The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival,
so that you will no longer suffer reproach.
Behold, at that time I will deal
with all your oppressors.
And I will save the lame
and gather the outcast,
and I will change their shame into praise
and renown in all the earth.
– Zephaniah 3:17-19 (ESV)
At the end of a book of judgement and hair-raising descriptions of the Day of the Lord is this tender, triumphant passage addressed to Israel.
Away with our images of a passive God, a Lord too distant to save, a King too austere to show tenderness! The Lord God loves the outcast. He loves the unloved; their coming victory, the turning upside-down of the world’s value-system, is described on page after page of Scripture.
Our God is the one who rejoices with gladness over the outcast, who quiets them by his love, who exults! He is the one who sings over those who have never known what it’s like to be the object of someone’s love-song.
He invites to the festival those who have never received an invitation to anything.
He deals with the oppressor, with the unfortunate, doomed but fully deserving one who has dared shame and harm his beloved. And woe unto them . . .
And he saves and gathers to himself the outcasts of this world. Their shame is covered in the praise and renown that he willingly showers on them.
The Lord God loves the outcast! He is the mighty one who will save, the rescuing Lover of the unloved, our amazing God.
at the time when I gather you together;
for I will make you renowned and praised
among all the peoples of the earth,
when I restore your fortunes
before your eyes,” says the Lord.
– Zephaniah 3:20
Bill, great post. Beautiful verses.
I live a life of abundance. I choose among my clothes. I deliberate between Italian and Thai for dinner. I accept the adoration of my children, the love of my wife, the praise of my colleagues. I am blessed, I confirm to my fellow congregants. Yet in secret I whisper ‘blessed? or cursed? Opportunities? or encumbrances? I affirm my christian beliefs in creed, but I have no need to cry out to God, to hope for bread or pray for relief. I am blessed. Or am I cursed? I dare not ask of God this question. He may answer.
Bobby
“I dare not ask of God this question. He may answer.”
I know how you feel!
Rain – thanks for the kind words.