Sofonias 3
F.B. Meyer · Citado em PreceptAustin
Sofonias 3
Meyer - As God took the side of His people against their foes, and will do so again in the final struggle, when His feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives (Zech 14:4), so will He take our side against our sins. He has saved us from the penalty of sin. He will also save us from its power (cf Ro 6:11-14). Your foes may be numerous as the devils in hell, strong and wily; but He will save. Your temperament may be as susceptible to temptation as an aspen leaf is to the wind; but He will save. Your past years, by repeated acts of indulgence, may have formed habits strong as iron bands; but He will save. Your circumstances and companions may be most unfavorable to a life of victory; but He will save. Difficulties are nought to Him; the darkness shineth as the day. MIGHTY TO SAVE Well, everyone needs compassion A love that's never failing Let mercy fall on me Well, everyone needs forgiveness The kindness of a Saviour The hope of nations Saviour, He can move the mountains And my God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save Forever, Author of Salvation He rose and conquered the grave Jesus conquered the grave So take me as You find me All my fears and failures And fill my life again I give my life to follow Everything I believe in And now I surrender, I surrender Saviour, He can move the mountains My God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save Forever, Author of Salvation He rose and conquered the grave Jesus conquered the grave Saviour, He can move the mountains My God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save Forever, Author of Salvation He rose and conquered the grave Jesus conquered the grave Shine your light and let the whole world see We're singing for the glory of the risen King, Jesus Shine your light and let the whole world see We're singing for the glory of the risen King Saviour, He can move the mountains My God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save Forever, Author of Salvation He rose and conquered the grave Jesus conquered the grave Saviour, He can move the mountains My God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save Forever, Author of Salvation He rose and conquered the grave Jesus conquered the grave Mighty (01368)(gibbor cp related verb gabar = be strong, accomplish, excel, prevail) is from a root which is commonly associated with warfare and has to do with the strength and vitality of the successful warrior. And thus this adjective means powerful, strong, brave, mighty. Warrior. Hero. Mighty man (cp "mighty [gibbor] men of David" - 2Sa 23:8). Vine - In the context of battle, the word is better understood to refer to the category of warriors. The gibbor is the proven warrior (eg "valiant warriors [gibbor]" Josh 1:14)...The Septuagint gives the following translations: dunatos (“powerful; strong; mighty; able ruler”) and ischuros (see studies of related words - ischus and ischuo) (“strong; mighty; powerful”). Save (03467)(yasha' or [v;y"; see also yeshua from which we get the Name Jesus) is an important Hebrew verb which means to help, to save, to deliver, to rescue. The root in Arabic is "make wide" which underscores the main thought of yasha' as to bring to a place of safety or broad pasture in contrast to a narrow strait which symbolizes distress or danger. Yasha' is used many times as a title for God = 2Sa 22:47; 1Ch 16:35; Ps 18:46; Ps 24:5; Ps 25:5;Ps 27:9; Ps 65:5;Ps 79:9; Ps 85:4; Isa 17:10; 62:11; Mic 7:7. Related Resources: Mighty To Save - Commentary on Isaiah 61:3 El Gibbor-Mighty God PROMISE #3 HE WILL TAKE GREAT DELIGHT IN YOU He takes great delight in you (NIV, NET) - "He will exult over you with joy" (NAS); "He will rejoice over you with gladness," (ESV). Those two words "over you" (repeated in the last phrase of Zeph 3:17) are simply incomprehensible. As Palmer asks "How could the Sovereign Creator concentrate His whole being in the love of a temporal creature of dust? How could the Holy satisfy Himself contentedly in the loving contemplation of the unholy?" I would propose that one aspect of the answer is that we are in an indissoluble, immutable covenant with the Son of His love, we are in Christ and the Father forevermore will see us not as unholy sinners but as saints in His Son (Mt 3:17). There is nothing in us that explains the reason for the Father's love. Ultimately, His love reflects His incomprehensible, transcendent nature and that nature (cf 1Jn 4:16, 1Jn 3:1+) will forever be manifest to us as love! Palmer adds "So the prophet describes a love of God exceeding all human imaginations. “Remember the silence of Jesus, and expound this text thereby,” says C. H. Spurgeon." Play F. M. Lehman's great hymn that attempts to put in words some of the mystery of... The Love of God The love of God is greater far Than tongue or pen can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star And reaches to the lowest hell. The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win; His erring child He reconciled And pardoned from his sin. Refrain... O love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong! It shall forevermore endure— The saints’ and angels’ song. When hoary time shall pass away, And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall; When men who here refuse to pray, On rocks and hills and mountains call; God’s love, so sure, shall still endure, All measureless and strong; Redeeming grace to Adam’s race— The saints’ and angels’ song. Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made; Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade; To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry; Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky. PROMISE #4 HE WILL QUIET YOU WITH HIS LOVE He will quiet you by His love (ESV, cf NIV, NKJV) (He will be quiet in His love - NAS) (He will calm all your fears - Patterson) - The Hebrew verb quiet (charash) can mean to be silent, still, or at rest. The picture is of God’s love that is deep, settled, and peaceful, no longer expressing anger but resting contentedly in His redeemed people. His love is not restless or uncertain—it is quiet, secure, and enduring. Charles Feinberg on quiet in His love - Then He will rest (lit., be silent) in His love. This is one of the boldest statements in the Bible. It is stated that God will rest in silent ecstasy over His people, Israel. What assurance for Israel! The love is too great for words to express. The Lord will rest complacently in it. The idea that God will no longer have occasion to rebuke and denounce can only be a secondary one here. He has quiet joy in His love. Then the silence is broken with singing. Read what the Word of God says of the voice of the Lord in Psalm 29:3-9 and imagine, if you can, what that singing with joy will be. (The Minor Prophets) The NET Bible translation ("He renews you by His love") follows the Septuagint (Lxx), which translates "quiet" with the verb kainizo (cf kainos = brand new, of a kind never seen before!) and means to make new or to renew. God does not want to give you a piece of His mind. He wants o give you a piece of His heart! No wonder Paul prayed for the Ephesians to somehow begin to comprehend such incomprehensible love, asking the Father ... would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19) Wiersbe on "He will be quiet in His love" - The Hebrew phrase has been variously explained: “He will quiet you with His love”; “He will be silent in His love” (i.e., not bring up your past sins); “He will renew you in His love”; “He will renew your love for Him”; “His love for you will make everything new.” Perhaps it all means the same thing: A new and deeper relationship with God will bring peace and joy and make all things new. (Bible Commentary-OT) Palmer - The mutuality of the loving response of Redeemer and redeemed is seen in the fact that some of the same terms used in the admonition to his people now describe the response of God himself to his people (cf. Zeph 3:14, 17). Zion is exhorted to sing (rānnî); he rejoices with singing (rinnāh). Jerusalem shall rejoice (śimti); he delights over Jerusalem with joy (śimtāh). The whole scene depicts a grand oratorio as God and his people mutually rejoice in their love for one another...To consider Almighty God sinking in contemplations of love over a once-wretched human being can hardly be absorbed by the human mind...Almighty God, quiet in his love. God the mighty Savior, quietly contemplating, contented in his love for you....Other passages that speak vividly of God’s rejoicing in the love of his people include Isa. 62:4–5; 65:19; Jer. 32:40–41. Cf. Luke 15:7, 10. Each of these passages deserves extensive contemplation. ‘The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty,’ Zephaniah tells us. ‘He will rest in His love’ (Zephaniah 3:17). Thus, concerning the storm you may be going through even now or perhaps will face tomorrow, the Lord is not wondering if you’re going to make it. He’s resting in His love. He knows He’s going to see you through. Therefore, if Jesus is at rest, you can rest as well. -- A Day’s Journey: 365 Daily Meditations from the Word Quiet (02790)(haras/charash) means to be silent, be still, be quiet, dumb, speechless, mute or deaf. The picture is of a person remaining still or silent (Ge 24:21, 2Ki 18:36). Patterson - The verb haras/charash has been explained variously as (1) keeping silent about or covering up people’s sins (Rashi), (2) God’s silence due to the overwhelming depths of His love (Keil 1954), (3) God’s preoccupation with planning Israel’s good (Nowack 1922), (4) God’s resting in His love (Laetsch 1956), (5) a means for the believer to cultivate peace and silence in his heart (Luther), (6) God’s singing out of the joy of his loving concern (O’Connor 1980), and (7) God’s refraining from bringing accusation of wrongdoing against Jerusalem (Ben Zvi). F B Meyer - The margin suggests an exquisite alternative, “He will be silent in His love.” Of old the Psalmist said that his soul was silent in its calm expectancy for God’s salvation. Here we are told that God is silent in His brooding tenderness. All the deepest emotion is silent. When we are told, then, that God’s love will be a silent one, we know that it is too intense, too deep, too infinite to find expression. It will break silence presently; but in the meanwhile be still, and know that God is love. Jesus, I rest in Thee, In You myself I hide Laden with guilt and misery, Where can I rest beside? It is on Your meek and lowly breast My weary soul alone can rest." You Holy One of God! The Father rests in Thee. And in the savor of that blood which speaks to Him for me. The curse is gone- through You I'm blest, God rests in You- In You I rest. The slave of sin and fear, Your truth my bondage broke, My happy spirit loves to wear Your light and easy yoke; Your love, which fills my grateful breast, Makes duty joy, and labor rest. "Soon the bright glorious day The rest of God will come, Sorrow and sin shall pass away, And I shall reach my home Then, of the promised land possessed, My soul shall know eternal rest. Scofield on "His love" - A love too great for words. For the LORD's own, His final word is not of anger, as with the unbelieving nations, but of love, as expressed in this beautiful verse. When it comes to His people, chastised and forgiven, the LORD rests His case in love and rejoicing. Spurgeon in "A Sermon for the Present Time" on Zephaniah 3:16-18 wrote... I do not know any Scripture which is more full of wonderful meaning than this. “He shall rest in his love,” as if our God had in his people found satisfaction. He comes to an anchorage: he has reached his desire. As when a Jacob, full of love to Rachel, has at length ended the years of his service, and is married to his well-beloved, and his heart is at rest; so is it spoken in parable of the Lord our God. Jesus sees of the travail of his soul when his people are won to him; he has been baptized with his baptism for his church, and he is no longer straitened, for his desire is fulfilled. The Lord is content with his eternal choice, content with his loving purposes, satisfied with the love which went forth from everlasting. He is well pleased in Jesus—well pleased with all the glorious purposes which are connected with his dear Son, and with those who are in him. He has a calm content in the people of his choice, as he sees them in Christ. This is a good ground for our having a deep satisfaction of heart also. We are not what we would be; but then we are not what we shall be. We advance slowly; but then we advance surely. The end is secured by omnipotent grace. It is right that we should be discontented with ourselves, yet this holy restlessness should not rob us of our perfect peace in Christ Jesus. If the Lord hath rest in us, shall we not have rest in him? If he rests in his love, cannot we rest in it? My heart is comforted as I plainly see in these words love unchanging, love abiding, love eternal: “he will rest in his love.” Jehovah changes not. Being married to his people, “he hateth putting away.” Immutability is written on his heart. The turtle-dove, when he has once chosen his mate, remains faithful throughout life, and if the beloved dies, he will, in many cases, pine away with grief for her, for his life is wrapped up in hers. Even so our Lord hath made his choice of his beloved, and he will never change it: he died for his church, and so long as he lives he will remember his own love, and what it cost him: “Who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord?” “He will rest in his love.” The love of God to us is undisturbed: “The peace of God, which passeth all understanding,” dwells with his love: he is not disquieted about it, but peacefully loves, and is never moved. The calm of God is wonderful to contemplate: his infallible knowledge and infinite power put him beyond fear or question. He sees no cause of alarm as to his redeemed, nor as to the cause of truth and the reign of righteousness. As to his true church, he knows that she is right, or that he will make her right. She is being transformed into the image of Jesus, and he rests in the full assurance that the image will ere long be complete. He can carry out his own purposes in his own way and time. He can see the harvest as well as the sowing; therefore he doth “rest in his love.” You have seen a mother wash her child, and as she washes its face the child perhaps is crying, for it does not for the present enjoy the cleansing operation. Does the mother share the child’s grief? Does she also cry? Oh, no! she rejoices over her babe, and rests in her love, knowing that the light affliction of the little one will work its real good. Often our griefs are no deeper than the cry of a child because of the soap in its eyes. While the church is being washed with tribulations and persecutions, God is resting in his love. You and I are wearying, but God is resting. “He shall rest in his love.” The Hebrew of this line is, “He shall be silent in his love.” His happiness in his love is so great, that he does not express it, but keeps a happy silence. His is a joy too deep for words. No language can express the joy of God in his love; and therefore he uses no words. Silence in this case is infinitely expressive. One of the old commentators says, “He is deaf and dumb in his love,” as if he heard no voice of accusation against his chosen, and would not speak a word of upbraiding to her. Remember the silence of Jesus, and expound this text thereby. Sometimes also the Lord does not speak to his people: we cannot get a cheering word from him; and then we sigh for a promise, and long for a visit of his love; but if he be thus silent, let us know that he is only silent in his love. It is not the silence of wrath, but of love. His love is not changed, even though he does not comfort us. “His thoughts are high, his love is wise, His wounds a cure intend; And though he does not always smile, He loves unto the end.” When he does not answer our prayers with his hand, he yet hears them with his heart. Denials are only another form of the same love which grants our petitions. He loves us, and sometimes shows that love better by not giving us what we ask than he could do if he spoke the sweetest promise which the ear has ever heard. I prize this sentence: “He shall rest in his love.” My God, thou art perfectly content with thy church after all, because thou knowest what she is to be. Thou seest how fair she will be when she comes forth from the washing, having put on her beautiful garments. Lo, the sun goes down, and we mortals dread the endless darkness; but thou, great God, seest the morning, and thou knowest that in the hours of darkness dews will fall which shall refresh thy garden. Ours is the measure of an hour, and thine the judgment of eternity, therefore we will correct our short-sighted judgment by thine infallible knowledge, and rest with thee. PROMISE #5 HE WILL REJOICE OVER YOU WITH SINGING He will rejoice over you with singing (He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy-NAS) - "He shouts for joy over you." (NET); "He will exult over you with loud singing." (ESV); "He will delight in you with shouts of joy." (HCSB); "He will take great delight in you." (NIV) David
Sofonias 3
Meyer - It is much to hear a lark sing, as if its throat must be torn by the torrent of melody; more to hear a child sing as it comes down a woodland path in spring, checkered with sunlight falling on blue hyacinths and yellow primroses; more still to hear an angel sing, as the lone messenger of God breaks into melody to cheer himself on some distant journey from the Home of Song; more still to have heard our Saviour sing in the days of His earthly ministry, when He joined His disciples in the Jewish Hallel (Mt 26:30, Mk 14:26): but what will it not be when the great God Himself breaks into song, to celebrate an accomplished work, an emancipated world, a redeemed race, a Bride won for His Son! John
Sofonias 3
Meyer - Zephaniah 3:17 The Lord thy God is in the midst of thee, a Mighty One who will save. (R.V.) If this announcement is compared with the foregoing verse, it becomes apparent that only those may take its blessed comfort who have made the Lord their King. It is when the Lord, the King of Israel, is in the midst that we cease to fear the incursion of evil. Entire surrender and consecration must precede that deliverance from the power of evil which we all desire in our holiest hours. O tempted one, who fearest every hour because of the fury of the foe, that seems only waiting to destroy, look no longer upon him, but behold thy glorious Lord. “He will save.” Dare to repeat those words again and again, as a sweet refrain. Dare to believe that the battle is not yours, but his. Fear not; nor let thine hands be slack! Do thy work in the world, and let God keep thee. But God will do more than save the yielded trusting one. He will rejoice over the soul that finds its all in Himself. Such exquisite satisfaction will fill his glorious nature, that it shall be as when the heart can no longer contain itself, and wells over with liquid music. It is much to hear a nightingale sing; more to hear an angel; more to hear some child of Adam redeemed from sin sing the new song: but most to hear the great God break out into song. So a mother sings over her babe. O my God, may my life give Thee joy; not grief, nor tears, but a song. But He does not always express Himself thus. He is sometimes “silent in his love.” At such times He does not speak or sing, but broods over the soul that has dared to trust Him. “He will rest in his love.” There are times when the heart is too full of blessedness to speak—it has learned to abide in the secret place. An ocean too full to permit of waves! J C Philpot on Zeph 3:17 - What a mighty God we have to deal with! And what would suit our case but a mighty God? Have we not mighty sins? Have we not mighty trials? Have we not mighty temptations? Have we not mighty foes and mighty fears? And who is to deliver us from all this mighty host except the mighty God? It is not a little God (if I may use the expression) that will do for God’s people. They need a mighty God because they are in circumstances where none but a mighty God can interfere in their behalf. Why, if you did not know feelingly and experimentally your mighty sins, your mighty trials, your mighty temptations, and your mighty fears, you would not want a mighty God. This sense of our weakness and His power, of our misery and and His mercy, of our ruin and His recovery, of the aboundings of our sin and the superaboundings of His grace—a feeling sense, I say, of these opposite yet harmonious things brings us to have personal, experimental dealings with God; and it is in these personal dealings with God that the life of all religion consists. O what a poor, dead, useless religion is that in which there are no personal dealings with God—no calling upon His holy name out of a sincere heart; no seeking of His face, or imploring of His favour; no lying at His feet and begging of Him to appear; no pitiable, lamentable case for Him to have compassion upon; no wounds or sores for Him to heal, no leprosy to cleanse, no enemies to put to the rout, no fears to dispel, and, I may almost say, no soul to save! And yet such is the religion of thousands. They draw near to God with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him, and whilst they outwardly say, “Lord, Lord,” they inwardly say, “This man shall have no dominion over us.” If you differ from them, and want a God near at hand not afar off, a mighty God in the very midst of your soul, of your thoughts, desires, and affections, you may well bless Him for the grace which has made you to differ, and thankfully bow your neck to sufferings and trials, as means in His hand to bring you and Him together. -- Ears from Harvested Sheaves. Max Lucado on Zeph 3:17 - God is for you. Turn to the sidelines; that’s God cheering your run. Look past the finish line; that’s God applauding your steps. Listen for him in the bleachers, shouting your name. Too tired to continue? He’ll carry you. Too discouraged to fight? He’s picking you up. God is for you. God is for you. Had he a calendar, your birthday would be circled. If he drove a car, your name would be on his bumper. If there’s a tree in heaven, he’s carved your name in the bark.… “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?” God asks in Isaiah 49:15 (NIV). What a bizarre question. Can you mothers imagine feeding your infant and then later asking, “What was that baby’s name?” No. I’ve seen you care for your young. You stroke the hair, you touch the face, you sing the name over and over. Can a mother forget? No way. But “even if she could forget, … I will not forget you,” God pledges (Isa. 49:15). (See In the Grip of Grace - Page 174) Streams in the Desert - “He answered her not a word.” (Matt. 15:23.) “He will be silent in his love.” (Zeph. 3:17.) IT may be a child of God is reading these words who has had some great crushing sorrow, some bitter disappointment, some heart-breaking blow from a totally unexpected quarter. You are longing for your Master’s voice bidding you “Be of good cheer,” but only silence and a sense of mystery and misery meet you—“He answered her not a word.” God’s tender heart must often ache listening to all the sad, complaining cries which arise from our weak, impatient hearts, because we do not see that for our own sakes He answers not at all or otherwise than seems best to our tearblinded, short-sighted eyes. The silences of Jesus are as eloquent as His speech and may be a sign, not of His disapproval, but of His approval and of a deep purpose of blessing for you. “Why art thou cast down, O … soul?” Thou shalt yet praise Him, yes, even for His silence. Listen to an old and beautiful story of how one Christian dreamed that she saw three others at prayer. As they knelt the Master drew near to them. As He approached the first of the three, He bent over her in tenderness and grace, with smiles full of radiant love and spoke to her in accents of purest, sweetest music. Leaving her, He came to the next, but only placed His hand upon her bowed head, and gave her one look of loving approval. The third woman He passed almost abruptly without stopping for a word or glance. The woman in her dream said to herself, “How greatly He must love the first one, to the second He gave His approval, but none of the special demonstrations of love He gave the first; and the third must have grieved Him deeply, for He gave her no word at all and not even a passing look. “I wonder what she has done, and why He made so much difference between them?” As she tried to account for the action of her Lord, He Himself stood by her and said: “O woman! how wrongly hast thou interpreted Me. The first kneeling woman needs all the weight of My tenderness and care to keep her feet in My narrow way. She needs My love, thought and help every moment of the day. Without it she would fail and fall. “The second has stronger faith and deeper love, and I can trust her to trust Me however things may go and whatever people do. “The third, whom I seemed not to notice, and even to neglect, has faith and love of the finest quality, and her I am training by quick and drastic processes for the highest and holiest service. “She knows Me so intimately, and trusts Me so utterly, that she is independent of words or looks or any outward intimation of My approval. She is not dismayed nor discouraged by any circumstances through which I arrange that she shall pass; she trusts Me when sense and reason and every finer instinct of the natural heart would rebel;—because she knows that I am working in her for eternity, and that what I do, though she knows not the explanation now, she will understand hereafter. “I am silent in My love because I love beyond the power of words to express, or of human hearts to understand, and also for your sakes that you may learn to love and trust Me in Spirit-taught, spontaneous response to My love, without the spur of anything outward to call it forth.” He “will do marvels” if you will learn the mystery of His silence, and praise Him, for every time He withdraws His gifts that you may better know and love the Giver.—Selected. The Lord in Our Midst - Evan H. Hopkins SCRIPTURE: Zephaniah 3:17 INTRODUCTION: Do you believe that God is always with you? That He delights to save you? In a prophecy to Israel, God (through Zephaniah) expresses how He relates to His people, a description which can encourage us today. 1. The Lord’s Presence. God’s presence is not an abstract idea, but a reality in our lives; anywhere we go and whatever we do, whether in church or at work, the Lord is with us. 2. The Lord’s Favor. Notice the phrase, “the Lord your God.” God has undertaken for you, He has called you, He is your God. 3. The Lord’s Power. This verse describes God as “a victorious warrior.” The God who is with you and who favors you is powerful! Grasp this truth! Act on God’s word in faith and He will empower you to do His will. 4. The Lord’s Salvation. The next phrase is, “The Mighty One, will save.” God not only offers salvation: the rest of the verse reveals that God loves us; He rejoices over His people with joy, even with singing! CONCLUSION: Do you view God as simply a disciplinarian or judge? He favors you; He is always with you in power. He loves His redemptive work. Meditate on that this week.