“The LORD your god is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)
It’s always vital that we interpret the messages of scripture through the lens of itself, rather than importing our own ideas & values and imposing them on the message. Getting this right is tricky, not just because of the language & culture barriers between our lives today and those of the original writers & recipients of scripture…but also because it takes time. We don’t tend to like things that require lots of time & attention, we like microwaves and smartphones for a reason. But then again, the most important things in life are not quick & easy.
This passage comes after several pages full of judgments and forecasts of doom against the historic enemies of God. At that time, before the coming of Jesus the Messiah, the “Chosen Family Of God” was limited to the Nation of Israel. Messages of warning and condemnation were leveled against people & nations who were operating in active defiance against God’s purposes, including some within the fold of Israel. In a nutshell, the posture of most of Zephaniah’s book was him waving his arms and saying “Wake up people! You cannot spit in God’s face forever!” Some of these admonitions were contemporary, others looked forward to the end of time. Timeless principles are woven through the fabric.
At the end his prophecy, Zephaniah’s tone changes as he addresses those who remained true to God in the midst of all the hypocrisies of their contemporaries. People who, though imperfect, repeatedly came back to the place of faith in God…refusing to allow themselves to get swept along by the lies and temptations to give-up hope that God is actually among us, that He is good, that He is ultimately in control, and that we can put our trust in Him no matter what’s going on around us. The words are meant to give hope and promise and healing to those who have suffered in the pursuit of God.
“The LORD your god is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)
