July 8, 2007
Background Scripture: Zephaniah 3:1-13; 2 Chronicles 34:1-3
Devotional Reading: Psalms 27:7-14

In the days of my youth, it seemed preachers and teachers spoke mostly of God’s judgment and little, if at all, of His love.

Today, it seems to me that it is just the opposite. The term “judgment” seems out of favor and is little-mentioned, at least in my experience. I well realize that this may not be true for all my readers.

But we do not have to – and should not – choose between the two, because our experience of God is dependant upon both judgment and grace. Judgment is incomplete without grace and grace without judgment is similarly lacking.

The judgment presented to me in my youth was frightening and seemed to offer little or no hope. But the grace that appears to be offered today is, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it, “cheap grace,” a mercy that is worth little because it is does not take sin seriously.

I think some of us willfully, if not consciously, live for the Day of Judgment because we are anxious for others to get their comeuppance. On the other hand, others dilute God’s mercy because they do not want to consider what that mercy demands of us. It comforts us to think of God as the doting Father who overlooks our sin and comfortingly pats us on our heads.
Judgment and grace

Although the prophet Zephaniah is known primarily because of his scathing prophecies against Judah in the latter half of the sixth century B.C., a careful reading of these three brief chapters reveals that he offers Judah both judgment and grace. Two and a half of these chapters consist of  strong prophecies of God’s judgment upon Judah; the last half of chapter three is a pronouncement of grace and hope for a righteous remnant.

Why this disparity? I think Zephaniah emphasized the Day of Judgment because this is what the people of Judah needed to hear – although not what they wanted to hear.

Like the people in Micah’s day who believed that they were righteous in God’s sight, those to whom Zephaniah prophesied were dangerously comfortable in their self-righteousness.

Just as it is almost impossible to teach someone something they think they already know, it is equally daunting to challenge a person to rise to a level where he thinks he already stands.

That is why this prophecy is so harsh: “Woe to her that is rebellious and defiled, the oppressing city! She listens to no voice, 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 judges are evening wolves that leave nothing ‘til the morning” (3:1-3).

Judging ourselves

In his novel, Too Late the Phalarope, Alan Paton writes of a young pastor who preaches to his people about “backsliding, not those who backslid out of the church … but those who backslid inside it, crucifying the Lord anew, praising Him with their lips but denying Him the true praise of their hearts and lives.

“And he invited us to judge ourselves … and to ask ourselves if these things were true of us; whether we perhaps were held in honor of men and in the market place, but within were full of darkness …”

The purpose of Zephaniah’s prophecy is not to condemn, but to awaken: “On that day you shall not be put to shame because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me; for then I will remove from your midst your proudly exuberant ones, and you shall no longer be haughty in my holy mountain” (3:11).

The proudly exuberant and haughty will not survive the judgment of God. It is a harsh wake-up call. And who will heed it – then or now?