Tuesday, August 14

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Zephaniah 1:2-3; 7

“I will sweep away everything from the face of the Earth,” declares the Lord. 

“I will sweep away both men and animals; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. The wicked will have only heaps of rubble when I cut off man from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord

(v.7) “Be silent before the Sovereign Lord, for the day of the Lord is near.”

As I mentioned yesterday, I love the Olympics. One of the things I like most about sports is the clarity. By “clarity” I mean that in most sports, especially most Olympic sports, you get immediate and clear feedback about your performance. You finish a race, look up and see that the clock says, 9.63 seconds (the time it took for gold medal winner Usain Bolt to cover 100 meters - or roughly the time it takes me to move from the recliner to the refrigerator!), and that’s it. That’s what you did. There’s no debate, no wondering, no one else to blame; that’s your time. We see essentially the same thing in gymnastics (I never did figure out exactly how they score that sport), basketball (that one I get), and skeet shooting.

In most sports, judgment is swift, clear and final. So it will be, says the prophet Zephaniah, on the day of the Lord.

“I will sweep away everything from the face of the Earth,” declares the Lord. 

“I will sweep away both men and animals; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. The wicked till have only heaps of rubble when I cut off man from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord

(v.7) “Be silent before the Sovereign Lord, for the day of the Lord is near.”

As we have seen throughout this study of the minor prophets God’s message has been quite clear: judgment is coming.

God is the sovereign authority over all the earth and he will judge all people and nations according to their deeds. Many scholars believe that the “Day of the Lord” points to three “horizons” of God’s judgment.

First, God is warning his people of imminent judgment in the form of the hostile armies of Babylon, which destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC.

Second, the prophet is pointing toward the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD at the hands of the Roman Empire.

Third, God’s word is looking forward to the final judgment described in the great book of Revelation (19:11 – 22:5) when sin, death and Satan are utterly destroyed by the sovereign and eternal reign of Jesus Christ.

“Judgment” is not a fun word. Most of us would rather just skip over this part of the Bible. While we don’t really mind other people being judged by God – you know, the really bad people – we don’t much like the idea of being judged ourselves. 

But judgment is an important word; and, according to God’s word, judgment is coming for every human being who has walked and breathed on this earth. Judgment is also a good word because judgment, properly understood, flows from God’s holiness and love.

It is difficult to find language to describe the Biblical concept of God’s holiness. The word “holy” means “set apart” or “utterly distinct,” and when used in reference to God means that God is set apart by his absolute purity, absolute goodness, and absolute authority. God’s holiness, therefore, is a form of power that is found nowhere else in our experience. In fact, the Bible makes it clear that, if we as sinful human beings were to come into direct contact with the holiness of God, we would be utterly consumed (see Leviticus 10:1-3).

The best analogies to holiness that I have heard would be either electricity or nuclear power. Both are “holy” in the sense of being “set apart” as forms of energy and in the sense that a human being must be fully and uniquely prepared before coming into contact with either one. You can’t just stand in a lightning storm with a metal pole in your hand for the fun of it. If lightning touches that pole you are seriously fried. And it wouldn’t be because the lightning is angry with you – it would be because that’s just the nature of electricity – and that you approached it frivolously. The same would be true of nuclear energy and radiation.

God is holy; and in his holiness he must be approached on his terms not ours. In fact, when you think about it, if God were not holy he would not be God at all. Who wants a God who is ordinary; who is not “set apart”; who is not holy?

How, then, can we dare to approach our holy God? 

We approach God on the basis of his provision of grace alone. There is nothing we can do to earn his favor; there is nothing we can do to deserve his love. He has, however, offered us his own righteousness and holiness as a gift in the person of Jesus, who became the final sacrifice for sin.

On the “Day of the Lord”, on that day when God’s judgment comes, those who have received the gift of God’s grace through Jesus Christ will not fear for they will be found righteous.

Pastor Brian Coffey