Zephaniah Chapter Two, Commanded To Seek

 Zephaniah 2:3a Seek the Lord,

In verse 1 Yahweh instructed His people to gather before the day of the Lord arrived. Now gathered, He tells them to seek Him. This seeking is more than just an intellectual ponderance of the reality of God. It begins here, as it must. But the realization of God’s existence heightens a growing and condensing search that craves defined (and definable) answers as to the nature and person of the being we attribute the title of God to.

The anonymous writer of Hebrews reminds us, “for he who comes to God must believe that He is,” the first important point, “AND that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him,” Hebrews 11:6, emphasis mine. The created order of the human body, the world our bodies inhabit, and the universe in which our planet is housed, testify of a creative intelligence beyond all human comprehension, Psalm 19:1-4. The Psalmist writes that creation is such a powerful witness of the Creator that it is a universal language unto itself; one which never stops witnessing to all life that God’s glory is revealed to humanity through the created order we are surrounded by.

In the book of Jeremiah Yahweh informs Israel that, “you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart,” Jeremiah 29:13. Again the Bible reinforces the simple concept that this seeking God urges goes well beyond the cursory acceptance of a higher power. This seemingly worldly wise notion that all versions of God point to the same ultimate being or idea is summarized like so, “I call it “Higher Power” not to exclude any cultures/religions, as I feel everyone is pointing in the same direction, with different names, from different perspectives,” San Mateo: Proof of The Divine. This is a grievous and juvenile error, attributing to God the nature and attributes of every facet of religion and philosophy with the high-minded and poorly aimed hope of dodging offense. But when entirely contrary notions about God’s person and purpose collide with these “different perspectives,” simple human logic demands that we acknowledge that someone is wrong.

Neither is it a safe escape to employ the excuse that human error is mingled with divine revelation throughout a religion, so truth and fiction (or outright lies) are co-mingled. Then what–or who--is to say what is true and what is not? Who becomes the arbiter? No, this is both spiritually and intellectually lazy since even a child can discern that Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism (just to name four) are starkly different in outstanding ways. This is why Yahweh counsels Israel to seek the Lord before the day arrives. Because God has a distinct identity that can be (and is often) muddled by human and demonic misappropriation. There are, as Paul admitted, many lords and many gods vying for human attention and worship, 1 Corinthians 8:5. Yet he continues that train of thought by informing Christians that those names do not portray God honestly or accurately. They are false fronts for human-made ideas or demonic counterfeits. The true God, Paul assured believers, was fully and only manifested in the person of Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 8:6.

When seeking the Lord, we are not seeking for answers, we are seeking a Person. He is not a cosmic awareness or the totality of the universe; He is not an extension of human potential or the fullness of universal brotherhood. He does not exist in His creation, but outside of it. God is a Person. If we, as creatures of this universe, possess intelligence, will, and creative genius, then the one who created us must be infinitely more intelligent and creative, with a will that guides the purpose of the universe and humanity individually. A lesser cause never creates a greater reaction. So when the Lord invites Israel (and us) to seek Him with all our hearts, He is inviting us into a personal relationship with Him; something that the universe cannot do (as it has no consciousness); nor would it make sense for God to do this if He were already a part of humanity. The fellowship would naturally and automatically exist. We would not need to be informed of our natural godhood; why would a god need to be reminded that he is by birth divine?

This conceptually nonsensical approach to seeking God has diminished our thoughts about Him. We drag the transcendent God, Creator of Heaven and earth, into familiar territory and presume to domesticate Him. God is an individual who must be approached as He commands. If we are to know about Him, it is God who initiates that knowledge by revealing who He is (and who He is not) to the seeker. This is why people are to seek with all their heart. It is a search in faith; it is a conviction that God exists, and if God exists then He must be greater than human comprehension gives Him credit for. Religion and philosophy fail because they immediately diminish God by conjecturing internally and projecting their suppositions outward. Rather, true faith recognizes our emptiness and lacking and seeks that which is missing to fill the void. In this instance, an external revelation goes inward, informing conjecture and supposition, see 2 Peter 1:20, 21, 2 Timothy 3:16 for examples. That void is a lost connection to our Creator who calls us back through the revelation of Jesus Christ, John 1:13. He is the only way to the Father by His own admission, an indictment against all other claimants to godhood that they are pretenders and thieves, John 14:6, 10:8. When we honestly and whole-heartedly seek, we will find the astounding fact that God has been seeking us longer than we have been seeking Him.