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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Monday, 11 December 2023:
Zephaniah 3:2 — She does not trust in the Lord; she does not draw near to her God.
Your goal in life should be to trust in the Lord more and more by drawing closer and closer to Him each day. We draw closer to God when we increasingly love Him and trust Him to obey Him. You will not obey who you do not trust, and you will not trust who you do not love. Conversely, the more you obey Him, the more you learn to trust Him and love Him.
Zephaniah 3:4 – Her prophets are fickle, treacherous men; her priests profane what is holy; they do violence to the law.
When a nation’s religious leaders do not remain true to God’s word, the nation goes from bad to worse. God holds religious leaders accountable for their lack of spiritual leadership within a nation.
Zephaniah 3:5 — The Lord within her is righteous; he does no injustice; every morning he shows forth his justice; each dawn he does not fail; but the unjust knows no shame.
Distance from God is our fault, not God’s. He doesn’t wander off, we do. God remains faithful and desires the same from us.
Zephaniah 3:6-7 – “I have cut off nations; their battlements are in ruins; I have laid waste their streets so that no one walks in them; their cities have been made desolate, without a man, without an inhabitant. I said, ‘Surely you will fear me; you will accept correction. Then your dwelling would not be cut off according to all that I have appointed against you.’ But all the more they were eager to make all their deeds corrupt.”
God has clearly revealed His trustworthiness for those who care to acknowledge it.
Zephaniah 3:9 — For at that time I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord.
God’s plan is to convert the nations. However, He knows that most will not willingly change their hearts, though His witnesses have always been dispersed within their midst as examples to them, as faithful priests, as messengers of His truth.
Zephaniah 3:12, 13 — “But I will leave in your midst a people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord, those who are left in Israel; they shall do no injustice and speak no lies, nor shall there be found in their mouth a deceitful tongue. For they shall graze and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.”
In high-risk professions, there is a saying often repeated: “Complacency kills.” In our readings today, Zephaniah reveals how complacency in obedience to God led to the destruction of Israel (Zephaniah 1:12). Merriam-Webster defines complacency as “self-satisfaction… accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies.” In their comfort, security, and wealth, the nation had forgotten God’s Word, despite God’s many warnings: “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful (Joshua 1:8).” They became guilty of the sin of syncretism (the blending of faithful religion with idolatry and pagan practices), and casual sin became the norm (Zephaniah 1:4, 5, 12). Zephaniah pleads to the “shameful nation” to repent but laments that “She obeys no one, she accepts no correction. She does not trust in the Lord (In God we Trust?), she does not draw near to her God (Zephaniah 3:2).” He is careful to point out that both the government officials and the religious leaders were complicit in the downfall of the nation (Zephaniah 3:3, 4).
As the nation falls apart, Zephaniah encourages God’s true followers to continue to pursue righteousness, apart from the pattern of the world around them. These are God’s faithful who are humble, lowly, and unafraid through persecution and the effects of God’s judgment on the nation. As society moves further and further away from God, are you remaining faithful, humble, lowly, and unafraid?
– Zephaniah 2:3 — Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord’s anger….
– Matthew 6:33 — “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.”
– Hebrews 10:23-31 — “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Revelation 8:1 — When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
From Ligonier Ministries – “In today’s passage, we come at last to the opening of the seventh seal (8:1). Heaven has thus far been anything but quiet, for we have seen the twenty-four elders, the four living creatures, and the departed believers all singing praise to the Lord (4–5; 7:9–12). The silence that accompanies the breaking of the seventh seal, therefore, merits reflection. Zephaniah 1:7 and other texts from the Old Testament prophets call people to silence before the great day of God’s judgment, so the silence in heaven likely has something to do with the coming of the day of the Lord. That judgments follow the opening of the seventh seal would seem to confirm this (Rev. 8:2–13). However, the events of Revelation 8:2–5 indicate that the silence serves other purposes as well.
In keeping with the close association of prayers and incense (Ps. 141:2), John sees angels holding censers filled with incense—the prayers of the saints, which rise before God (Rev. 8:2–4). The silence, then, likely occurs also to facilitate the hearing of the prayers. Our great God is so attentive to the prayers of His people that He is willing to silence heaven to hear them.
The prayers are specifically for judgment on the Lord’s enemies, for when the angel uses the censer to cast fire from the heavenly altar down to earth, signs of divine wrath follow (v. 5). These prayers, in some sense, cause the judgment to occur in light of their connection to the censer and what occurs. In God’s providence, our prayers are powerful and effective.
We should never doubt the power of prayer in the unfolding of God’s purposes. Here in Revelation, the saints pray for judgment, and judgment happens. Of course, not all our prayers make things happen immediately. However, the Lord does respond to them, and they can effect change in this world. We should pray believing that our prayers matter and that they do effect things.
Revelation 8:13 — Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!
There are only a few words repeated three times in the New Testament for emphasis: “Holy, holy, holy”, and “Woe, woe, woe.” Unfortunately, both words are under-emphasized from the pulpits today. God’s wrath will be unimaginably horrible to those who don’t honor His holiness. This reality should excite all Christians to spread the Gospel to as many as possible. Christians too should not lose sight of the truth that if you do not honor God as Holy, you will experience woe. Grace is not given that a person can safely dishonor God. Grace is given that we can glorify God as Holy.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 11 December 2023: There is much in the Bible you don’t understand and many things God has not revealed. However, He as given you everything you need to have the faith you need. In the midst of uncertainly, trust and obey, and experience the fullness of joy knowing you are a child of God and He will fulfill His promises to you.
– 2 Peter 1:3-15 — His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 