Zephaniah Chapter Three, Absence Of Trust

Zephaniah 3:2 She has not obeyed His voice, she has not received correction; she has not trusted in the Lord, she has not drawn near to her God.

In order to obey a command, one must first hear what that command is. The apostle Paul used this argument when he wrote, “On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet,” Romans 7:7. Jesus, in like manner, when He was confronted by the Pharisees about spiritual blindness and sight, said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains,” John 9:41.

Paul argued that the external revelation of the Law revealed to man the nature of sin; that sin is disobedience to the expressed will of God. He uses covetousness as an example. To covet simply means to yearn for something or a strong desire to possess something. Greed is an expression of covetousness. The human conscience witnesses that this is an evil way of thinking. But conscience can arguably be considered subjective to many, so through the Law came objective, external revelation from a source of unimpeachable authority that settled every objection beyond reasonable dispute. Just like faith only comes by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17), so too does obedience–or its absence–come from hearing a given command. The unspoken truth in this passage is that God spoke to Israel, and Israel for her part heard the Lord, but most were not actually listening. Had they been listening, they would have been obedient and become what James referred to as effectual doers of the word, James 1:22-25.

Our Lord makes an elegant and terrifying point in His rebuttal to the Pharisees. Jesus explained to the formerly blind man that He would give sight to the blind, and blindness to those who claim to see. The Pharisees, incensed by His comment, sarcastically inquired if they–Israel’s religious leaders–were likewise blind. His answer ultimately was no. They had heard the command given and testified against themselves that this was true. When revelatory knowledge invades, one’s accountability increases exponentially. The Pharisees, who were supposed to lead the flock, instead practiced gross hypocrisy, mutilating God’s word to fit their own interpretations: ones suited to their benefit. Worse, they were aware that they were not obeying the command given, and therefore could “see.” They were not blind or oblivious to the Law, they heard it often and could likely recite great portions of it on demand. But they were not obedient to it, to their condemnation.

The natural outcome of obeying the Lord’s voice was to receive correction. The prophets had come for hundreds of years to correct Israel and bring her back into a right relationship with God. Jeremiah, a contemporary of Zephaniah, said to one of the false prophets of his day: “The prophets who have been before me and before you of old prophesied against many countries and great kingdoms–of war and disaster and pestilence,” Jeremiah 28:8. From Isaiah to Hosea to Joel, the prophets brought messages of condemnation to a disobedient and stubborn people who were content to turn away backward from the Lord’s direction and leadership. Yes, those same prophets also spoke of future reconciliation and blessing, but not before Israel was properly corrected for her chronic spiritual waywardness. When the disaster came to pass the prophet forewarned of, the people could believe that the ensuing era of peace would inevitably follow, Jeremiah 28:9.

Zechariah, who lived in the post-exilic times when Zerubbabal was governor of Judah (see Haggai 2:21) wrote, “Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets preached, saying, “Turn now from your evil ways and your evil deeds.” But they did not hear nor heed Me,” says the Lord,” Zechariah 1:4. The prophet opined that this cyclical pattern of the prophets being raised up by God, summarily ignored, and then suffering for it was the Achilles’ Heel of Israel. Every generation, with the exception of the residue of people who heard the word and obeyed from the heart, put their fingers in their ears and followed the dictates of their own hearts above God’s voice, Jeremiah 44:16, 17. You cannot receive something that you are unwilling to take. God offered Israel correction, which would have led to reconciliation and blessing, but Israel by and large refused. It is tantamount to professing Christians that “obey” God when all is going well and their faith costs nothing; but when they are tested, challenged, or called upon to sacrifice at all, they decide that their faith may be enjoyed piecemeal: not a congruous whole but an inoffensive bit here and there so as not to draw the world’s attention and ire to what they profess.

God’s word is not multiple choice. Those who do not trust the Lord will of course be the first to dissect His word and cast doubt upon its authority and integrity. The word of God needs to be undermined if the autonomous word of man is to be salvaged. The venomous words of the serpent echo in every defiant stance believers take against the word of God, when Satan asked, “Has God indeed said?” Genesis 3:1. This display of lack of trust is appalling but natural when someone craves escape from God’s word, when His word prevents us from enjoying things that His word forbids. It eases the guilt of our sin if we can justify sinning by undermining the meaning of what was said. Disobedience leads to a refusal to receive correction, which is bred from a lack of trust in the Lord. And again naturally, if you do not trust someone you are hardly going to willingly approach them. The type of trust Zephaniah refers to is submissive, salvific trust. It is the humbling recognition that God is true and all men are liars, and that we must place the hope of our faith in Him alone, and He for His part will rightly steer us in the ways of righteousness so we may lead fruitful, honest lives that are not riddled with guilty pleasures and unpleasant consequences.