’s people anymore, it would seem so he’s going to testify against the nations and bring His just judgment. Let me ask you this, though, when he says, Therefore, wait for me. To whom is he speaking? He’s not speaking
to Judah, because Judah is about to get this wrath. He’s not speaking to the nations because they’re mentioned there. Also, what group of people are we addressing here? Well, this is the only the second time that we’ve had this shift to the second person. You know you You all wait for me. The other time it happened was in chapter two, verses one to three, and especially verse three, when he says, Seek the Lord, seek humility, seek righteousness. We’re speaking to that same group of people. We’re speaking to those who do trust and draw near because they’re seeking the Lord His righteousness coming in humility. To them, God says, In this world of injustice and immorality, you can wait. And the word wait that’s used there has a sense of confidence, hopeful expectation, you can wait because your deliverance is coming, which means it’s good news. It does not read like good news. He’s going to pour out His wrath and his fierce anger on the whole world, which we consume by the fire of his jealous anger. That is good news for those who trust in the Lord. You ever watch like a hostage movie or something like that you’re at, like Nakatomi Plaza and stuff, when the good guy shows up to rescue the hostages, that is bad news for the ones who took hostages. That’s what the Lord is saying here. A Day is coming, and it’ll be a good day for those who trust and it’ll be a bad day for those who have persisted in rebellion, but know that the Lord’s invitation is always there. The Lord longs to be gracious. We’re all, in a sense, hostages and hostage takers, because we’re all trapped in sin when we come into the world, and I feel like this is what the Lord is saying here. Isaiah, 30, verse 18. It says, yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you. That’s where his heart’s at. God’s looking at a world in rebellion against Him, going, I would show you mercy if you will turn and trust therefore he will rise up to show you compassion for the Lord as a God of justice. There are those two moments again, hostage, hostage taker, Blessed are all who wait for him. God longs to set things right. He is so low to bring his justice because he is kind, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. He is perfectly just. So we wait with hope. We wait for our deliverance, which is Scene two, the deliverance of the remnant. We read verses nine to 13 for us, then I will purify the lips of the peoples that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and serve Him, shoulder to shoulder from beyond the rivers of Cush, my worshipers, my scattered people, will bring me offerings on that day, you 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. Never again will you be a haughty on my holy hill. But I will leave within you the meek and humble the remnants 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. So then on that day, right when God destroys wickedness, He will gather and purify his people. It’s like, in the act of bringing justice, it’s like he’s cutting a channel so that His mercy has room to flow. And it says He will purify the lip singular, the lip of the people. When lip is singular, it means the language. So he’s going to purify our speech. This is interesting, because he purifying the speech of all peoples. He’s reversing Babel, the Tower of Babel. They all got together, and God confused their language and scattered them. Well, now they’re all coming back together, and they’re all saying the same thing. They’re speaking with a singular speech, which is worship, which is, it says here, calling on the name of the Lord. That’s what pure speech is to call on the one true God. Not long after Cain murdered his brother, Abel, Adam and Eve have another son named Seth. And humanity divides at that point, those who are going to go their own way and those who are going to look to the Lord. And says, people began to call on the name of the Lord, Genesis four. It’s what Joel talks about in his prophecy of the coming days, when everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And that’s what we see here, people from all nations calling on God’s name for salvation, calling on the name of Jesus, as the apostles say in Acts four, because there is no other name under heaven by which all people must be saved. So they’re calling on Jesus together. But then there’s this beautiful image that they’re also serving God together. Says shoulder to shoulder, literally just says with one shoulder, like we’re so close together, all facing the same way, all going the same direction. It’s as if we have just one shoulder. So there’s a beautiful picture of the unity of God’s people, the body of Christ. So important is why Paul in Ephesians four says we must make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace, so that we can do this work together. And what’s interesting, though, is that all of that discussion right there, it’s about all of them, right? All of the peoples, people from the ends of the earth, even those who are from beyond Cush, which we saw last week, chapter two, verse 12, that really short word of judgment. Oh, and you also are going to fall by the sword, and that’s it. That’s all they get. But even there, remember, that’s the ends of the earth. So even beyond the ends of the earth, there are going to be people calling on God’s name. Who are God’s people? My worshipers, my scattered people. You. Yeah. Well, they are his people. I don’t think these are the exiles who are being called back together. There’s no record of an exile that part of the world. I think what God’s saying is, I’ve got sheep from other pastures, as John says, Jesus says in John’s Gospel. And so all who worship Him, all who call on his name, are His people, His elect exiles scattered across the face of the earth, all worshiping Him, even the remnant, though within Jerusalem, will be purified starting in verse 11. They’re gonna be purified because God’s gonna remove the impurities. How’s he gonna remove the impurities? By removing the unrepentant impure from their midst, so the population will go from haughty to humble on His holy hill, because God is only going to leave those who listen to chapter two, verse three, that threefold, seek, seeking the Lord, seeking righteousness, seeking, as it even says here, seeking the humble. So the remnant of Israel, remnant, by the way, literally just means the left ones, the ones that God leaves, that remnant, are going to meek and humble. This remnant that’s left behind, it’s the new people that God has longed to create all along the people he’s always wished to possess, true Israel, spiritual Israel, those who are marked by humility because of their sin, those who are meek the word there has the sense of dependent especially, and so those who aren’t depending on themselves, but are trusting instead in God alone. Well, what happens when God removes the wicked, the righteous flourish? It’s that time of year where my least favorite animal is not actually the mosquito close second, but the bunny. And everyone who has a garden here just nodded their heads. I got some amens right there. I even got the, you know, the hands up. Okay, so I keep praying that God would send these ravenous wolves that we met earlier in the passage into my neighborhood, or at least some coyotes to eat all of the bunnies. Because there so last year, I got no zucchini at any point, they all got eaten the day before I was going to pick them every time. So what happens when you remove these wicked, bloodthirsty beasts, the bunnies from my garden, the garden flourishes, the vegetables grow. That’s what’s happening here. When you remove the wicked, the fruit of righteousness blooms. They do no wrong. They’re listening, they’re obeying right. They don’t deceive the way the prophets are, but they hear truth and then speak truth to one another. In other words, those whom God saves, he saves to the uttermost, so that they truly trust, and those who truly trust will be truly transformed. I like this part too, there in verse 13, because it helps us answer the question we all need to ask of ourselves, how do I know that I’ve really called on the name of the Lord, especially when we consider Pharisees some of the hypocrites that Jesus denounces when he walks the earth. I mean, doesn’t even say Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord gets to join me in glory. Well, they called on the name of the Lord. That means they’re supposed to be saved, right? How do you know you’re truly calling on his name and not just saying the words? The answer we get here and throughout Scripture is, look at your life. Look at the evidence of your life. Do you see the fruit of the Spirit being produced in you? Can you and the people around you point to real change in your life, slower than you would like it to come,
but steady by God’s grace, that’s the answer. If so, if you can say yes, yes, that is me, imperfectly, by all means, imperfectly, but Yes, that’s me. Then you are GOD’s flock. And so you get this beautiful pastoral imagery at the end there, they will eat and lie down, and no one will make them afraid. They eat because their Shepherd has provided food for them. They lie down because they’re protected from the enemy. Sheep will not lie down unless they know they’re safe. We know we’re safe because the Lord is our shepherd and we lack nothing. He makes us lie down in green pastures. He leads us beside quiet waters. He refreshes our soul. He guides us along the right paths, paths of righteousness, we start doing the right things for his name’s sake. So we got no cause for fear, because the lions and the wolves and those vicious bunnies have been cast out of the land to fear God, great irony, but it’s true, to fear God is to be free. Free of fear of everything else. In fact, it’s a good question. If you’re afraid of something, just go home and ponder this for a while. How would fearing God take away that fear from your heart? I’ll leave you to think through that. Every one of us has this decision to make, to call on God or not to trust him, or to trust ourselves, and honestly the decision is to be destroyed or to be delivered. Surely you will FEAR Him and accept correction. Today is the day. Now is the time turn and trust and delight in Him, because He delights to deliver you, and once he delivers us, we delight in him, and that’s where we go next. So last section, the delight of the redeemed, verses 14 to 20, rest of the book sing. Daughter Zion, shout aloud. Israel, be glad and rejoice with all your heart. Daughter Jerusalem, 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. On that day, they will say to Jerusalem, do not fear Zion. Do not let your hands hang limp. The Lord your God, is with you. The mighty warrior who saves he will take great delight in you, in his love. He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing. I will remove from you all who mourn over the loss of your appointed festivals, which is a burden and reproach for you. At that time, I will deal with all who oppress you. I will rescue the lame. I will gather the exiles. I will give them praise and honor in every land where they have suffered shame. At that time, I will gather you. At that time, I will 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, says the Lord, we get one of the most terrifying descriptions of God’s wrath at the start of Zephaniah, and at the end of Zephaniah, we get one of the most moving expressions of His love. One commentator calls this the John 316, of the Old Testament, and it’s there right from the start, in verse 14, when God speaks to daughter, Jerusalem. Jerusalem, remember what he just said about Jerusalem. Woe to the city of repressors, rebellious and defiled. And here already he’s saying, daughter, you’re my daughter. There’s this restored relationship where he is not just our God, but our father as well. How could we not experience overwhelming delight in light of that truth? And so we get these commands stacked up there in verse 14, sing, shout, be glad, rejoice. It’s like Zephaniah can’t even find words. Poet, though he is, for everything that should be happening inside of us. This is just uncontainable praise. The image is David dancing, kind of in his underwear, not quite more modest than that, but basically in his underwear before the ark, because he’s so glad that God is coming back to Jerusalem, and it’s that same just again, uncontainable, bursting praise that we are called to here. Why such praise? Because verse 15, the Lord has taken away your punishment. The Lord has taken away our punishment, and so he’s turned back our enemy. Because, remember, he’s sending nations like Assyria and Babylon to punish his wayward people. Well, now, at the end with restoration, we don’t need those enemies anymore, because he has taken away our sin. He has taken away our punishment. God, our King, has removed every threat from us. That’s what we we saw when we studied revelation this spring, Babylon is gone. Rome is gone. Every threat removed. We have no fear. Why? Because the Lord, the King of Israel, is with you. That’s the next part of Psalm, 23 isn’t it? Guide this long the right path, for his name’s sake, even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, only one reason why. For you are with me. Your rod and Your staff. They comfort me. So he removes the external threat, but so much bigger and so much better still, he removes the main obstacle to our peace with him, which is the wrath we deserve from his hand. There can be no salvation until God deals with that his righteous, just anger at the many times we have offended His holy character. How does he do that? How does he deal with that? We get the answer there in verse 17, God, our King is with us, but God, our mighty warrior, is with us too. It’s the same word that shows up in Isaiah nine, verse six, which you. Only read at Christmas time, but I promise it’s for the whole year, and he shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty, same word, Mighty God, Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father. And who is that one who’s going to be called all those things? For to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given. We are talking about Jesus. Jesus is God’s mighty warrior who takes away our punishment by taking our punishment on himself. That’s the only way that God can be just in punishing sin, and yet, the justifier of those who trust in Him, the only way God can punish sin without destroying sinners, the only way he can do that for those who trust Him, who humble themselves and seek Him, is because he himself took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted when they crucified Jesus, God’s people said, See he wasn’t the Messiah, but no, we know. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds, we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned our own way, but God has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Therefore, Paul tells us, Romans eight, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because in Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit, who gives life, has set you free from the law of sin and death, and so we cry out like David in the words Julie read for us earlier, if you Lord, kept a record of sins, who could stand, but with you there is forgiveness. Therefore you are feared, this word that keeps showing up in Zephaniah three, you are feared because you are holy and gracious just and the justifier of those who trust in you, and so we stand in awe. What does that mean? It means our hands don’t hang limp. Now, why are our hands hanging limp? Because we’re paralyzed with guilt and shame and fear, but no, now our hands don’t hang limp.
Our hands go up. What do hands go up in in Old Testament context, prayer and praise and service, shoulder to shoulder. In fact, you can see what results in verses 18 to 20. It’s almost a restatement of what we’ve seen in 14 to 17. Right in verse 18, the impure are removed. Those who resent religious festivals because they’re not allowed to open their business that day, because they’re trusting in wealth and achievement, they don’t like having to close shop. That’s that word burden. In that next part of verse 18, it’s tough to understand what it means unless you funnel it through Amos, because Amos attacks those who can’t wait to open shop after the Sabbath is over, so that they can exploit the people around them. And that word for exploit is the same word that we get here, that burden idea. So we’re removing that from them, those who lift their hands in praise, who don’t just keep the festival days, but delight in the festival days, who celebrate grace. Those remain because they have seen salvation and God has rescued them from every land they brought back from exile at this point. And I love it, even the lame can return. It’s like the path back to God is handicap accessible, and so it’s just a beautiful image. Everyone, everyone who is God’s is coming home, and that removes their shame, because it shows God does love them, does delight them, can save them. He’s not weaker than other gods. He’s the only true God. He can save them, and He will save them, and everybody will see when God restores their fortunes. And remember, that’s from Deuteronomy also. That’s that covenant promise, when you turn and trust and seek God will restore your fortunes. So we move from covenant judgment to covenant promise to hear covenant joy. How could it not lead to joy, especially when we read 17 B, which I skipped over. Y’all, alright, this is the best part. Why isn’t he talking about it? Because we wanted to end with it. The Lord your God is with you, the mighty warrior who saves he will take great delight in you, in his love. He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing. This is love beyond all reckoning. God doesn’t just save us. He doesn’t just take away our punishment. He delights in us like a father over a newborn son for whom he’s been waiting and praying these many years. In fact, he’s exactly like a dad. It says that he’s quiet in his life. Love, and the NIV says it means he doesn’t rebuke us anymore, which is exactly right. You can picture this, especially if you’ve ever been a dad, which I have a couple times now, you know sometimes you’re you’re laying into your kids. They’re not accepting correction, not accepting instruction, so you’re talking them, and you see that what happens, especially like a teenager, they get tense, they get defensive for a while, and then there’s a moment when the Spirit of God convicts, and you can watch the change physically, the shoulders that have been up slump, and the head bows and the eyes fill with tears. They know what you’re saying. They’ve felt it. They’ve received it. What do you do as a dad in that moment, that’s right. You should be crying. No nothing like that. You stop talking in your love because that was your hope all along. You’re not yelling because you like yelling. You’re yelling because you love your child, and so once they receive it in your love, you are quiet. The hands on the shoulder, you bring them in close for a hug. That’s what God is doing with us. But even that’s too negative, it’s not just that he stops punishing and stops rebuking. No, he starts singing about you. Can you picture Lord God Almighty, singing over you, rejoicing over you, delighting over you. God Almighty, the king of all nations, your Creator and your Lord delights in you. The word rejoices has the connotation of dancing over you. You ever seen a dad like a tough guy dad with a newborn baby? They look ridiculous, don’t they? Somebody like Ivan, right, like, biceps falling out of his shirt and stuff, and they’re like, Whoa, yeah, what a cute little baby. I don’t want to be irreverent, but that’s what the Lord is doing us. He’s like, bopping as he holds us because He loves us so much. When you read that, though, don’t forget who you are, because there is not an accusation in this book that’s not true of each and every one of us. We deserve the judgment. We turn to idols. We drifted with culture. We don’t always trust God, we don’t seek God, we don’t obey we don’t accept correction. We are proud and self-reliant and yet, and yet, God doesn’t just remove your approach or take away your punishment, though that would be enough for us to praise him infinitely and for eternity. No, he does still more. All who are humble and who seek Him, all who believe in Jesus, John tells us, are given the right to become God’s children. And now we see this is not just a legal adoption. A paper that’s signed you’re stuck in an orphanage. Still, you’re you’re loved less than his one and only son. No, we see it here. We are truly His children. He loves and delights in us. He dances and sings over us. We are the apple of his eye. What do you do with love like this? It’s like it’s too good, it’s too much. Of course, your hands can’t hang limp. They shoot straight up in prayer and praise, and then they reach out in service, in pleasing Him and sharing this love with others. I don’t know about you, I read this passage, and I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus, Christ, the mighty warrior and my Savior, and I say, How marvelous, how wonderful and my song shall ever be. How marvelous. How wonderful is my Savior’s my warriors, my shepherd, my king’s love for me. Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, because Jesus has saved you and your father has delivered and delights in you. Let’s pray to him now, Lord, we lift our hands in prayerful praise because you have loved us when we did not deserve it. We lift our hands, Lord, to receive the love that you have for us. We know what you should give us, and it is the terrifying descriptions of judgment that we have read about in Zephaniah that is what we have earned, but it is not what you have paid us. Instead, you have given us the welcome of children. You have given us Christ’s welcome when we come to you through him, humble, seeking you, seeking righteousness. Lord help us all now, those of us who are in Christ to be glad and rejoice and to fear you in all that we do, because with you there is forgiveness. And those who don’t know you yet, Lord, pray for those in the room who are still. Go under this threat of judgment, that even now you would soften hearts and open eyes so that they would turn from their sin, turn from the judgment they deserve and trust in you and to be welcomed as children like this. We ask this for your name’s sake. Amen.