Zeph 3:17 "The Lord your God is in your midst, the Mighty One will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing."
I don't know that I would have wanted to be a prophet in the OT. I mean, these guys usually did not come with good news. They had to tell people that they were sinning. They had to outline their rebellion against God, point out their faults and then tell them that God was going to judge them. This is not really fun work. I don't like confrontation anyway, and I am not sure that I would be cut out for the job. Yet, these guys did the work of warning others even in the face of opposition. I guess after a while you might get the idea that God was just out to bring the hammer down on people.
Nothing could be further from the truth…and this verse shows it. There were times in a prophet's life when he was able to reveal the heart of God, and Zephaniah was doing that here. After he said things like: "Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted, to the oppressing city!" He said things like this: "The Lord your God is in your midst, the Mighty One will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quite you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing." This is God. This is His heart. Yes He is a just and righteous and true God, but that justice is centered in His love. Zephaniah was telling the rebellious city that God was still in the middle of her. He was mighty and He would save. He would "leave in your midst a meek and humble people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord." V12 This is what God wanted for His people and He wanted to respond to them with salvation, with joy, with gladness, with love, with singing.
The same is true today. God is in our midst. He is with us. His presence is here. And what is He doing? What is His heart? He wants to show Himself to be the mighty God who will save. Who will rescue. Who will grab us out of our rebellion and restore us to fellowship with Him. And this is the amazing thing to me…He rejoices over us…He rejoices over me with gladness. I make God happy. That is wild. The God of the universe is happy because of me, because of His children. And He loves us. He cares about us. He is gentle with us. The verse actually does not say He will quiet you with His love. It says He is quiet in His love. God is not going to force Himself on any of us. He will quietly draw us to Himself. The most effective way to get your kid's attention is not to yell and scream, it is to quietly speak to their hearts…to gently talk to their conscience. That is God. He is not going to scream to get out attention. He is that gentle voice behind us and it is a voice of love and compassion and care. That is His heart. That is His nature. That is His character.
Then this blows me away…God sings. When He is happy about us He sings about us. And the song is not a lullaby. The word for sing actually is a ringing cry of proclamation and joy. God is making noise about us…about me.
Being a prophet was not always a fun thing…but sometimes you told people that God loved them, and was happy because of them, and was singing ringing proclamations about them. A prophet was able to let people see the heart of God.
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