And the King Will Sing!

The sermon today was Zephaniah. What a powerful message! Zephaniah, I learned, was the only prophet of the Davidic line and the last prophet before the exile. He speaks of the Day of the Lord, the day when God finally gives sinners what they deserve. He looked past their sin for so long; it was time for recompense. But there is a final Day of the Lord still to come, as my pastor reminded us. We too need to hear Zephaniah's message and to repent when we wander from our Savior-Judge.

However, what struck me most in the entire sermon is my pastor's comments on this passage:

'Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. 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." Zephaniah 3:16-17

This is the message of hope at the very end, the promise that God will draw, not just Israel, but His children from all the nations to Himself. As my pastor pointed out, when God merely spoke, universes were created, and this verse says He will sing over us!

As I sat in the pew, I thought about that great day when we would finally be cleansed of all our sin and the mighty voice of the Deathless One would ring out in joyous song over the whole congregation of His elect. In my mind, I crouched to the ground, weighed down by the glory of that moment, and the crazy thing is, we can't even comprehend the fullness of what we have in Christ.

This was another point that was given during the service and it made me think. There are times when I am almost crushed with awe of God, and yet, I don't even know how great Jesus' gift is! What a marvelous thought! We have been given the Son of God Himself, and yet, so, so often, we reject Him or forget. I think so little of my status of GOd's child, and not only child, but heir, during the day. How does God endure us?

Yet, in spite of all the fickleness that God's people have been guilty of for thousands of years, we are still saved. God didn't wipe us out. He poured His wrath on His Son instead of us! One day, He will return, His voice will exult in the culmination of history, and by His grace, I am going to be there! There is truly nothing in this world worth trading that everlasting future!