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Urgency. Do you sense it? Are you living it?
There are two massive truth bombs that come from this chapter. The first is that God will repay all evil done against Him outside of repentance through Jesus Christ. Sometimes we fall into the negative pattern of believing God is letting sin slide. He is not. Just consider the words spoken to all these pagan nations who had dwelled carelessly in His world.
I have heard the taunting of Moab…
…the insults of the Ammonites…
This is the self-assured city that lives in security, that thinks to herself: I exist, and there is no one else…
All of this did not go unseen or unheard. This should bring both a conviction and relief to those of us who are saved by the blood of Jesus. On one hand, we understand the debt that was paid for us. On the other hand, we rejoice knowing that evil will not prosper. God sees it all.
The second truth to consider is that in His mercy, God spares the remnant. We find this with Lot. We read of it with Rahab. The life of Joseph is a prime example of how God goes before in the middle of a crisis.
For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting. 7 God sent me ahead of you to establish you as a remnant within the land and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.
Genesis 45:6-7 HCSB
Here in Zephaniah, God offers a way out to those who were humble and repentant.
Seek the LORD, all you humble of the earth, who carry out what He commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be concealed on the day of the LORD’s anger.
Zephaniah 2:3 HCSB
This is no different than Jesus’ words to the believers today who have an opportunity to respond to His message. In fact, through Jesus, it is no longer a “perhaps” but an assurance of being (not just concealed but raised up!) on the Day of the Lord.
Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of Him who sent Me: that I should lose none of those He has given Me but should raise them up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of My Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
John 6:37-40 HCSB
The entire chapter speaks of our reasonable response to what God has revealed to us. So, again I ask…
Urgency. Do you sense it? Are you living it? Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.