Now, And Not Yet.

“For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful song.” ­– Zephaniah 3:17 NLT

There is a sense in which most, if not all, of biblical prophesy has a now, and not yet, aspect to it. Much of what the prophets were predicting was to take place in the immediate context of their hearers. Destruction was to come soon. But then, there is another aspect of prophesy that was usually delayed for a future date. It is still yet to be fulfilled. Zephaniah 2-3 contains both of these elements of prophesy. God was going to bring destruction on Jerusalem, as well as Philistia, Assyria, Moab, Ammon, and Ethiopia – and He did. Those prophecies have been fulfilled. But Zephaniah also talks of a future restoration and redemption of Judah that has not yet taken place. In spite of Jerusalem’s open and ongoing rebellion against God, He will one day restore them to favor. He will return the Jews to the land of promise and re-establish the throne of David in Jerusalem. This has all yet to take place and will not be fulfilled until the Millennial Kingdom of Christ is established at the end of the Great Tribulation. It will be a marvelous day in which God promises to “purity the speech of all people, so that everyone can worship the Lord together (Zephaniah 3:9 NLT). God also promises that He will live among His people again. He will bless them with His presence. Their troubles will all be over and they will never have to fear disaster again. He will take great delight in them and rejoice over them. But that day has not yet happened.

Or has it? This promise was to the people of Judah and the Jewish nation. It has yet to be fulfilled. But God will keep His promise to them because He is a promise keeping God. He will do what He said He would do. But there is a sense in which we, as Gentiles and followers of Jesus Christ, have seen this prophesy fulfilled – in part. Because when God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, He came as Emmanual, which means “God with us.” God came and dwelt among men. He lived among us. And then He died among us and for us. But when Christ was resurrected and returned to the Father’s side in heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to live within us. The very Spirit of God not only dwells among men, but in them – in those who have placed their faith and hope in the saving work of Jesus Christ. For us, in a real sense, the words of Zephaniah have already been fulfilled: “For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a might savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs” (Zephaniah 3:17 NLT). God is with us and in us. The Holy Spirit comforts us, directs us, convicts us, and teaches us. The Lord Himself, the King of Israel, not only lives among us, He lives in us! We no longer need to fear disaster. We no longer have to worry about death, because He has conquered it. We no longer have to fear condemnation, because He has removed it. We no longer have to sin, because He has given us new hearts. God is with us. He lives among us. He has filled us with His Spirit and empowered us to live lives that are set apart, distinctive, joyful, powerful, and a glimpse of what is yet to come.

Father, You are among us and in us. You have given us Your Spirit and transplanted new hearts within us. We have access to Your power and the promise of Your indwelling presence – at all times. We have much to be grateful for and so much more to be hopeful for. May we live as if You live within us. May our lives reflect Your presence and power every day of our lives. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Comfortably Complacent.

“I will search with lanterns in Jerusalem’s darkest corners to punish those who sit complacent in their sins. They think the Lord will do nothing to them, either good or bad.” ­– Zephaniah 1:12 NLT

Josiah, the great reformer king sits on the throne. Zephaniah, the great, great, grandson of Hezekiah, was God’s prophet delivering His words of coming judgment on the people of Judah. The northern kingdom of Israel had fallen in 722 B.C. to the Assyrians. But the southern nation of Judah is enjoying relative peace. Because King Josiah was moved to repentance upon hearing the words of the book of the Law, rediscovered while making renovations to the Temple, God had spared the nation from defeat at the hands of the Assyrians. They were enjoying a time of relative peace and prosperity. And while Josiah had instituted significant reforms in the nation by removing all physical displays of idol worship and re-establishing the annual celebration of Passover, much of it proved to be external in nature. The peoples’ hearts had failed to change. They were going through the motions, displaying a form of commitment to God, but their hearts were not in it. And God knew it. They had become complacent in their sin, still seeking after other gods and forsaking the one true God. They were just as guilty of spiritual adultery as they had ever been. They had grown comfortable with their sin and no longer feared God. So God sent Zephaniah with a message of coming judgment. He was no longer going to tolerate their willful disobedience and arrogant displays of contempt for His Law.

While the people of Judah were content to follow Josiah’s demands for reform, and go through the motions of sacrifice and adherence to the Law, they were still hedging their bets and worshiping other gods at the same time. Religion had become their god, not Yahweh. If Josiah’s reforms could bring them prosperity and peace, then they were all for it. As long as it did not require them to change their lifestyles, they were perfectly find with it all. If worshiping Yahweh would stave off destruction and allow them to live their lives the way they wanted to live them, then they were more than willing to add Him to their list of gods.

“Wherever excitement in religion becomes an end in itself and wherever the cult of ‘what helps’ replaces joy in ‘what’s true,’ Baal is worshiped.” – J. Alec Motyer, “Zephaniah,” in The Minor Prophets, p. 899

But God was not after religion, He wanted a relationship based on love, obedience, reverential fear, and faithfulness. He knew that these people “no longer ask for the Lord’s guidance or seek my blessings” (Zephaniah 1:6b NLT). They put more trust in their prosperity and financial stability than they did in the God who provided it. Religion for them had become a means to an end. They worshiped to get. They sought after any and every god because they wanted to make sure they had all their bases covered. They believed the gods existed for their benefit, not the other way around. Religion had become nothing more than a tool to get what they wanted or protect what they already had. The more gods, the merrier, seemed to be their life philosophy. But God had other ideas. He had something else in mind. He had different expectations of His people. And He was about to make those expectations and the penalty for ignoring them painfully clear.

Father, how guilty we are of making religion some kind of a game we play. We make it a means to an end where we get to determine the outcome. We worship based on what we think we will get out of it. We tend to give to get. But You are looking for those who will worship You out of love, respect and faithfulness. You are looking for those who seek You because You first sought them. Like the people of Judah, we can end up going through the motions, giving the appearance of religious reform, but lacking the heart change that must accompany it. Forgive us for our complacency with the sin in our lives and our comfortableness with the world and its ways. Amen

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org