Zephaniah Chapter Two, Hidden By God

Zephaniah 2:3 Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger.

Our Lord once said, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” Matthew 5:5. In this same utterance, Jesus added, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled,” Matthew 5:6. Our Lord attests that the meek will be the inheritors of the earth, and that those whose desire is for righteousness (as God defines the term), it shall be sated.

Mankind is commanded to seek. Israel was commanded to seek. In what way are we to seek? Well, meekness apparently plays a part. We cannot be vain, haughty, arrogant or proud, traits which God detests. The meek are not selfish people, which means they are not so full of self that they are incapable of comprehending external, spiritual truths about the reality of God. When one’s hands are full of self, God cannot put anything of value in them; we must empty our hold on vain and ephemeral things to grasp something truly of value.

Those who seek, uphold God’s justice. God’s justice is an unpopular topic, even within professing Christendom. God is the standard of measurement for what is right and wrong, good or evil. He lambasts those who substitute their own standard of measurement for His, and then call it good, Isaiah 5:18-23. He calls out those who attempt to straddle the fence between being for Him or against Him, never consciously choosing a side, and by doing so have tacitly made the decision, Revelation 3:15, 16.

To uphold God’s justice is to reject human proxies for right and wrong and accept the revelation of right and wrong as God ascribed it on the hearts of every person to ever exist. The human heart, the conscience of man, convicts us of moral violations to God’s truth; but if that is insufficient evidence, God vouchsafed His word through Scripture to reveal the nature of right and wrong to man in terms that cannot be altered or explained away. The only honest paths available are acceptance or rejection. And by not selecting acceptance one confirms their rejection of this truth. Rather, we prefer to set up our own standard of right and wrong, principles we do not even uphold with integrity and will later be judged by.

Israel was counseled to seek righteousness. Humanity is bereft of genuine righteousness, Isaiah 64:6. The righteousness we all desperately need comes solely from God through the person of Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 1:30, 2 Corinthians 5:21. So when Yahweh commanded Israel to seek righteousness, He was telling them to seek Him. He is the source and summit of righteousness: the only righteousness acceptable to make one fit to enter Heaven. The caveat to this is that one must pursue God’s righteousness in humility. Peter wrote, “Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble,” 1 Peter 5:5, see also Proverbs 3:34.

Humility is the acceptance of the fact that we are not the arbiters of good and evil; we are not the captains of our own destiny. Humility entails the realization that God was right about the reality of sin and our involvement, and hence our desperate need of His intervention and salvation. The gospel is all about Jesus Christ. It is the historical fact that He died, and that He was buried, and that He rose again from the dead for our sins. Yes, we are mentioned there, aren’t we? But our mention–my mention, or your mention–is a reminder that Christ died not for Himself but for us. It was our sin and our inevitable doom that brought Him to the cross. He took our sin, and we received His righteousness. It was an exchange designed by God to save Adam’s doomed race from spiritual extinction. We would remain lost if not for the saving grace of an almighty and loving God.

Once more Israel is confronted with the reality of the Lord’s day, and the accompanying anger that will define it. God’s wrath will be poured out on an unbelieving world, and if Israel wants shelter, they must flee to their God for it, Joel 3:16. There is an urgency in the prophet’s tone here. God strongly desires for Israel to repent and turn to Him before the day comes. Individually, the Jews needed to recognize their need of being in a right relationship with Yahweh. That was what the temple sacrifices and ceremonial cleanliness all pointed to: being right with God on the terms He unfolded. He externalized the terms for man’s approach and reconciliation. Man’s part was, having heard what God said, to obey from the heart, Romans 6:17. The result of seeking meekness, righteousness, justice and humility is that you will truly find God, and having been found by Him will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger. Because those who are His are not appointed for wrath, but for salvation, 1 Thessalonians 5:9, 10. Like Elijah during the terrible reign of Ahab, God will separate and deliver Israel out of her calamity. While Ahab’s kingdom suffered, Elijah was preserved. Israel as a national entity will likewise experience preservation and deliverance in the Day of the Lord, Romans 11:26, 27, Zechariah 14:2-5.

In the immediate context, the day of wrath was represented by Babylon and exile. Zephaniah, Jeremiah and other prophets endeavored to warn the people of their doom if they did not repent, but they would not listen. The result was exile under Nebuchadnezzar for 70 years, with the poorest of the people (the meek) inheriting the remnant of Judah and Jerusalem when the proud went to their punishment, Jeremiah 39:10.