Zephaniah 3:1-13
What does a city that's fallen away from God look like? What about a nation? What about a world?
-It's leaders won't take advice
-It's leaders won't accept correction
-It's leaders won't trust God
-It's leaders are like lions on the prowl
-It's judges are like wolves on the hunt for prey
-It's spiritual leaders are out for what they can get
-It's pastors desecrate the Church, using God's laws as weapons to torture the souls of otherwise hopeful people
It's in this context that the author places today's passage, using the words of Zephaniah to address the audience of Jerusalem. At a time when corruption, evil, and Baal worship is spreading through the city like a disease, the audience is addressed.
Okay, so what happens when a city is like this?
Just like any other god of the times, punishment happens. Anger, fury, devastation, murder, desolation. The gods are angry, and the author wants the audience to know. This is a common theme among the gods. If you do wrong, the gods will punish you. So . . . sacrifice more . . . give more . . . pray more . . . even sacrifice your children . . . do whatever you can do to save yourself from the wrathful gods who are pissed off at you.
But, the author wants the audience to know something different. Throughout the history of Israel, parallel to the thread of stories of angry gods demanding more sacrifices is another story. It's a story that ends in a different kind of punishment - one that can't be grasped by the human concepts of divine punishment.
In that culture, in that time, in that place, with those people, the punishment from the gods looks like: a city being wiped out by another city (hence, Jerusalem is about to be devastated by the Babylonian Empire), crops being destroyed by drought, disease running rampant throughout cities, floods, natural disasters.
But, the author once again wants the readers to know that this God is different. This God's punishment doesn't result in death, destruction, and ruin. This God's punishment looks like: purification, restoration, undistorted and unpolluted language, a new desire to worship, a new zeal to serve, reunification, a removal of shame and arrogance, and peace.
It's easy to fall in line with the belief that God is angry and wrathful. After all, what about hurricanes, typhoons, government corruption, poverty, and evil? We are so accustomed to seeing black and white punishment, and believing that our actions or inactions are provoking the gods to react (Since Haiti practiced voodoo, the gods sent an earthquake . . . since America is starting to allow gay marriage, the gods are going to create a communist government . . . since I didn't pray today, the gods are gonna make my day miserable . . . ) If we break the law, we get punished.
So, why not project that sort of black and white thinking onto a God whom we don't understand? If our government does so, if our parents do so, if our church leaders do so, if our bosses do so . . . then doesn't God do so as well?
Earthy punishment has it's place, just like worldly leaders and officials have there place. There is meaning and reason there. There is purpose there.
But, above everything, every institution, every courthouse, every corporation, this author is telling us about a God who loves to restore, reunite, worship, serve, and bring peace . . . unconditionally. Human laws can't define this God, and this God doesn't work under those laws.
This
God loves messy, evil, broken, polluted, arrogant, murderous, and
corrupt people enough to restore them and redefine them and reunite
them. The consequences we face when doing wrong are the consequences
laid out by human institutions (something I still haven't grasped, since
I keep getting tickets for not stopping behind the stop sign).
It's hard to grasp the concept that there is a God who doesn't react and
punish in the ways that we're all familiar with.
So what the author is trying to invoke in the middle of the chaos going on in Jerusalem is this: hope. Hope in a God that takes all of our current mess, crime, sin, wrongdoing, and wants to throw it away and create something new with it.
For the people of Jerusalem at this time, hope was in political leaders, prophets, and priests. But, this hope runs out. They can only massage our spirits for so long before they start wearing their human fallacies on their sleeves.
Who do we run to, hope in, believe in, put our faith in?
The God of restoration, peace, and love who punishes with restoration, peace, and love.
-It's leaders won't take advice
-It's leaders won't accept correction
-It's leaders won't trust God
-It's leaders are like lions on the prowl
-It's judges are like wolves on the hunt for prey
-It's spiritual leaders are out for what they can get
-It's pastors desecrate the Church, using God's laws as weapons to torture the souls of otherwise hopeful people
It's in this context that the author places today's passage, using the words of Zephaniah to address the audience of Jerusalem. At a time when corruption, evil, and Baal worship is spreading through the city like a disease, the audience is addressed.
Okay, so what happens when a city is like this?
Just like any other god of the times, punishment happens. Anger, fury, devastation, murder, desolation. The gods are angry, and the author wants the audience to know. This is a common theme among the gods. If you do wrong, the gods will punish you. So . . . sacrifice more . . . give more . . . pray more . . . even sacrifice your children . . . do whatever you can do to save yourself from the wrathful gods who are pissed off at you.
But, the author wants the audience to know something different. Throughout the history of Israel, parallel to the thread of stories of angry gods demanding more sacrifices is another story. It's a story that ends in a different kind of punishment - one that can't be grasped by the human concepts of divine punishment.
In that culture, in that time, in that place, with those people, the punishment from the gods looks like: a city being wiped out by another city (hence, Jerusalem is about to be devastated by the Babylonian Empire), crops being destroyed by drought, disease running rampant throughout cities, floods, natural disasters.
But, the author once again wants the readers to know that this God is different. This God's punishment doesn't result in death, destruction, and ruin. This God's punishment looks like: purification, restoration, undistorted and unpolluted language, a new desire to worship, a new zeal to serve, reunification, a removal of shame and arrogance, and peace.
It's easy to fall in line with the belief that God is angry and wrathful. After all, what about hurricanes, typhoons, government corruption, poverty, and evil? We are so accustomed to seeing black and white punishment, and believing that our actions or inactions are provoking the gods to react (Since Haiti practiced voodoo, the gods sent an earthquake . . . since America is starting to allow gay marriage, the gods are going to create a communist government . . . since I didn't pray today, the gods are gonna make my day miserable . . . ) If we break the law, we get punished.
So, why not project that sort of black and white thinking onto a God whom we don't understand? If our government does so, if our parents do so, if our church leaders do so, if our bosses do so . . . then doesn't God do so as well?
Earthy punishment has it's place, just like worldly leaders and officials have there place. There is meaning and reason there. There is purpose there.
But, above everything, every institution, every courthouse, every corporation, this author is telling us about a God who loves to restore, reunite, worship, serve, and bring peace . . . unconditionally. Human laws can't define this God, and this God doesn't work under those laws.
So what the author is trying to invoke in the middle of the chaos going on in Jerusalem is this: hope. Hope in a God that takes all of our current mess, crime, sin, wrongdoing, and wants to throw it away and create something new with it.
For the people of Jerusalem at this time, hope was in political leaders, prophets, and priests. But, this hope runs out. They can only massage our spirits for so long before they start wearing their human fallacies on their sleeves.
Who do we run to, hope in, believe in, put our faith in?
The God of restoration, peace, and love who punishes with restoration, peace, and love.
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