[Fifty-fifth in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: The Gospels give us only brief glimpses into the first thirty years of the life of Jesus. We have, of course, the Christmas story. They mention the circumcision of Jesus on the 8th day (we celebrate it on New Year’s Day). After forty days, Mary, his mother, and Joseph, his adoptive father, take him to the temple to redeem him and to purify Mary. There, they meet Simeon and Anna. Then sometime in the first two years, scholars from the east came to their house in Bethlehem, worshiped him, and gave him gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Warned by an angel, they moved to Egypt while Herod the Great vainly tried to kill him and instead slaughtered innocent boys. In a matter of months, they moved back to Nazareth and settled there. Then, that’s it for twelve years. We hear about Jesus among the teachers in the temple, and then silence again for sixteen years!
False teachers, psychics, and prophets of other religions could not resist. They tell stories of a self-centered child animating clay pigeons, raising a child from the dead to testify that he did not shove the child off a roof, and similar things. Some have him moving to India to learn under gurus. Islam has it that he spoke while in the cradle. None of these things happened, but are simply stories made up to fill a vacuum they believe exists.
So, what were Jesus’ first thirty years really like? We don’t know precisely, other than that it was perfectly normal. He grew up as the son of a faithful Jewish craftsman. He learned his father’s trade, living what was a kind of middle-class life. Likely, they worked to build the nearby capital of Herod Antipas, called Sepphoris. He would have studied the Torah, learned Hebrew, observed all the customs of the law, and studied under rabbis. He likely spoke Koine Greek and gained knowledge of Greek and Roman culture. He grew up so normally that no one who knew him could imagine him as God. Luke sums it up: “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:52)
[Fifty-First in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Encore Post: The Wise Men were scholars in Babylon, in Iraq today. One thing they studied was astrology. They saw a star that told them that a king would be born in Israel. So they went to see Him. They did not arrive on Christmas Eve at all, but a few months to a year afterward. They found Mary and Jesus at home in a house.
There are lots of theories as to what the Star of Bethlehem actually was. Some scholars think it was a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, which appeared to approach each other in the sky three times around the time Jesus was born. Others point to the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus, which occurred about the same time. Also suggested have been comets, novas, and other signs in the sky. Any of these would inspire ancients who believed in astrology to go visit the newborn king. It may not have been any of these. Christian scholars have pointed out that God was quite capable of creating a star to use solely for the birth of His Son.
Assuming a newborn King of the Jews would be in King Herod’s palace, it made sense to visit him. What they didn’t know is that, in the last few months of his life, Herod was very paranoid. He was known to kill viciously anyone, including his wife and his sons, whom he thought were planning his overthrow. So, then, when the angel warned the wise men not to go back to Herod, it was a very good thing.
Even though tradition says there were three Wise Men (think: We Three Kings of Orient are), no one knows how many came. Matthew doesn’t number them. Perhaps it is because they presented Jesus with three royal gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
They were the first Gentiles to realize who Jesus was and to worship Him. The church celebrates the coming of the Wise Men on the twelfth and last night of the season of Christmas.
[Forty-Eighth in a series of posts on Bible Stories] Blog Post: At first glance, Mary and Elizabeth do not seem to have much in common — other than King David as their common ancestor. Mary was a very young woman, barely out of childhood. Elizabeth was very old and had no children. Mary lived on the outskirts of the Holy Land, out in small town Galilee. Elizabeth is at the center of Jewish life, the wife of a priest, living in the bedroom communities of Jerusalem. It is clear that the women knew of each other, but not that they knew each other. Elizabeth’s pregnancy is an obvious blessing from God. Everyone knew her to have been barren until old age, like mother Sarah. Mary was a teenager pregnant outside of marriage. Likely, everyone assumed Joseph was a bit too eager and frowned upon it.
One thing is sure. A prompt visit to a distant relative was a wise thing, — it allowed the community a chance to calm down about something they didn’t approve of. So imagine the joy of yet another miracle. The Holy Spirit filled Elizabeth. The baby John the Baptist, still in her womb, recognized the presence of the Messiah, still in her cousin’s womb, and leaped for joy. Elizabeth suddenly knew the whole truth — that God had become a man in the womb of her young relative. Mary was the God Bearer, the Mother of God. God had kept his promise — the Messiah had come to save His people from their sin.
Mary responded to Elizabeth with thanksgiving to God. She sings the first song in Luke’s musical. Called the Magnificat, which we sing in Vespers services. In this song, she marvels God has so richly blessed a poor girl. She remains with Elizabeth for three months.
The early church fathers saw something special in the faith of these two women. Both of them believed what God revealed to them from the very start. Their husbands, Zechariah and Joseph, at first doubted. In the end, all four of them firmly trusted in God, who finally came to save — and did so through two very unlikely women, neither of whom should have conceived, one very young and one very old.
Encore Post: After the defeat of Marc Anthony and Cleopatra, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, great-nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar, had gained sole control of the Roman Republic. With a combination of political skill and military power, he unified a badly divided empire. Having the Roman Republic declare him its first citizen and bestow upon him the titles Augustus and Son of God (meaning “Son of Julius Caesar”), he gained absolute power while retaining the trappings of the Republic. This political unity would more or less hold for two hundred years. Successfully pushing warfare to the edges of the Empire, Augustus established the Pax Romana — the Peace of Rome.
This peace was a great blessing in the Mediterranean world. Travel was free of political barriers. A network of durable roads was constructed from Rome to the edges of the empire. Many of these are still in use today. Roman culture bestowed status on rulers and wealthy individuals who constructed public buildings, such as aqueducts, baths, theatres, and temples, resulting in a sustained construction boom. A unified currency made trade relatively easy to conduct.
Rome was justly proud of its unified legal code, which, except for the highest levels of society, was stable and, for the most part, objectively enforced. Being a practical people, the Romans adopted and adapted Greek culture and language. Where possible, Rome preferred to allow local nations to rule themselves, as long as they paid their taxes, were politically loyal, raised troops when needed, and bowed to Roman law when it conflicted with their traditions.
God prepared the way for his Son by establishing this common government. It allowed the apostles to fan out quickly across the entire Mediterranean world with the Gospel. It protected St. Paul in Jerusalem and allowed his appeal to the Emperor. The census of Caesar Augustus led the Holy Family to Bethlehem. It assured the fulfillment of prophecy by sending the true Son of God to the cross rather than to death by stoning. It placed objective guards at his tomb to bear witness to his resurrection.
Note: This series of blog posts is available as a Kindle book and eventually as a print booklet at: Amazon.com: Preparation for the Gospel. Please note the author makes a small profit on the sale of this book.
Campus Ministry Sermon 1 Samuel 8 September 27, 2023
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The theme is this: Jesus is the King of all.
As we begin this sermon series together, every campus ministry night and every Advent and Lent midweek service is going to focus on the Kings of Israel. We know about David and Solomon, or at least we know the books they wrote, Psalms and Proverbs. But we probably know about their lives at least a little bit.
We know David was a shepherd boy and that he slayed Goliath. We know he sinned with Bathsheba and that he killed Uriah. And we probably know that Solomon was wise and that he built the temple for the Lord. We know Solomon married 700 wives, and that caused so many problems.
But this year, I want to teach and preach about all the faithful kings of Israel. This year, we will cover kings that maybe you have never heard of, like Asa. Or maybe you have heard about Jehoshaphat, but you know nothing about him.
But even more, we will learn about the Fourth Commandment, about honoring authorities. We learn that Jesus Christ is the King of all, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We will learn more about that part of the Lord’s Prayer, Thy kingdom come.
It’s quite a project, quite a sermon series. And there is much to learn. So where do we start? Today’s reading starts where the whole kingdom began: Israel demands a king.
Our reading begins with these words: When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice.
First, we need to talk about Samuel. Samuel was a priest, a holy man, and not a king at all. Samuel was given to the Lord by his mother, Hannah, to be a priest in the church of the Old Testament. Samuel was a good guy in our stories, a faithful man leading the church and the nation to obey God in all things.
But his sons turned aside. Though they were raised in the church and knew God’s Word, they thought that they knew what was best and they did their own thing and disobeyed God and Samuel, their father.
This is a pretty common thing; to go to church as a kid with mom and/or dad, but when we leave for college to skip church and do our own thing. Freedom is wonderful for a time, but faith is far more important. Making money is a great feeling, but the love of money is the root of all evil. Samuel’s sons took bribes and relied on money instead of God. What is more important to you? Making lots of money or believing in the Savior?
What happened in Israel is that the people forgot God and wanted a king to rule over them. Rather than relying on God, the people wanted a king like all the rest of the world. Our reading says, Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” Israel wanted to become like all the other nations around them.
This is something that I think we all understand, too. We think, “I want to be like so-and-so.” Boy, this is everywhere in our culture. Support this perverted idea or be silenced. Support that country or our own country will be in peril. Watch out, or you might be cancelled. It takes great courage to stand up for what you believe in. It takes great faith to be a Christian today. The pressures of campus, the pressures of friends, and the pressures of the internet all try to discourage us and to be like Israel, wanting a king, anybody other than God to rule over us.
But look at what Samuel did. And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
First things first. Samuel prayed about this problem. He prayed about his nation and his people and his church. He prayed just like his mother Hannah had prayed for a son to be born for her. Samuel knew that prayer was necessary, that God’s kingdom would come and God’s will be done.
And the Lord reluctantly grants the request of Israel. Much like Jesus says in the Gospel, “Those who reject you are really rejecting me,” so here the Lord says to Samuel, “They do not reject you, but they reject me.” The people of Israel want a king, anybody other than God.
This is exactly how it is in our world. The world wants money, the world wants to do its own thing. The world wants to tempt us and mislead us. The world wants the church to fail. We experience this on campus, we experience this in our homes, we experience this on the news, we experience this in our own country.
But this is not how it is in the church. In the church, Jesus is the King of all. In this church, we obey God rather than man. In the church, we walk in God’s ways and not in the ways that the world wants us to go.
As we begin to move through the books of 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings this year, we will learn so many things. We will realize just how our world worships anything other than God Himself. We will learn about leaders of nations, the godly ones, and yet we will recognize that they are sinners just like us.
But most importantly, let the Gospel ring true, Jesus Christ is the King of all. This is the whole point, and this is the comfort. That no matter who cancels us, no matter what the world does, no matter how hard it is at times, Jesus Christ is our King and this world is not His country. No, Christ rules heaven, that world to come, for which we yearn and about which we believe.
Nobody can take our King away from us. And nobody can kill Him anymore. Our King Jesus lives and reigns to all eternity. And we His subjects will live with Him forever.
Encore Post: When Christians think of the Herods, Herod the Great comes to mind first of all of them. He is, after all, the villain of the Christmas story. But the story of the Herods begins with his father, Antipater.
Antipater was an Idumean (Edomite; descendants of Esau) noble. When the Hasmonean rulers of Judah expanded into Edom, they forced the Edomites to convert to Judaism. When the royal descendants fought over the throne, Antipater convinced Roman General Pompey to support Hyrcanus II. With Roman assistance, his prince won the dynastic conflict and reigned in Judea — now a Roman client state. Antipater sent his son to Rome for education and then appointed Herod as governor of Galilee and his brother as governor of Judah. During Rome’s civil wars, Antipater first supported Pompey, then Caesar, who made him a Roman citizen, then Cassius. The result was to place Judea within the Roman orbit, yet as a self-ruling, prosperous, and growing entity.
At his father’s death, Herod the Great assumed the throne of Judea and married into the Hasmonean family. He became a loyal supporter first of Marc Anthony, then of Octavian (Augustus). He maintained the peace in Roman fashion — through cruel and violent action. He was an avid builder, whose works enhanced the lives of his subjects — Jew and Gentile. His unwavering support of Rome brought numerous advantages to Judea. His people both loved and loathed him. In his later years, he had to root out one plot after another, leading him to become quite paranoid about his throne. Convinced his wife Mariame, and their sons plotted to kill him, he had them executed.
His greatest building accomplishment was rebuilding the Holy Temple into a wonder of the ancient world, which was beautiful and magnificent. God used him to prepare for his son with the bringing of Roman peace to Judea, improving its infrastructure, rebuilding the temple, and by his killing of the infants of Bethlehem, propelling the Holy Family to move to Egypt.
Rev. Robert E. Smith Pastor Emeritus Fort Wayne, Indiana
Note: This series of blog posts is available as a Kindle book and eventually as a print booklet at: Amazon.com: Preparation for the Gospel. Please note the author makes a small profit on the sale of this book.
[Forty-Third in a series of posts on Bible Stories] In the years and generations following the initial return from exile, Jerusalem was still a shell of its former self. The city had few inhabitants. The evidence of Jerusalem’s destruction was everywhere. Jerusalem was still a dump of rubble. To make it worse, the city had no continuous wall around it.
Nehemiah was a descendant of the tribe of Judah, who still lived in Susa and worked for the Persians some generations after Cyrus decreed the Jews could return to Jerusalem. In the twentieth year of Artaxerxes’ reign, Nehemiah received his brother Hanani, along with other men who had returned from Judah.
Their message was stark: “Those who went back are in trouble and great shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.” That news cut Nehemiah to the heart, and he broke down into prayer. Nehemiah took on the role of mediator. Like Moses many centuries before him, and Daniel of more recent memory, Nehemiah confessed the sins of the people of Israel to God. He acknowledges how horrible Israel had acted against God and asks Him for mercy (Nehemiah 1:7-11). After his prayer, Nehemiah writes, “Now I was cupbearer to the king.”
Serving as cupbearer gives Nehemiah unrivalled access to King Artaxerxes. The king could see Nehemiah’s feelings on his face. Nehemiah requested permission to inspect Jerusalem. He wanted to rebuild it. Similar to Cyrus, Artaxerxes not only allows him but also sends him with proper letters and orders to cut wood for the gates of the temple and the walls. In fact, Nehemiah became the governor of the region.
However, life was not easy for Nehemiah. He faced opposition from Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite from the very beginning. These men desired to see Jerusalem continually in a state of disrepair. However, Nehemiah trusted the Lord was with him in the work he desired to accomplish. Nehemiah says it this way: “The good hand of my God was upon me.” Under Nehemiah, the wall was rebuilt, but it was not easy. They faced opposition the entire time. In the fourth chapter of his book, Nehemiah describes how the workers carried a sword on their side and took shifts, working or holding spears in case of an attack.
Nehemiah’s book is not simply about the wall, though; Nehemiah also discusses the efforts he made to care for the poor in Jerusalem. The nobles were committing the same sins as their fathers, or worse. The poor were being sold as slaves. Nehemiah put an end to that. He did not exact the food allowance usually granted to a governor.
The book ends with Nehemiah’s last reforms, one of which probably sounds harsh to our modern ears: the Jews divorcing foreign wives. However, from a theological perspective, we might be able to understand this. Nehemiah feared the people might fall into the idolatrous past of their ancestors. This concern seems valid as the priesthood had become corrupted, for one priest was the son-in-law of Nehemiah’s opponent, Sanballat the Horonite.
Now you might wonder what is “Christian” about Nehemiah? There is plenty. We can and should see Nehemiah as a Christ-figure. He is zealous for Jerusalem. He wants the city to be secure. He also faced great opposition. He even faced false witnesses who said that Nehemiah had set himself up as king. Nehemiah was not a king, though he was from the tribe of Judah. He was also a very devout follower of the LORD. Nehemiah helped Jerusalem celebrate the Feast of Booths, and Nehemiah 9 is one of the most thorough “creeds” found in the Old Testament.
Finally, the wall itself needed to be built so that Jesus could die outside its gates. One of the charges against Jesus was that he was a rebellious son. Deuteronomy 21 tells what should happen to a rebellious son: he should be brought to the elders at the gate, and there they shall stone him. While Jesus was not stoned, he was hung on a tree. That tree was outside the gates of Jerusalem.
[Fortieth in a series of posts on Bible Stories; First in a series of posts on Zechariah] The prophet Zechariah may not be as well-known as Isaiah or Jeremiah, but the authors of the Gospels in the New Testament frequently allude to Zechariah. In fact, scholars argue that Zechariah, after Psalms and Isaiah, is the next most alluded to book of the Old Testament.
Zechariah’s ministry is a full-throated proclamation of the coming Messiah, though you might not catch all the images that Zechariah draws upon to speak of Him and His coming. Let’s start at the beginning and work through the book and acknowledge some of the images that proclaim the work of Jesus.
The very name Zechariah bears great meaning: YHWH (The LORD) Remembers. Zechariah begins his book by telling us when the Word of the LORD came to him. It was in the days of King Darius, following Cyrus’s call for the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple (Ezra 1:2, 2 Chronicles 36:22-23). Ezra tells us that Joshua, the High Priest, and Zerubbabel, the appointed governor (and descendant of David), oversaw the rebuilding of the altar (Ezra 3). Yet, it appears that at the time of Zechariah’s ministry, the temple rebuilding was not yet complete.
The Lord God called two men to serve as His mouthpieces during those days: Haggai and Zechariah. They both speak about the rebuilding of the Temple. Zechariah’s book begins with the people acknowledging they were falling into the same temptations and sins of their fathers. Zechariah recalls the very words of 2 Kings 17:13 and exhorts the remnant to differ from their fathers and believe the Word being spoken in their hearing.
Zechariah served the Lord when much of the Old Testament was already written, meaning he had many of the books (save for Malachi, who follows his ministry) at his disposal. I will do my best to highlight when Zechariah alludes to or quotes other passages of the Old Testament. I will also mention when the NT authors dive into Zechariah.
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
I know that you are familiar with blue-colored paraments for the season of Advent and purple-colored paraments for the season of Lent, as you see here. But did you know that there are pink colored paraments? Or rather, I should say that we do not call it pink, but we call it “Rose.” You may not be aware of it as far as paraments go, but you are aware of it in terms of the Advent wreath. We have three candles that are blue and one that is rose.
Why do I bring this up? Well, there are two Sundays in the Church Year where “Rose” is the color of the day. One of those Sundays is in Advent, when we light the rose candle. And the other Sunday was this past Sunday during the season of Lent. This practice is meant to emphasize “rejoicing” and “joy.”
And it is especially important during the season of Lent. Lent is well-known as a repentant season, sackcloth and ashes and the whole bit. But right in the middle of the season is this message of joy. In the middle of the forty-day fast is a moment of feasting, of rejoicing at what the Lord has done for us.
The text from Zechariah for us today fits perfectly during this particular week. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Rejoice, o people of God! Again, I say, Rejoice! Break the fast! Worship the Lord. Serve the Lord with gladness. This message from Zechariah is so different in tone from all the rest of the Minor Prophets that we have read and pondered this year. While we did hear the words of Micah that prophesied about Jesus’ birth, today we hear the words of Zechariah that prophesy that Jesus will die.
Or rather, we hear about the arrival of the king, a king who we know is about to die. Zechariah says, Behold, your king is coming to you;righteous and having salvation is he,humble and mounted on a donkey,on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Dear people of God, you hear these words every year on Palm Sunday, and that day is surely drawing nigh for us in a week and a half. The King, greater than David, greater than Solomon, greater than Herod, is coming to you. I ask you, would you be excited if the President was coming to your house? I imagine you would want to clean the house and prepare the grounds for his arrival. That would be a big deal for any one of us.
And we would probably ask, Why is the President coming? I just mind my own business, I just work on my farm. But that is the point. The King is coming to earth to save. The King is coming for you. But this is where our preparations would go overboard. If we were expecting the king, we would plan the best food and have the best furniture for him. But your Lord is so much different than a President. Your Lord is in fact a humble King, one who rides on a donkey, and a small one at that. I mean, this is no bullet-proof motorcade. The King Jesus comes riding on a donkey, and His donkey would probably love to meet your donkey.
In fact, the Lord God does not come to earth to fight. He is not a King of war, but of peace. A King of war would come with sword and shield and helmet, but your King comes to you to bring peace. Zechariah says this in a few ways when he says of the Lord, I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations. In other words, Jesus the King is coming to end the battle between Jacob and Esau. He comes to earth to end the war between Cain and Abel. When you think of these words of Zechariah, remember what Pilate asks Jesus “Are you the King of the Jews?” And Jesus says, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Jesus the King does not come to wage war and to gain territory. Jesus the King came to earth to bring peace and to save souls.
His kingdom shall be the whole earth. His kingdom shall be saved and they shall believe in Him. That is what he means when he says, His rule shall be from sea to sea,and from the River to the ends of the earth. Too often, we think only about ourselves, like the people of Israel did. All they wanted was a political leader. Instead they received a heavenly leader. And we too want a political leader for our nation, one that will bring peace to nations and one that will protect us from the enemy. And yet this reading for today tells us in a word that God so loved the world, from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth.
He came for all people regardless of who they are. And he comes to save. That is something to rejoice greatly about. That is something to shout aloud to those who will hear it. But do not forget. Your King is coming for you, to make you His Christian subject. Your King is coming humble for you to ride with Him to heaven.
know, Your King has already come to earth to shed His blood and by that blood to bring peace and to set the prisoners free. Hear the Word of the Lord: As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. In case you did not know, the “waterless pit” is instead the pit of fire, or rather the depths of hell. And your King by His Blood has rescued you from it and set you free.
And His sermon to you is simply this: Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope! Return to the church and sing. Return to the sanctuary and be at peace. Return and rejoice! For you are right now prisoners of hope. You live in the world, but have been set free to live in heaven forever. And you have no more enemies, for you today hope in the Lord who has come for you and who has promised to come again for you and me and for all those who believe.
Behold, your king is coming for you, humble and riding on a donkey.Rejoice and be glad. Eternity is yours.
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The theme of today’s sermon is this: The Day of the Lord is certainly frightening, but not for us.
What will the Last Day be like? This is a natural question for all Christians. It comes up regularly. The rest of the Bible stories have happened already, and they have been written down. We have read them or heard about them, and we know them. There is nothing “frightening” about the stories about King David. He was king, and now he isn’t. History has moved on. But there is a genuine curiosity: what will the Last Day be like?
And there is something “frightening” about prophecy in general, because in some cases, the events foretold have not happened yet. In today’s case, Zephaniah reports to us in detail about the judgment side of the Day of the Lord. He speaks to those who have not obeyed the voice of the Lord and those who are not saved from the judgment. Zephaniah is a prophet at the same time as Jeremiah, and the two of them are facing a nation that has rebelled against God. Babylon will overthrow them.
And so, as you might imagine, these preachers were heavy on the Law and light on the Gospel. They were calling to repentance God’s own people, that they would believe in Him and trust in Him. There are four parts to Zephaniah’s message today.
There will be punishment.
There will be repentance.
God will find every soul.
God is the Lord.
First, there will be punishment. Zephaniah is like a father who wants his children to listen or like a teacher who wants the students to quiet down. Zephaniah says Be silent before the Lord God! This is not a time for prayers; this is not a time for singing and dancing. This is not a “Be still and know that I am God” moment. This is a “sit down, don’t talk, and listen to me” moment for Zephaniah to God’s people.
Zephaniah preaches: For the day of the Lord is near; the Lord has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests. The prophet starts at church, as most preachers do. And for the people of that day and time, the day of the Lord was the Day of Atonement that we learned about in Leviticus 16. The day of the Lord was a holy day set aside for God’s work. And we think the same thing. That we come to church for God to work among us. That we come to church and that He consecrates us for His service in the world. That the Lord is the sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins.
But instead of promise, Zephaniah prophesies punishment. He says, “I will punish the officials and the king’s sonsand all who array themselves in foreign attire.I will punisheveryone who leaps over the threshold,and those who fill their master’s housewith violence and fraud. What we notice first is that Zephaniah blames the leadership. Don’t we know that to be true? As goes the leader, so goes the army. Or put another way, If the shepherd falls, the sheep will be scattered. Or even one more example, the sins of the father will be punished to the third and fourth generation, to his own wife and their children. Zephaniah rightly punishes the leadership for getting God’s people into this mess.
But you might ask, How did the leaders get the nation into this mess? Zephaniah claims that they “wore foreign attire” and “jumped over the thresholds.” Wearing foreign attire in this context does not mean wearing something made in China. What it means is that they were trying to live like the world. They were walking away from God and trusting in themselves. As to “jumping over thresholds,” this was a pagan religious practice of the Philistines. And the point of that is this: that the leaders were worshipping false gods and leading the people astray from the Old Testament Church.
That was the message that the people needed to hear. And they had to be silent and listen up to Zephaniah when he preached it. But on that day, the Day of the Lord that Zephaniah is talking about, it will not be silent. He says, “On that day a cry will be heard from the Fish Gate, a wail from the Second Quarter, a loud crash from the hills. Wail, O inhabitants of the Mortar! It is almost as if Zephaniah is waving his hands while he is preaching. For there are cries and wails and loud crashes in every direction. It would be the same as if I said, There is a cry from Farnam and there is wailing from Curtis, and there is a loud crash from Hayes Center. Wail, O inhabitants of Stockville!
This is not just screaming at the top of the lungs. This is repentant prayer or fearful prayers to God on the Last Day. The Lord shall return for judgment and, like I said at the beginning, it will be frightening, but not for us. We will not be screaming or wailing or worrying and running. We will be waiting and hoping and seeing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on that day. The day of the Lord surely is a day of punishment, but it is also a day of repentance and prayer. And for us, the day of the Lord is the day of great hope.
But what Zephaniah says next is my favorite part. For on that Day, God will find every soul. Like a shepherd looking for his lost sheep, God will search the world for believers. Like a father trying to find his children in the dark, our Lord shall check every house and every corner for those who are His. Like the angel of death at the Passover, the Lord will pass over our homes and spare us and deliver us from this valley of sorrow.
But for those who do not believe in God, Zephaniah says, At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and I will punish the menwho are complacent. In other words, you cannot play hide-and-seek with God. Just ask Adam and Eve. The Lord finds every soul, both the sheep and the goats. And he will punish the self-righteous, complacent modern-day Pharisee characters of every nation. For they thought that heaven belonged to them because of their good works. But they rejected the good work that Jesus Christ did on the cross. They thought that they had riches enough to earn glory, but they will go away sorrowful like the rich, young ruler. For they reject that Christ for our sakes became poor so that we might become rich in grace and God’s mercy.
The Day of the Lord is certainly frightening, but not for us. The message is simple for us: On that Day, God is the Lord! We believe that because on that cross, Jesus Christ paid for our punishment and our guiltiness. Jesus Christ was both High Priest and sacrifice on that day of Atonement. He made the sacrifice because He is the sacrifice.
Instead of us, Jesus was punished by the men of foreign attire, Herod and Pilate and Caiaphas. At Jesus’ death, there was no leaping over thresholds, only the temple curtain torn in two and access to God made forever possible. The old religion was fulfilled and the new testament enacted in Christ’s own body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.
That day of the Lord when Jesus died on the cross extended far past the Fish Gate and way further than the Second Gate and up and down every hill on the earth. For the death and resurrection of Jesus changed the whole world then and now and forever.
And when God Himself shall search this house with lamps, He shall find us, quietly, patiently, fervently worshipping Him. He shall find His Church upon the earth here and there and throughout His creation. And we shall not be frightened, for the Lord comes back for us to take us home on the Last Day.
