Advent 3: Old Testament, Zephaniah 3:14-21                          

Zephaniah 3:14-21

The apostle Paul tells us in the New Testament that “Bad company ruins good morals” (1 Corinthians 15:33). He writes that to the young congregation at Corinth because they are living in the middle of that truth. Funny, but that truth always seems to be applicable in the company of God’s people. Wherever God is giving people the grace of forgiveness and transforming people’s lives thereby, in comes the work of our spiritual enemy. He uses people he has captured and infects the lives of the saints with his vile corruption. 

In the Old Testament book of Zephaniah, God is getting ready to clean up Jerusalem. His presence is to be in the midst of the great city. And God wants, not only to fill the city but all the nations with His glorious righteousness. The prophet declares God’s warning just a few verses before our reading begins with this promise: “I will remove from your midst your proudly exultant ones” (Zephaniah 3:11b). Read the entire chapter and you’ll find an entire cast of rebels who will soon be on their way out.

God comes to humanity to change, better, to restore it. In saving sinners, God is refashioning us into His image. The image of the perfect man, Jesus the Messiah. Our fall in Adam was complete and totally ruinous. But not beyond the power of the singing God to redeem (see verse 17). God cleanses the Old Testament capital of His people as a picture of what He will do to the human heart through the cleansing flood of His Son’s cross.

In history, God is promising His people that soon they will hear Him thunder, “The LORD your God is in your midst,” (v. 17a). In the coming of Jesus the Messiah, in His first advent, the same will be declared as He will be the fulfillment of another prophet’s foretelling, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14b). Immanuel. God with us. God “cleans house” in the midst of His people as He makes an enduring home in their midst. Even so. Come, Lord Jesus.