"The LORD has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy. The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm." - Zephaniah 3:15
For two and a half chapters, the prophet Zephaniah spews a blast of verbal flame. Judgment, destruction, and horrific disaster await Israel and all its neighbors in response to their idolatry and pride - a vivid backdrop that makes the encouraging words of 3:15 all the more soothing to our frightened ears. How the faithful remnant must have clung to this promise that the LORD would be with them and restore them.
What they would have given to be us. Imagine if they were able to look back to a point in history when this promise was ultimately fulfilled. Consider their amazement upon reading of a baby king, born in poverty, who would be revealed as God himself come to Earth. How cut to the heart they would be to hear the detailed account of how He took away their punishment by taking it upon himself. What praise would fill their hearts as they beheld, with newfound clarity, a love so extreme as to blow away all previously-held notions of power and might.
Sisters and brothers, consider how privileged you are to have heard this story of King Jesus. He will be with you forever.
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