Pastoral Ponderings ~ The Songs of That Coming Day

          God’s Holy Spirit wonderfully leads his children from one thought of God’s Holy words to the next. Here is an example and encouragement for your edification.

¹⁴ Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion;
shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem! (Zephaniah 3)

1. The prelude to receiving the imagery of God being in the midst of the people who return from captivity (the familiar seventeenth verse below), the God who rejoices over his people with loud singing, is that Israel is called to sing aloud to the Lord, to shout out their praises and thanksgiving to God, to rejoice and exult with all our hearts.

2. Sing, shout, rejoice and exult are commands. Have some fun and obey them!

¹⁵ The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall never again fear evil. (Zephaniah 3)

1.  Jesus Christ has taken away the judgments against his people. We are not bound to the judgment of our enemies and their followers. We are free of judgment, no matter how much we deserved the judgment we endured. Jesus Christ takes away our judgment. All our transgressions and iniquities are fully engulfed in divine grace so that none can survive! Praise be to the LORD!

2. Jesus Christ has cleared away our enemies. It is time to go home. It is time to return to first love, to the homeland, to Israel, to the realities of the kingdom of heaven.

3. The King of Israel, the Lord God, Jesus Christ, is in our midst. He meets with two or three who gather in his name. This is our joy. The discipline is over, and God is not ashamed to call us his people, and to lead his weary, disciplined flock home into the green pastures they rejected so long before.

4. We shall never again fear evil. As Paul said, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). There is no one to fear when perfect love comes near (I John 4:18).

¹⁶ On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
“Fear not, O Zion;
let not your hands grow weak. (Zephaniah 3)

1. There is a “that day” when things will be spoken to God’s people, and yet those things are told to us in advance so we will wait for that day.

2. On “that day”, when the captivity is over, and the bondage is broken, and the blind eyes see, and the imprisoned souls are released, and the oppressed hearts are redeemed and lifted up, and the impoverished souls are filled with the righteousness they have longed for, God will speak these very words to his people, “Fear not!”

3. The weakness that has come into our hands, and our hearts, and our hopes, will gain strength in the Lord. The joy of the Lord will then be our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). We will be free to lift our “drooping hands” and strengthen our “week knees”, and “make straight paths” for our feet, so that “what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed” (Heb 12:12-13).

¹⁷ The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing. (Zephaniah 3)

1. As we go out of our captivity and travel to the Promised Land, the Lord Jesus Christ himself is in our midst, is with us until the end of the age, when we will then be with him forever.

2. The one who is with us is “a mighty one who will save”. He is not a wimp, or a failure. Our enemies have taken us captive, but only by the will of the sovereign God, and only for such a time as the sovereign mind of God decreed. Now the same sovereign God who lovingly leads us into our much-deserved discipline, comes to be with his people to save them, and deliver them safely home.

3. God’s gladness will be rejoicing over us, the people he had to send into discipline, as he now brings his prodigals home for their celebration.

4. God’s love quiets the worried and fearful hearts of his children as he leads us into green pastures where we are not afraid of running out of food, and he leads us beside the quiet waters where we are not afraid of drought or flood.

5. God’s loud singing is not of judgment or condemnation, but of exultation over his people. God delights, and rejoices, and exults to call us, “they are mine”.

¹⁸ I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival,
so that you will no longer suffer reproach. (Zephaniah 3)

1. Those who know they mourn do not need to fear being left out, but are given special notice from heaven as those who are invited to the festival. The promise of the Beatitudes is fulfilled, that “those who mourn shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).

2. Those who have suffered reproach, and feel the suffering of reproach lingering in their hearts, receive the promise of “no longer”. There is no denial in God of the reproach we have felt, but a promise of that reproach reaching its predestined conclusion. One day, on that day, the reproach will be finished forever.

¹⁹ Behold, at that time

I will deal with all your oppressors.
And I will save the lame
and gather the outcast,
and I will change their shame into praise
and renown in all the earth. (Zephaniah 3)

1. There is coming an “at that time” that is worth waiting for.

2. Our oppressors have oppressed, no doubt about it. But Jesus will “deal”, no doubt about it.

3. The lame can know that their lameness has been seen by their God. He will save them. Their saving will not be dependent on them having strength to walk, but on Jesus having strength to carry.

4. The outcasts will not be forgotten, but will be brought in, gathered, included.

5. Shame is acknowledged, but in order to put a frame around the praise that is soon to be felt, and enjoyed.

6. No matter how far their shame has reached, the whole worth will know of the renown of these people that Jesus has delivered out of their captivity, their rightful and loving discipline at God’s hand.

²⁰ At that time I will bring you in,
at the time when I gather you together;
for I will make you renowned and praised
among all the peoples of the earth,
when I restore your fortunes
before your eyes,” says the Lord. (Zephaniah 3)

1. Again, there is an “at that time” that is the constant and daily hope of God’s people. It is a time worth waiting for, and worthy of us waiting for it with unfading hope.

2. There is a promised time coming when God will “gather you together”. Jesus is coming, and when he does, he will send out his angels to gather all his elect, his chosen ones, his beloved ones, his beloved from before the beginning, and they will all be gathered together with the Lord to be with him forever.

3. This people who were hated, and despised will be turned into those who are “renowned and praised”. The goats on the left, those who despised the sheep of God, will witness God himself clothing his children with renown and praise, with glory and honor, with garments of praise and righteousness.

4. While much of the children’s suffering happens in secret, far from the media’s interest, the exaltation of the bride of Christ, the body of Christ, the holy temple of God, will be carried out for all the peoples of the earth to see. The day is coming, and when that day comes, there will be no secret how much God has loved his people, nor any secret about who these people are.

5. And, while God’s words call us to faith in words we can only hear, the fulfillment of these words that give us faith will be carried out before our own eyes. We will see with our eyes what we have long known with our faith.

6. The LORD says so. The mouth of the LORD has spoken this. God’s people do not live on bread alone, but all such words that proceed from the mouth of God. “The LORD says so!” is enough. Let us wait with the worship of a patient heart.

From my heart,

Monte

© 2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)