Your salvation is deeply rooted in God's covenant love for you!
Zephaniah 3:14-17 (NIV)
14 Sing, Daughter Zion;
shout aloud, Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
Daughter Jerusalem
15 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.
16 On that day
they will say to Jerusalem,
“Do not fear, Zion;
do not let your hands hang limp.
17 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.”
Canons of Dordt
Point 1 - God's Unconditional Election
2 - God shows His sovereign love in the sending of Jesus Christ.
But this is how God showed his love:
he sent his only begotten Son
into the world,
so that whoever believes in him
should not perish
but have eternal life
Summary
We had the privilege of working our way through the minor prophets in our church in the weeks preceding Christmas. We don't turn to these books enough (I'll bet many of us forgot there was a book of the Bible named Zephaniah before it popped up today). We don't read the prophets often because they seem so intimidating and mean.
After all, in Malachi God told His people that He would smear the dung of their sacrifices on their faces, and He orders the prophet Hosea to marry a promiscuous, adulterous woman to represent the infidelity of His people. This seems to feed right into the misconception that so many people have that the God of the Old Testament is an angry old man, while Jesus, the God of the New Testament, is kind, tolerant, and just wants us all to be happy.
The prophets certainly do represent the righteous judgment and indingation of our Creator, but they also show God's immense mercy and covenant faithfulness to His people. Today's passage from Zephaniah is just one of dozens of prophetic passages that convey God's deep love for His people using rich and flowing poetic language.
In a very real sense, the prophets served as God's process servers; that is, they served people notice of God's covenant lawsuit against them. The people of Israel rejected these prophets, because just like us, they didn't want to be confronted with their sinfulness. Since the people refused to listen, they missed out on hearing of God's deep love for them and they sealed their fate. Don't make their same mistake!
Dig Deeper
Notice in Zephaniah's passage how the call to be glad and rejoice with all your heart is predicated on significantly changed circumstances: The LORD has taken away your punishment, and that in the LORD's great love, He will no longer rebuke you. If the people had just listened to the prophet, they would realize that the punishment they deserved for their sin would be commuted!
This passage makes it seem like somehow God's love overpowered His justice, and as a result the people would be let off the hook and their sins would go unpunished. It wouldn't be until centuries after Zephaniah that God's plan would be fully revealed. The sins would be punished, but that justice would be meted out on His Son on our behalf.
As you begin to understand God's election in your life, remember that the Canons properly root it in God's everlasting covenant love for you, not in any endearing qualities you may have on your own.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, the Mighty Warrior who saves;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that as you do your work today that your hands would not hang limp, but would be raised in praise to the God who loves you;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Mark 4
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