Calling All People

Zephaniah takes us on a journey of Judah’s neighbors, starting with the Philistines in the west and proceeding to the Moabites and the Ammonites in the east. Each will be completely destroyed because they have insulted God’s people–which is equivalent to insulting God. For them, God was irrelevant. Today, the casual references to God, showing little respect for him or his activity, the intellectual (if unconvincing) arguments of the new atheists, the day-to-day living of life without any reference to God or his values–all are marks of the same mentality. If persisted in, these attitudes will have similar consequences.

In the midst of this catalogue of gloom, there are two bright notes as the hints of something beyond become stronger. Judah will not escape the apocalyptic day, but a small group, the remnant (7), those who have humbled themselves and sought God, will survive. The idea of a remnant from which God will rebuild is as old as Noah (1 Pet. 3:20) and recurs frequently in the prophets (Isa. 10:20-22). God has not and cannot finish with humanity. God may have grieved (Gen. 6:1-8) that he had made humans, but his love results in his determination to save.

As this remnant is dispersed, they will draw the nations to worship this awesome God (11). This was Israel’s calling, which they never fully discharged but is fully realized in Jesus who, lifted up, draws all people to himself (John 12:32). The final fulfillment waits for the moment when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord (Phil. 2:11). Until that day, our calling and our privilege as his church scattered throughout the nations is to tell the story so that others might be drawn to Christ. We may not be a large or powerful group but we are God’s messengers pointing to his victory in Christ.

The flipside of God’s wrath is restoration. What one quality above all others do you think God wants restored in the nation, church, or individuals who worship him?