Wednesday, August 15

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Zephaniah 1:4-6

“I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all who live in Jerusalem.

I will cut off from this place every remnant of Baal, the names of the pagan and the idolatrous priests – those who bow down on the roofs to worship the starry host, those who bow down and swear by the Lord and who also swear by Molech, those who turn back from following the Lord and neither seek the Lord nor inquire of him.”

Years ago, when I was serving in Student Ministries, I was wrapping up a Bible study session and I invited students to share their prayer requests. Several kids asked for prayer for the typical kinds of things kids are worried about; upcoming tests, family members struggling with poor health, etc. 

But one young man, who was very new to the group, raised his hand and said, “Pray that my parents won’t ground me.” 

Of course, I immediately wondered about the story that was behind that curious request. So I said, “Do you mind me asking why you think they might ground you?”

He said, “Because I went out to a movie late last night and missed curfew – then I decided not to even go home at all.”

I said, “So this is Wednesday night and you haven’t been home since yesterday (Tuesday) after school?”

“Yeah,” he said.

I said, “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can pray that prayer for you.”

He looked surprised and a little disappointed.

I said, “I can’t pray that your parents won’t ground you. I’d rather pray that God will give you the courage to go home tonight, admit to your parents what you did, and humbly accept any discipline that they feel is appropriate, and then promise never to do that again,” or something very close to that. 

Then I took a few minutes to explain to the whole group why I responded that way. I explained that asking God to remove the consequences of his decision to disobey his parents would not only be a dishonest prayer, but would be to deny his parents the opportunity to express their love for him through discipline. It would also have robbed the young man of a chance to grow wiser and more mature through that same discipline.

In the same way we can understand God’s discipline of his people:

“I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all who live in Jerusalem.

I will cut off from this place every remnant of Baal, the names of the pagan and the idolatrous priests – those who bow down on the roofs to worship the starry host, those who bow down and swear by the Lord and who also swear by Molech, those who turn back from following the Lord and neither seek the Lord nor inquire of him.”

God loves his people and has promised them his blessing. He is also the sovereign Lord to whom alone belongs the worship and obedience of his people. Throughout the reigns of Manasseh and Amon the people of Judah had slipped further and further away from YHWH and toward the worship of pagan idols like Baal and Molech, gods of the surrounding Canaanite culture. Some even worshiped the stars that God had created rather than the creator himself.

God knows that their fascination with other gods will ultimately destroy them because those gods are not only impotent, but do not love them and cannot offer them either protection or salvation. So God, in his love, is willing to discipline his people just as a loving parent is willing to appropriately discipline a child for his or her ultimate good.

J.D. Greear writes, “An idol is whatever takes the place of God in our lives…an idol is not necessarily a bad thing…it is a good thing made into a god-thing.” (From Greear’s book, “Gospel”)

That young man who broke curfew years ago needed the discipline of his parents because he needed to know he was loved. In the same way, when we make “god-things” out of good things we need the discipline of God so that we will know his furious and everlasting love for us.

Pastor Brian Coffey