Sermon on Zephaniah 3:14-20, for the 3rd Sunday in Advent, "The John 3:16 of the Old Testament"

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. The book of Zephaniah is not the most frequently read book of the Bible. You might not know anything about Zephaniah; he’s obscure enough to slip under the radar. But our reading today is one of the most remarkable verses in the Old Testament, if not in the whole Bible: vs. 17, “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing.” Before prepping this sermon, I didn’t know of any other verse in the Bible that directly describes God Himself singing. Turns out there are more in the Psalms that speak prophetically about Jesus singing and leading our song to God—and Jesus sang hymns with His disciples on the night of His betrayal, and no doubt all through His life in the worship at God’s Temple and synagogues. Still, this verse stands apart, because song and music usually flow to God, not from Him. The surprise in this passage, is that when God calls on us to sing and exult we find that He is actually singing and exulting too! One writer has suggested that this verse is like the John 3:16 of the Old Testament.

But to fully appreciate the significance of this passage and verse, you have to step back and understand a little about Zephaniah’s situation, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem who first heard this Word from God. It’s the 600’s BC, and here’s a thumbnail sketch of that time in Israel’s history. Of the two kingdoms that made up Israel, only the Southern Kingdom Judah, and its capital Jerusalem, were still standing. About 100 years before, the ten Northern Tribes of Israel had fallen to the invading armies of Assyria—God’s judgment on generations of idolatry and wickedness. A long line of prophets after warned Judah to turn back to the Lord before it is too late. The Kingdom of Judah is just a couple of generations behind the doom of their northern brothers. Soon after the death of King Josiah in 609, the armies of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon are going to start chipping away at the tiny kingdom of Judah. By 586 BC, just a few decades after Zephaniah’s prophecy, Jerusalem is going to be utterly destroyed, and all of Judah with it. In short, these are not good days to be an inhabitant of Jerusalem. King Josiah was a good reformer, and had cleansed the Temple and restored proper worship of God, but his reforms wouldn’t last. His father King Amon and grandfather King Manasseh had been two of the most wicked kings of Judah, who had reintroduced detestable Canaanite idol worship and child sacrifice, banned long ago by God. Josiah had put on the brakes, but the kingdom of Judah was still skidding toward an inevitable and painful crash. God’s grace to Josiah was that he wouldn’t see this destruction in his own lifetime, but Judah’s fate was still sealed. After his death, Judah relapsed into old sins familiar from the days of Josiah’s father and grandfather, instead of following the Lord with their whole heart.

So Zephaniah was a bearer of bad news: unflinching judgment to Judah and Jerusalem; the repayment of all their evil, injustice, and corruption. And the heat doesn’t relent until chapter 3:8. Then our reading picks up in vs. 14. So the sunburst of joy that is Zephaniah 3:14-20, comes after chapters of turbulent storm clouds and gloomy judgment. Zephaniah’s original audience are the generation who will see all this destruction befall Jerusalem. Their road ahead is filled with sorrows. I tell you this so you know that God did not speak these words in a happy-go-lucky vacuum. That’s important, because when God calls us to rejoice, and gives reasons for our rejoicing, we’re not often in a happy-go-lucky vacuum ourselves. I certainly hope and pray that your lives are “shalom” or peaceful and whole. But even and especially if they are not, know that God is the restorer in our midst, and that God did not send a doctor for the healthy, but for the sick. Not to the righteous that God sends a Savior, but to the sick and the sinners. Zephaniah’s words of hope are a turn from the Law to the Gospel, from the bad news of sin and God’s judgment, to the Good News of God’s rescue and redemption.

How do you respond to these invitations: “Sing aloud….shout O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart…”? Lord willing, for most of us, we can answer with a joyful song of praise! But I also especially want to speak today to those whose hearts might be heavy, like Zephaniah’s original hearers. God invites you too to rejoice. In the Bible God often calls His people to rejoice; at a festival, or in the goodness of the Lord, or the greatness of His salvation. But sometimes we feel like the Psalmist in Psalm 42, who recalls days of rejoicing in his past, but at present was downcast and troubled in soul. Life in the spin cycle, like a drowning man getting pounded under huge and relentless waves. But in Psalm 42, he expresses these words, “Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God” (Ps. 42:5). Because his hope is set on God, He sees future days of praising awaiting him. He knows this present suffering will pass. Whether Psalm 42, or in Zephaniah, or for us, God establishes us on God’s hope and salvation. God stands us on His promises for our days of trial, difficulty, and suffering. He doesn’t tell us how long those days will last, but we know God’s promises and faithfulness never fail even when life seems dashed against the rocks.

The Lord has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. A long list of judgments piled up against Judah. I would not dare to ask or see the list of judgments that were to pile up against me, or you, or anyone else. From my own depth of sin I know enough to give thanks with the Psalmist; “If you O, Lord, kept a record of sins, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.” (Psalm 130:3-4). And Zephaniah says that God has cleared away both their judgments and their enemies. 2,600 years after Zephaniah, we know how and why. God nailed the record of accusations that stood against us to the cross of Jesus Christ (Col. 2:14), so there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1)! The incomprehensibly vast record of debt and accusations that marked us all for judgment and death, is nailed to the cross of Jesus. Taken away.

Zephaniah goes on to describe the King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil. Jesus was the child born to be King. The Truest King of Israel. Not a partial success, or a temporary reformer. Not a king to be succeeded by a scurrilous son who would reverse His good deeds. But the King who would not be overthrown by His enemies, the King who would not be succeeded by another; the King who would be crushed for the sins of His people, but would rise gloriously from the dead to see all His future offspring. Jerusalem shall not fear evil because Jesus is the Forever King who is in the midst of His people, His children. He stands in our midst and leads us in the song of His salvation, in praise to God! (Hebrews 2:12; Ps. 22:22; Romans 15:9; Ps. 18:49). If God is for us, who can stand against? V. 16 says, “Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak.” No hand-wringing or helplessness or hesitation, but jump to the task of living and serving God. We are free from fear!

And then that marvelous vs. 17: “The Lord your God is in your midst a mighty One who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing.” What a description of God and His love! A mighty One who will save--God is a warrior or hero, who rescues us from enemies, who is strong and undefeated. And you—you His redeemed people, are the object of His joy and His singing! God celebrates you! He rejoices at having you back as His own. I believe this is what Hebrews 12:2 means when it describes the joy set before Him that made Jesus endure the suffering of the cross. The joy of having His children back as His own.

He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love. I can’t help but picture a parent holding their frightened and trembling child close in their arms, quieting their fears. Or Jesus describing God’s love like a good shepherd who hunts for one lost sheep, and when He finds the sheep, carries it home on His shoulders, rejoicing! He will quiet you by His love. Do we ever need to become like a child again, and climb into our Heavenly Father’s lap, and be embraced and quieted by His love? Absolutely! Isaiah 40:11 “He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.” God’s caring arms are open in Jesus, our Good Shepherd.

And He will exult over you with loud singing. How often do you have someone sing loudly over you? Maybe only on your birthday! And for some, even that’s too embarrassing! But God exults over you with loud singing. Earlier I said suffering or grief often make it hard for us to rejoice and exult in the Lord, or to sing aloud. But here God leads us in very thing He calls us to do! He rejoices and exults over us! God is so full of joy that He celebrates you, a poor, miserable sinner, are forgiven, redeemed, and washed clean by His blood. That you are His comforted and beloved child, quieted in His love, held in His arms. God sings loudly over you! And I especially want those to hear this…those who might question or wonder—surely not me? It can’t be me also, that he’s talking about? Not with my sin, with my life the way it is and has been. Not with all the judgments that stand against me?

But sing aloud and rejoice and exult with all your heart, because the Lord has taken away the judgments against you! The John 3:16 of the New Testament assures me that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, just as this “John 3:16 of the Old Testament” assures us that God sings over His redeemed people. And I know that you are in this world that God so loved! God’s promises of salvation, God’s joy is surely meant for you—Yes you! He sings over you, as surely as all heaven sings with Him when one lost sinner is saved!

Zephaniah ends with God’s assurance that He will gather those who mourn, and those who have suffered shame. Behold, at that time I will deal with all your oppressors. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. At that time I will bring you in, at the time when I gather you together; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes,” says the Lord. Jesus leads our song of praise in the great reversal of our fortunes, from shame and defeat, from injury and exclusion, to a song of praise and renown in all the earth. Jesus reversed our fortunes when He took our sins upon Himself on the cross, and He removed the judgments against us. He forgives us our sins and gives life and honor in the place of shame and death. It’s our praise and renown to bear the name of Jesus, and be called sons and daughters of God. An honor that cannot be taken away by any enemy. An honor we never deserved, but He grants freely by His grace. We have more than enough reason to rejoice this Advent and Christmas season, as we praise the Mighty One who saves us! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Sermon Talking Points

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1. Zephaniah 3:14-20 is not only a surprisingly joyful section in the prophet Zephaniah (contrast to the strong judgment language of Zeph. 3:1-8), but it is also uniquely joyful in all the Old Testament, as a description of God’s joy over His people. How does Zephaniah call them to respond to God’s salvation? 3:14.
2. Read 2 Kings 22-23 about the reign of Josiah, who was king while Zephaniah prophesied. What reforms did he put in place, and how did God show favor to him as a result? How was the fate of Judah nevertheless sealed? 2 Kings 18:18-20; 23:25-27.
3. Read all three short chapters of Zephaniah, and note the heavy tone of judgment and wrath all the way up to 3:8. Note the hopeful turn in vs. 3:9ff, and how great the contrast in 3:14-20 is to the rest of the book. This hope doesn’t come in a “vacuum.” How are our lives often also filled with sorrow and crosses? How does God’s hope set us on a firm foundation to endure all these?
4. For those who struggle to find joy or hope, read Psalm 42 and reflect on how God’s promises endure, and our song of praise will return.
5. How has God “taken away the judgments against us”? Psalm 130:3-4; Colossians 2:14; Romans 8:1.
6. Look at the remarkable passage Zephaniah 3:17. Who is the object of God’s loud singing, and why? Hebrews 12:2. What picture do you see of God “quieting you by His love?” cf. Luke 15:3-7; Isaiah 40:11.
7. How can we be sure that God sings over you? John 3:16; 1 Timothy 2:4. How does that make you feel?
8. Zephaniah 3:18-20 speaks of God’s great reversal of our fortunes, from evil and shame to goodness and honor. Jesus’ cross is at the center of this great reversal. Sing a new song and rejoice!