Zephaniah Chapter Three, Righteous God

Zephaniah 3:5 The Lord is righteous in her midst, He will do no unrighteousness. Every morning He brings His justice to light; He never fails. But the unjust knows no shame.

Zephaniah reveals some prevalent truths about the nature and person of Yahweh to Israel. The first is a compounded reality: that God is righteous; in fact the prophet states unequivocally that He cannot do unrighteousness.

This aligns with additional statements in the Bible regarding the person of God. James records that God cannot be tempted by evil, James 1:13. Furthermore, James adds that God does not variate or even possess a shadow of turning, James 1:17. God is incapable of being tempted to do evil in a sinful, lawless sense. He does not variate, or alter or become different. God remains God. The writer of Hebrews concurs, reporting that, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever,” Hebrews 13:8. God could only change if He ceased being perfect. Only imperfect beings change, because change is the natural state of something that is not perfected. The saints are being perfected, but we are in a transitory state on this earth; we will achieve a permanent maturation when we come face to face with our Lord and Savior and in doing so, become like Him, 1 John 3:2, 3.

The apostate prophet Balaam, when moved by the Holy Spirit, attested that God is not a man, who is all too capable of sin. He witnesses that God cannot lie, Numbers 23:19. Neither does Yahweh repent, or change His mind (ESV translation). God responds to us according to our decisions, our choices. When He seems to change His mind about someone in Scripture, it is in accordance with them first changing their mind about their position with God. If someone relents in doing evil and turns from it to Him, He behaves toward them in a manner commensurate with how He has always done since time immemorial. He doesn’t change; we do. His behavior toward us is dictated by the decisions we make regarding His holiness and mercy. So when God changes His mind in Scripture, it is because He is acting according to His own sovereign will, doing for–or to–mankind what He made clear He would, whether that be blessing or punishment.

The Lord is in the midst of His people Israel. He dwelt peculiarly in the Shekinah glory in the Holy of Holies. Today He dwells in our hearts through faith; God the Holy Spirit indwells believers, sealing them as a downpayment or earnest as a purchased possession of God’s redemptive grace and glory. We know that God in Israel's midst would never steer the country toward an unrighteous path. This is what the prophet was warning them of in this verse. If Israel was truly submitted to Yahweh, they would reflect the righteousness of their God, however imperfectly, in their endeavors to follow Him. Zephaniah declares that God is incapable of doing unrighteousness, and that every new day God brings the witness of His person to light for all to see. His justice is that man, though sinful, may be redeemed from the penalty of sin, apart from the deeds of the Law, that God is just (true to His own justice) and the sole justifier (the One who declares the guilty sinner innocent) of those who believe, see Romans 3:26.

The sinner could join himself to Israel and become part of the nation God set apart. The sinner would then inherit Israel’s God as their own personal God, Ruth 1:16. They would have access to the priesthood and the temple, the sacrifice and the atonement; all of which the Gentiles apart from Israel hopelessly lacked, Ephesians 2:12. That is why the prophet said that God never fails. Paul, when speaking of the gospel’s efficacy, said that he was unashamed of the gospel of Christ, Romans 1:16. Why? Because the gospel of Christ never fails. When someone hears it and believes its message, like the Gentiles joining Israel to draw nearer to God, they are saved. Faith comes by hearing the word of God, Romans 10:17. God is just in that His method of pardoning sinners does not abrogate the penalty sin demands. Rather, God laid that penalty on Christ, so that the sinner who comes to God through His Son is freed of that infinite debt; justly cleared of the charges and liberated by the mercy of the God who chose to reconcile man to Himself. God never had to offer man redemption. We didn’t deserve it. We forfeit any claim we had when sin ruined God’s image in us and separated us from our Creator. But God, infinite in mercy and grace, chose to provide a just means of reconciliation, in which Christ became sin for us, that we might become God’s righteousness, 2 Corinthians 5:21.

The final portion of the verse, seemingly random at first glance, is an attack on human pride. Shameless and unjust men (and all of us were shameless to resist and reject for as long as we did) see the justice God brings to light. Creation bears witness of His infinite power and majesty. The gospel is preached from a thousand pulpits daily. Yet we scoff at the righteousness of God, replacing it with our own filthy rags, Isaiah 64:6. Man in his pride always falls back to the “I’m doing good enough,” or, “I’m better than that guy” arguments, refusing to acknowledge our guilt and sin. We also refuse to acknowledge that Heaven is not public property; it is private property. It is God’s property, and we may only enter into it with His blessing and consent. And that consent, that Door as it stands, is Christ, John 10:9. Salvation is all of God and entirely of grace. It is performed by a gracious God who is perfectly righteous and just, and justly pardons the sinner who sees the witness of His justice and repents of their former views, believing that Christ alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. For those who believe this, Paul’s confession rings true: God’s gospel always saves. As Zephaniah declares, He never fails. But the unjust do not know shame; if they did they would seek God in their shame for forgiveness. But the poison of pride, personal or national, has been the ruin of countless souls.