Zephaniah 1:7-12 Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD:for the day of the LORD is at hand:for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice,he hath bid his guests. (8) And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD’s sacrifice,that I will punish the princes,and the king’s children,and all such as are clothed with strange apparel. (9) In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold,which fill their masters’houses with violence and deceit. (10) And it shall come to pass in that day,saith the LORD,that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate,and a howling from the second,and a great crashing from the hills. (11) Howl,ye inhabitants of Maktesh,for all the merchant people are cut down;all they that bear silver are cut off. (12) And it shall come to pass at that time,that I will search Jerusalem with candles,and punish the men that are settled on their lees:that say in their heart,The LORD will not do good,neither will he do evil.
What we are learning from the Book of Zephaniah is that there is another aspect of God’s Love that few wish to think about:the tougher side of God’s Love for His people. There is time when God will,in a sense,hug and comfort His people,but there is also a time when He needs to discipline and chasten His children.
Hebrews 12:5-11 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children,My son,despise not thou the chastening of the Lord,nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:(6) For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. (7) If ye endure chastening,God dealeth with you as with sons;for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? (8) But if ye be without chastisement,whereof all are partakers,then are ye bastards,and not sons. (9) Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us,and we gave them reverence:shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits,and live? (10) For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure;but he for our profit,that we might be partakers of his holiness. (11) Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous,but grievous:nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
When God’s children have gone off the narrow path that God has set before us,He will chasten us to direct us back to the path,much the way a shepherd guides his flock of sheep and chases down the wayward sheep that has gone astray. Sometimes,God has to do something more drastic in order to get His people back on track and look at verses 9 and 10 again. God chastens His children to bring them to holiness – God’s Holiness – why? Because they have chosen to follow their own direction and concepts of holiness,so God chastens them to bring them back. The chastening may be painful at first,the chastening may seem to be scary and confusing at first,the chastening may bring sorrow and grief,but the benefits of the chastening will be seen and experienced by the child of God when the chastening is over. Verse 11:Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous,but grievous:nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. The results of the chastening is the peaceable fruit of righteousness. God’s righteousness,when followed by the child of God,brings peace.
Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death;but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
God chastens His children because He loves them. I would much rather have God chasten me than to have Him ignore me. A young boy could be outside playing with his trucks and having a great time. He has a dump truck and he is making truck noises when suddenly his father runs up to the young boy and roughly picks him up and runs a short distance,leaving the toys behind. Then the father sets his son down and tells him to never do that again and gives the young boy a swat on his bottom. That does not sound very loving does it? But when you realize that the young boy was playing in the middle of the road and the father had run out to save the boy from an oncoming car,you see that it was very loving of the father. What we saw there was the tough side of love. J. Vernon McGee wrote:Love places the eternal security and permanent welfare of the object of love above any transitory or temporary comfort or present pleasure down here upon earth. Love seeks the best interest of the beloved. That is what the Book of Zephaniah is about:the tough side of God’s Love for His people. Praise God because He always has our best interests at heart!