Milo

WORSHIPING GOD
Deuteronomy 12:1–16:17

“You must not worship the LORD your God in their way” (Deut. 12:31).

Worship is the way we express intimacy in our corporate and personal relationship with God. Because God is special, worship is to be special too.

Definition of Key Terms
Worship. Moderns tend to think of worship simply as singing hymns and praising God on Sundays. Hebrew and Greek words translated “worship,” however, mean to “bow down” or “prostrate oneself.” The image is one of showing utmost respect.
Broadly understood, any act by which we express deep respect for God is an act of worship. These chapters in Deuteronomy review some of the ways that Israel was to show respect for the Lord when they entered the Promised Land.

Overview
Worshiping Israel was to establish a central sanctuary (12:1–32), to reject idolatry (13:1–18) and pagan rites (14:1–2), honor dietary laws (vv. 3–21), faithfully pay tithes (vv. 22–29), and to forgive debts and release Hebrew slaves every seventh year (15:1–18). The Israelites were also to set firstborn animals apart to the Lord (vv. 19–23) and faithfully observe religious festivals (16:1–17).

Understanding the Text
“Seek the place the LORD your God will choose” Deut. 12:1–32. The people of Canaan had sacred sites scattered throughout the land. They offered sacrifices at these sites, held orgiastic rites, and practiced various kinds of magic intended to influence their gods. Israel’s rites of worship, such as sacrifice, were to be held at one place alone. The text promised that after Israel had taken the land, God would choose a particular site, and identify Himself with it (“put His Name” there). That site, not selected until the time of David, was Jerusalem.
Emphasis on a single worship center reflects a common Old Testament theme. There was only one entrance into Israel’s tabernacle court, and one way to enter the tabernacle. Later the temple followed this plan. There was to be only one altar of sacrifice, one high priest, one mercy seat where sacrificial blood was poured out each year on the Day of Atonement.
The truth these things symbolized was expressed by Jesus, who told His disciples, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). It may be popular these days to be broad-minded and say there are “many roads to God.” But it is not biblical. Scripture supports that chorus: “One way, and only one.”

“He tried to turn you away from the LORD your God” Deut. 13:1–18. Modern history shows how vulnerable people are to cults. How do we respond when someone knocks on our door with the message of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Mormons, Moonies, or some other cult? If anyone incites us to abandon the Lord for a cult, we will “not listen to [his] words” (v. 3). Rather we will remember that “it is the LORD your God you must follow, and Him you must revere” (v. 4).
God deserves our total allegiance. Worshiping Him as He has revealed Himself in Scripture is to be our first priority.

“Do not cut yourselves” Deut. 14:1–2. God’s people are not to adopt the practices that reflect the attitude of the surrounding pagan peoples toward death.

“Do not eat any detestable thing” Deut. 14:3–21. Some have argued that Hebrew dietary laws prohibited the use of disease-carrying animals as food. The real explanation is more profound. God wanted to remind His people that He is involved in every aspect of their lives. In everything we do we can demonstrate respect for the Lord. Everything we do can thus be an act of worship.

“Bring all the tithes” Deut. 14:22–29. Israel’s economy was to be agricultural, and her wealth was the land and its products. God, the Giver of the land, claimed a 10th of its bounty as His share of every crop. Showing respect for God by giving has been an integral part of worship from the very first.

“Do not be hard-hearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother” Deut. 15:1–18. The depth of a person’s relationship with God is displayed in the way he or she treats others. This principle, woven throughout Scripture, is particularly evident in laws explaining how to treat the poor. Those in need are to be helped willingly. Every seventh year, the debt of all who have not been able to repay loans is to be forgiven. And any Hebrew who has been forced to sell himself into slavery is to be released.
Helping the poor is an act of worship which is especially pleasing to the Lord. The passage says, “Because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to” (v. 10), and again, “The LORD your God will bless you in everything you do” (v. 18).

“Observe the month” Deut. 16:1–17. When Israel conquered the land the people were to hold annual worship festivals, attended by all. The chart on the next page shows the religious calendar of Israel. For the meaning of each festival, see Reading 28, Leviticus.

Israel’s religious calendar

DEVOTIONAL
God’s Share
(Deut. 14:22–15:18)
“Bring your tithes into the storehouse,” Pastor L. used to preach. “Then you can give to others.”
What he meant, of course, was that the local church ought to get the Christian’s tithe. All other giving was over and above the 10 percent our pastor thought the local church deserved.
I understand his message. But I question his exegesis. Particularly when I read chapters like these in Deuteronomy. Here one thing links the tithe, which Israel was obligated to give, and generosity, which Israelites were urged to display. Why is that? Both required that giving and optional giving were intended primarily to meet human need.
The regular tithe was delivered to the temple to be used to support the Levites and priests who served God there. Then, every third year, the tithe was stored locally so that “the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied” (14:29). Both the giving God required and optional contributions He encouraged went to meet human needs.
If you were to look at my income tax forms for the past few years, you’d see an interesting pattern. Our local church receives regular support. But a greater percent of our giving is directed to ministries like Prison Fellowship, which minister directly to the powerless in our society. And some goes to nondeductible and even “secular” causes.
Certainly at the very least this important passage in Deuteronomy gives us fresh insight into the loving heart of our God. And perhaps cause to stop and evaluate the way we worship Him with our giving.

Personal Application
In what ways do you show your reverence for God on weekdays?

Quotable
“Piety cannot consist of specific acts only, such as prayer or ritual observance, but is bound up with all actions, concomitant with all doings, accompanying and shaping all life’s business. Man’s responsibility to God is the scaffold on which he stands as daily he goes on building life. His every deed, every incident of mind, takes place on this scaffold, so that unremittingly man is at work either building up or tearing down his life, his home, his hope of God.”—Abraham Heschel

REMEMBERING GOD
Deuteronomy 8–11

“Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe His commands, His laws and His decrees that I am giving you this day” (Deut. 8:11).

Memory is a great gift. Our tomorrows may be shaped by how well we remember God’s past deliverances and His judgments.

Definition of Key Terms
Remember. In the Old Testament “remember” is more than the mental act of thinking about something that has happened in the past. Its deepest meaning is to recall or pay attention to, and then to act on what has been remembered. In these chapters God called on Israel to remember what had happened on the journey to Canaan, in order to help them make better choices when they entered the Promised Land.

Overview
Israel was to remember the wilderness years, when God taught His people to depend on Him (8:1–20). Events on that journey revealed Israel’s rebelliousness (9:1–29) and the faithfulness of the God who kept on calling His people to holiness (10:1–22). Looking back was to help Israel love God, to carefully observe His commandments, and so to experience His blessing (11:1–32).

Understanding the Text
“He humbled you” Deut. 8:1–9. The Hebrew root of “humble” means to be poor and thus dependent. During the wilderness years God let Israel hunger, then fed His people, to teach them to depend fully on Him.
When Jesus was challenged by Satan to turn stones into bread (Matt. 4; Luke 4), He quoted a verse from this passage: “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” Jesus knew what it means to depend completely on God and to be satisfied with what the Lord provides.
Before we assume that God intends to keep His people in poverty, note what the Lord provided for Israel. Food (v. 3), clothes that did not wear out (v. 4), and good health (v. 4). In the land they were about to possess God would give Israel agricultural and mineral wealth (vv. 7–9).
God may hold back material things to teach us to depend on Him. But Isaiah’s promise still holds. “If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land” (Isa. 1:19).

“It is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth” Deut. 8:10–20. Pride and humility are contrasting attitudes. The humble person acknowledges his dependence on God. The proud individual credits his own “power and the strength of [his] hands” for his success. The curse of the proud is that in taking credit for abilities God has given, they forget the Lord. Moses warned that if Israel became proud, “You will surely be destroyed.”
Paul portrayed the viewpoint you and I are to develop. “Who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” (1 Cor. 4:7) If all that we have is ultimately a gift of God, we have nothing to be proud about but much to be grateful for.

This small metal calf was recovered by archeologists at a hilltop worship site in territory once occupied by the Israelite tribe of Dan. A calf or bull was a frequent motif in Canaanite worship. The animal either represented Baal, or was thought of as a throne on which the invisible deity sat. The bull symbolized virility in religions where ritual prostitution and sexual orgies played a major part. Israel’s worship of a golden calf was a retreat to gross paganism.

“Because of my righteousness” Deut. 9:1–29. How are we to interpret God’s good gifts? Moses warned Israel not to assume that God’s blessings were “because of your righteousness or your integrity.” In fact, as the incident of the golden calf (vv. 7–21) and several other events (vv. 22–29) demonstrated, Israel had been “stiff-necked.” This one graphic term sums up Scripture’s portrait of sinful human nature. All mankind, like Israel, is unresponsive to God, disobedient, and actively rebellious.
Israel’s occupation of the land is evidence of God’s faithfulness to the covenant promises, not of Israel’s righteousness.
God’s love and faithfulness, not our good works, are the true explanation of any blessings He may shower on you or me today.

“At that time” Deut. 10:1–11. God’s matchless grace is displayed in these verses. God forgave Israel’s sin, provided new tablets on which His Law was inscribed, and told Moses to “lead the people on their way, so that they may enter and possess the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.”
When remembering God, we must stand amazed at His forgiving grace.

“What does the LORD your God ask of you?” Deut. 10:12–22 In a brief review, Moses summed up the holy way of life God expected His people to live. Today too we are to “circumcise our hearts” (demonstrate inner commitment to God) by loving others and by worshiping and praising the Lord.

“Faithfully obey” Deut. 11:1–32. Note how intimately this chapter links remembering and responding. Again and again Moses reminded his listeners of what God had said and done. On this basis he called on Israel to “love the LORD your God and keep His requirements” (v. 1), to “observe therefore all the commands” (v. 8), to “faithfully obey the commands” (v. 13), to “be careful” to worship God only (v. 16), and to “carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to hold fast to Him” (v. 22).
Yet Moses did more than appeal to the past to show the value of obedience. He looked ahead as well, and linked the divine promise of future blessing to loving and serving God. In remembering God and how He had dealt with His people Moses was “setting before you today a blessing and a curse—the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God . . . the curse if you disobey.”
What God has done, He will do. For God is faithful and consistent.

DEVOTIONAL
Remember Our Golden Calves
(Deut. 9:7–10:11)
I really don’t like to remember my sins. That flush of shame, that awareness of failure, aren’t at all pleasant. Besides, as forgiven people, aren’t our sins forgiven and the past forgotten?
While there’s nothing spiritual about wallowing in guilt, every now and then we need to revisit sites where we have erected golden calves.
The golden calf that Israel made on the plains of Sinai was the ultimate affront to God. God had delivered His people from slavery; Israel ignored Him and chose to worship an idol. God had fed and protected Israel; they decided to praise a creation of their own hands. In the most basic way the golden calf was a total rejection of God.
And yet, the Bible says, “At that time, the LORD said” (10:1). At that time, when Israel overtly rejected Him, God told Moses to return to the Mount, and there God gave Moses new tablets containing His Law (vv. 2–8). And at that time, God also said, “Go . . . and lead My people on their way, so that they may enter and possess the land that I swore to their fathers” (vv. 10–11).
Moses reminded Israel of the golden calf not to shame them, but to help them realize how great and how gracious God is.
This is why we need to revisit our golden calves now and then. To remember how forgiving, how loving, how gracious God has been to us. “At that time” in our lives, the time of our greatest failure, God came to us in Jesus. He lifted us up, took us in His arms, forgave us, and set us on our way again.
Revisiting our golden calves reminds us that not even our sins can cut us off from the love of God. Whenever we fail, God is able to pick us up and set us on the path of righteousness once again.

Personal Application
What event in your past makes you most grateful for God’s forgiveness?

Quotable
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His Word has no place in our lives. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have One who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”—1 John 1:9–2:2

LOVING GOD
Deuteronomy 5–7

“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deut. 6:5).

These chapters identify the fundamental principles of personal relationship with God. The rules which come later are merely illustrations of how these fundamental principles are to be applied by a people who love God.

Definition of Key Terms
Deuteronomy 6 calls on us to dedicate “heart,” “soul,” and “strength” to loving God. “Heart” in the Old Testament is the seat of both the mind and emotions. “Soul” is best understood here as one’s “being.” We are to love God with our whole self, not limit Him to smaller compartments of our lives. “Strength” suggests the will’s direction of every capacity toward love. Use of three such powerful terms in a single verse makes it clear that relationship with God calls for wholehearted devotion. The implication of these chapters is that only a person truly devoted to God will obey Him.

Ten Commandments. Ten brief, basic rules showing human beings how to love God and other persons. For explanation of the Ten Commandments, see Exodus Reading 19.

Overview
The 10 basic commandments given at Sinai show how to love God and others (5:1–21). Keeping them promotes well-being (vv. 22–33). Love and reverence for God produce obedience, and are to be taught to future generations (6:1–25). God demands complete allegiance; competing faiths were to be driven from the land so that God could keep His covenant of love with Israel (7:1–26).

Understanding the Text
“It was not with our fathers . . . but with us” Deut. 5:1–21. The adults who stood before God at Mount Horeb (Sinai) and first heard the Ten Commandments were dead when Moses proclaimed them to this new generation. Yet Moses said God’s covenant was “not with our fathers” but was “with all of us who are alive here today.”
What did Moses mean? That God’s Word has a powerful, present message for each listener. God’s Word was first spoken centuries ago, but it is as fresh, vital, and compelling as if it had been just uttered today. In a real sense, God’s Word is spoken today. The living God meets us in His Word. All He says there is said to us as well as to generations past.
You and I must never read the Bible as though it were merely a record of something that happened long ago. We are to read Scripture attentively, expecting God to speak to us in our today. As the writer of Hebrews says, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” (Heb. 3:15). The Bible is God’s voice. Through it He is speaking not only to our fathers, but to us!

“Hear . . . learn . . . and be sure to follow” Deut. 5:1. Each of these words is found in Moses’ first words to the assembled Israelites (v. 1). The Ten Commandments state fundamental principles which are to be applied in our relationship with God and with others.
It’s important not to confuse loving God and others with love feelings. Love is a choice. The person who loves God will hear God’s Word, study to understand what that Word means, and then carefully apply it in daily life.

“That it might go well with them and their children forever” Deut. 5:22–33. Some act as if the moral standards revealed in the Ten Commandments are arbitrary and restrictive. They resent the “You shall nots” of Scripture, as if these were intended to spoil mankind’s fun and make human life as miserable as possible.
Nothing could be further from the truth. God’s laws are actually intended to promote human happiness. We humans are moral beings, created by God with a sense of right and wrong. Like a train that functions only when running on a track, human beings function in a healthy, happy way only when living morally good lives.
There is a special urgency in Moses’ call to Israel to obey God. Israel enjoyed a covenant relationship with God. In this relationship God was committed not only to bless obedience, but also to punish disobedience.
Unbelievers as well as believers are better off living a morally good life. But God is actively involved in the life of believers. Because God cares so much about us, you and I are more likely to feel the immediate effect of our sins.

“When you eat and are satisfied” Deut. 6:10–25. Moses said “when” because he knew that God would surely bless His people. For Israel this meant inheriting “a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant.” Still, such blessings are dangerous. When life is too easy, and we become satisfied, we tend to “forget the LORD.”
Moses explained the way for believers to guard themselves when blessed. First, “fear the LORD your God.” The word here means to treat Him with respect, remembering that He is able to discipline as well as to bless. Then, “keep the commands.” The believer is to “do what is right and good.” Finally, the believer is “in the future” to pass on faith to the next generation. This is the only way to guard ourselves and our children from empty, meaningless lives.

“You must destroy them totally” Deut. 7:1–6. The demand that Israel utterly destroy the people who inhabited Canaan before her has troubled many. How does this command square with all the talk in Deuteronomy 6 of love? How do we understand it in view of God’s revelation of love for all people in Jesus?
To answer we need to make several observations. First, archeology has confirmed Scripture’s portrait of Canaanite culture as morally and religiously depraved. Some 600 years earlier God had told Abraham that He would not expel the people of the Promised Land then, because “the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure” (Gen. 15:16). Now that full measure of sinfulness had been reached, and Israel was to be God’s instrument of punishment. It’s important for us to remember that the God who loves human beings also hates evil. Any concept of God that fails to take His commitment to punish sin into account is essentially unscriptural.
Second, the command to destroy the Canaanites emphasized Israel’s call to be a holy people. Intimate association with the Canaanites would (and did!) lead Israel into idolatry. Only by destroying the Canaanites who currently inhabited the Promised Land could Israel be safe from moral and spiritual corruption. It would be a strange parent indeed who would stand idly by and watch a much-loved child be infected with a deadly disease. God was protecting His children.
One other observation. Israel was not commanded to go beyond the borders of Canaan and wipe out the several racial groups represented in Palestine. God’s first concern was for the well-being of His people.
Yes, God does care about everyone. But those who know and love Him are His first priority.

“It was because the LORD loved you” Deut. 7:7–26. Why did God choose Israel and decide to bless them? Why does God care so much for you and me today? The puzzle is resolved by stating an even greater mystery. Why? “It was because the LORD loved you.”
God needs no reason other than love to bless us. Though there are many reasons why it is to our benefit to obey, we need no other reason than love for Him.

DEVOTIONAL
“Communicating God’s Love”
(Deut. 6:4–8)
Loving God is so important. Surely a love for the Lord is the most important heritage we can pass on to our children.
When my oldest son was a seventh-grader in our local Christian grammar school, and I was a professor of Christian education at Wheaton College Graduate School, I did an experiment with his class to learn how boys and girls from Christian homes “caught” their parents’ faith.
What I found was that most of the things parents did or did not do to pass on their faith made very little difference in their children’s lives. The one thing that did make a difference is explained here, in words spoken by Moses millenniums ago.
Moses says that communicating faith begins with a parent’s own love for God. A love “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (v. 5). This kind of love opens us up to God, so that He can write His commandments on our hearts (v. 6). Why is this so important? Because as long as God’s commandments seem only like demands engraved in stone, we will never be able to communicate either them or a love for God. It’s only when God has written His laws on our hearts and they find expression in our lives that we are able to “impress” them on our children (v. 7). When God’s love has made us sensitive to His commandments, so that He and they become such an integral part of our lives that we “talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up,” then the God who is real to us will be real to our children too. Then our own love for God will find a home in the hearts of our boys and girls.
What makes the difference? Simply this. If God is real to you—if you love Him and follow Him faithfully—then God will be real to your children too.

Personal Application
Show your love for God daily by your commitment to doing His will.

Quotable
“Too often Christians regard the Law merely as a set of legalisms, and they view Jewish people as trying to follow the letter of the Law. On the other hand [they] then proclaim that the New Covenant describes how God works in grace to redeem His people and shower His love on them. In no way should such a compartmentalization exist between the Old and New Testaments. Deuteronomy describes how God blessed Israel and showered His love on them because of His grace and mercy. What the Lord expected from Israel in return was an outpouring of love. While some people misappropriated God’s intentions and developed a legalistic substitute, a remnant in every generation always deeply loved, honored, and served the Lord their God.”—Lewis Goldberg

Zephaniah

INTRODUCTION
Zephaniah prophesied during the reign of Josiah of Judah (640-609 B.C.). Distressed by the shallowness of Judah’s response to the godly king’s reformation, Zephaniah announced that sweeping judgment was about to fall on Jerusalem as well as on pagan nations.
Zephaniah, the last of the preexilic prophets, summarized much of the judgment and salvation teaching of the earlier prophets. His emphasis fell on the darkest aspects of the Day of the Lord, within decades to be prefigured by Babylon’s invasion of the Holy Land.

GREAT DAY COMING
Zephaniah 1–3

“The great Day of the LORD is near—near and coming quickly. Listen! The cry on the Day of the LORD will be bitter” (Zeph. 1:14).

I magine history as a speeding train and the prophets as conductors, calling out the next station. Zephaniah’s cry would be, “Last stop! We’re coming into Judgment. Everybody off!”

Background
The age of Josiah. Josiah was Judah’s last godly king. He took the throne following a half century of apostasy under Manasseh and Amon, and soon determined to lead his people back to the Lord. He attempted to purge the land of idolatry and reinstituted temple worship. Yet both Habakkuk and Zephaniah, who ministered in Josiah’s time, viewed the reformation as superficial at best. Habakkuk portrayed the corruption of the legal system and society itself (Hab. 1:1–4), while Zephaniah cited evidence that Assyrian and Canaanite religions maintained a hold on the people (Zeph. 1:4–5). Prophets and priests were false to their calling (3:4), and political leaders still resorted to violence and perpetrated injustices (vv. 2–3). There were in Josiah’s reforms outward indications of a return to God, but the lifestyle of the people gave no evidence of repentance or return.
It is against this background that Zephaniah cried out concerning the Day of the Lord, and emphasized its judgment aspects. The onrushing Day of the Lord “will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness” (1:15). For God’s sinful people there can now be no escape.
Near the end of Josiah’s reign the ancient world experienced great political upheaval. As Assyria engaged in a death struggle with a suddenly emergent Babylon, Judah won brief independence. Josiah became involved in trying to tip the balance of power between these two and Egypt, and was killed in battle in 609B.C Within a few years Judah was reduced to a subject state in the Babylonian Empire. Within three decades the Babylonians denuded the land of Judah of its people, and left Jerusalem, with its once beautiful temple, a heap of ruins.
When we read Zephaniah we find no unexpected revelation. All that Zephaniah said, earlier prophets had proclaimed over and over again. What we do sense, however, is a tone of finality. God had given His people opportunity after opportunity. Now, it was too late. Judgment was “near and coming quickly” (v. 14).
How desperately we need to respond to every word of divine warning. If we fail to respond, one day it will surely be too late.

Overview
Zephaniah predicted the “Day of the LORD,” a dark day of judgment, due against Judah (1:1–2:3), Gentile nations (vv. 4–15), and against Jerusalem (3:1–8). Yet beyond the judgment lies a day of joy, in which God’s scattered people will return and be restored to relationship with Him (vv. 9–20).

Understanding the Text
“Zephaniah” Zeph. 1:1. The prophet’s name probably means “watchman for the Lord.” But what is interesting is that Zephaniah provided more genealogical information about himself than any other Old Testament prophet. He traced his ancestry back four generations, to “Hezekiah.” Most commentators believe that this is King Hezekiah, the last godly king prior to Josiah.
Some see here simply Zephaniah’s attempt to link himself with Judah’s royal family. But the genealogy suggests something even more important. It reminds us that two whole generations, over 50 years, passed by during which Judah lacked godly leadership. The royal family faltered in its commitment to the Lord, and as a result the whole land turned eagerly to idolatry and sin.
You and I can no more afford to neglect the nurture of our children than could the kings of Judah. God may well bring a future generation back to Him, as He brought back Hezekiah’s great grandsons, Josiah and Zephaniah. But how great the tragedy if son and grandson are lost.

“Those who turn back from following the LORD” Zeph. 1:2–13. These verses announce sweeping judgment, and express the reasons for God’s anger. They also do more. They help us understand the futility of man’s search for “freedom.”
The people of Judah turned back from following the Lord. They thought obedience to Him was too restrictive. But what did they actually obtain?
They refused to worship the one true God, and found themselves worshiping a confusing host of pagan deities: Canaanite baals, the Assyrian “starry host,” the Phoenician Molech. Some even added the Lord to this roster of gods, as if He were on a par with idols (vv. 4–5). The people of Judah still were bound by man’s deep need for relationship with the supernatural.
They refused to obey God, and in seeking freedom adopted “foreign clothes” (v. 8). As today, the clothing one chose then indicated basic attitudes or orientations. The choice of foreign clothing suggests a rejection of Jewish identity and an effort to identify with Egyptian or Babylonian peoples (cf. Num. 15:38; Deut. 22:11–12). They were “free,” but in their pursuit of freedom they lost their true selves.
They refused to obey God, and demanding freedom fell prey to superstition, such as the practice of refusing to step on the threshold of a house of pagan worship (Zeph. 1:8; cf. 1 Sam. 5:5).
They refused to obey God, and created a society in which each person was selfish, where violence and deceit were the norm (Zeph. 1:9).
They refused to obey God, and in asserting their freedom they lost all sense of spiritual reality, so that however great their need they never thought to seek the Lord, or ask Him what way they should go.
People today seem to have that same insistent desire for “freedom.” God’s ways seem restrictive, and so they “turn back from following the LORD.” But always when human beings demand such freedom, they find themselves caught in a monstrous web. They become trapped, falling victim to counterfeit religions both humanistic and supernaturalistic, to superstition, to confusion, loss of identity, and finally loss of all touch with reality. They live in a world of illusion, not only lost, but subject to the wrath of the God who warns, “On that day I will punish” (vv. 8–13).
How glad we are to surrender such an illusory “freedom,” and to choose to follow the Lord. We who follow Him gladly are free indeed.

“The great Day of the LORD” Zeph. 1:14–18. The “Day of the LORD” is a phrase used by Old Testament prophets to indicate events associated with God’s direct involvement in human affairs to carry out some phase of His plan for humankind. While the “Day of the LORD” is most often an eschatological term used when describing history’s end, any act of God can be identified with that day. Thus there is “the” eschatological Day of the Lord, and also “a” non-eschatological Day of the Lord.
What is important to note is that “a” Day of the Lord merits that identification because it bears marked likeness to “the” Day of the Lord.
This is what Zephaniah predicted here. “A” Day of the Lord was rushing down on Judah which, like “the” Day of the Lord, would be a day of wrath, distress, anguish, trouble, and ruin. The horrors of the imminent Babylonian invasion can be compared only to the horrors of the great day of divine judgment that will mark history’s end.
This is an important reminder. God’s final judgment day seems far off to most people. But for those who, like Judah, persist in sin, there is often “a” judgment day, as well as “the” judgment day! God is no less hostile to sin today than He was in our prophet’s time. A Day of the Lord may be no farther from us than it was from Judah.

“You humble of the land” Zeph. 2:1–3. Zephaniah’s warning concluded with an invitation. Before the time appointed for judgment comes, we can find shelter in the Lord. All it requires is humility.
What is humility? It is an attitude in stark contrast to that of those who demand the right to live their own lives. The humble gladly submit to God. The humble express their submission by seeking the Lord, and by doing what He commands. The humble are eager not for wealth, but for righteousness; not for high position, but to bow low before the Lord. There is shelter for the humble, even when the storm breaks around us.
There is hope for the humble. There is no hope for those who demand to be “free.”

“I will destroy you” Zeph. 2:4–15. The coming Day of the Lord would not only devastate Judah but also the pagan peoples who have been hostile to the Lord. Afterward the remnant of God’s own will at last be secure. Zephaniah said of their land, “It will belong to the remnant of the house of Judah; there they will find pasture. In the evening they will lie down in the houses of Ashkelon. The LORD their God will care for them; He will restore their fortunes” (v. 7).

“I have decided to assemble the nations” Zeph. 3:1–8. Now Zephaniah focused on Jerusalem, the capital city of Judah and its very heart. What he saw, despite the renewed activity on the temple mount which rose above Jerusalem’s homes and businesses, was a city of oppressors, “rebellious and defiled” (vv. 1–5). The city had failed to respond to God’s correction, and now must be punished.
God is never impressed by appearances. His concern today as in Zephaniah’s time is with the heart.

DEVOTIONAL
O Say Can You See
(Zeph. 3)
I’ve always been fascinated by the story. A British fleet stood off Baltimore, bombarding the fort that guarded its harbor. All through the night the guns roared. Through the clouds of acrid smoke explosions could be seen over the fort, as hollow powder-filled balls called bombs burst in the air. The darkness shrouded the stone walls of the fort, but the cacophony of sounds—the shrill whistling of shells, the booming of the cannon, the hollow thump of hit after hit—convinced every shipboard witness that the fort must fall, and Baltimore would be taken.
And then, as dawn’s first light drove back the shadows, the witnesses saw an astounding sight. The fort still stood! And there, flying proudly above her ramparts, was the American flag.
Hurrying down below one witness seized a pen and dashed off lines that every citizen has heard a thousand times. “O say can you see,” wrote Francis Scott Key, a prisoner that night on the British flagship, “through the dawn’s early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming.” The fort, and the flag, had survived.
What a picture of the scene we see in Zephaniah 3. The city of Jerusalem was under siege, being punished for her many sins (vv. 1–7). The Lord Himself was the assailing force, pouring out His wrath, striking the city in His fierce anger. The devastation seemed enough to consume the entire world in an awesome conflagration (v. 8).
And then, in the rest of the chapter, we make an amazing discovery. As that dreadful night of judgment comes to an end, and day dawns, we realize there are survivors! We see God’s scattered people, purified, return to worship their God (vv. 9–10). We realize that the arrogance that characterized Jerusalem had been burned away, and the city now held only the meek and humble, who would do no wrong (vv. 11–13). And we hear a voice raised in song, tentative at first, but soon swelling in a glad chorus of joy as the people of the city realize that God, mighty to save, is with them, and will quiet them with His love (vv. 14–18). And suddenly we see the city itself begin to glow, as God gives His now holy people the honor and praise they thought that they had forfeited forever by their sin (vv. 19–20).
Just so we need to remind ourselves. When you or I suffer under the discipline of God, everything seems so dark. We feel crushed, unable to go on. Yet if we were only to look beyond, to tomorrow, we would catch a glimpse of the sight seen by Key, and by Zephaniah too.
O say can you see, just beyond the horizon of your dark today, the dawn of what God intends for you? Purified and restored, humbled enough to accept God’s love, you too will be quieted with His love, and be given praise and honor in a peaceful land.

Personal Application
Look beyond your present circumstances, and fix your eyes on the good God will surely do you.

Quotable
“I bear my willing witness that I owe more to the fire, and the hammer, and the file, than to anything else in my Lord’s workshop. I sometimes question whether I have ever learned anything except through the rod. When my schoolroom is darkened, I see most.”—Charles H. Spurgeon