THE Lord is ever gracious and merciful. Through the prophet Zephaniah God has sent forth his warning concerning the coming judgement upon the sins of the nation of Judah, and this has been emphasised by the truth that God has fixed the day of his judgement and this will surely come, and can not be reversed. Now he calls Judah to take heed of the warning of judgement and seek the Lord. The warning of judgement has been given well in advance, and this is God's mercy in order to give time for repentance, so that in the midst of the judgement, through genuine repentance and faith in Jehovah, individuals can be saved from the eternal punishment for their sins.

As we meditate on these verses we can observe two kinds of address to the people of Judah. When the prophets is inspired to say "gather, together, gather together" this would appear to be a call to the whole nation, with the purpose of calling the whole community of Judah to consider the message of judgement and perhaps repent. It is addressed to the whole nation, referred to as the "shameful nation." In verse 3 there is a clear change. The call is to those in the community of Judah who seek to do what God commands. The call to them is to persist in this obedience and deepen it. The purpose is that they may perhaps be sheltered from the consequences of the judgement which was falling on the whole nation. There is no suggestion that these people who are faithful to Jehovah will lose his favour and cease to be redeemed. Rather it is advice that may bring about for them relief from the temporal pains of God's judgement. In other words, perhaps, when the rest of the sinful nation is carried off into captivity and bondage, they may be saved from this by the grace of God. It is a fact that although all true believers in Jesus are assured of the gift of eternal life and a place in heaven, there is no assurance that we who believe are automatically relieved from the general suffering in the world due to sin.

As we view these three verses, there are four points for us to consider. a. There is a gracious call. b. There is action to take. c. There is an attitude to adopt. d. There is a glimmer of hope. Let us consider these four things for our own blessing and living today.

a. A Gracious Call.

God has declared that his judgement on Judah is final and fixed and can not be reversed. However, in mercy and grace, God has announced the coming of his judgement well in advance of it, which gives time for repentance and turning back to the Lord. Here is real mercy and grace. God had warned Judah so many times to repent and turn back in obedience to him, and Judah had ignored God's word to them. It would have been quite just and in order for God to execute his judgement without warning of any sort. God does not do this. Again he gives Judah the opportunity to turn back to God.

Today, in a general way throughout the visible church, there is a neglect of preaching concerning God's judgement. Some believe to talk of God judging is totally improper for they say God is not like that. In doing this these teachers are saying there is peace, when there is no peace. They teach that a God of love can not judge and send people to everlasting punishment in hell The bible is quite clear that sin cannot go unpunished. It has to be be punished if God is to declare and uphold his holiness and justice. If God did not judge sin in people, then he would tarnish or even deny his holy character. Sin must be dealt with, and the only way it can properly be done, is God punishing sin, when there is refusal to repent. The answer to those who say that it is incompatible with the truth that God is love, that God should everlastingly punish sin, is to remember the action of supreme love in God, whereby he gave his one and only Son to be the propitiation for the sins of the world. In love God punished sin in his Son that whosoever believes in Jesus, has everlasting life. There is no greater love than this.

God's love is set forth in this gracious call to Judah to come together and face the fact of God's judgement, take heed, and repent. The sad thing was that Judah as a nation did not respond to this gracious call. What do we learn from this gracious call of God and the attitude to it in the world today. The fact is that eternal judgement upon sinners is clearly taught in the Bible. When Christ returns he will come to judge the living and the dead. All will stand before him on that fateful day. We are told in the book of Revelation that all whose names are not written in the book of life will be cast into hell. All ministers need to be like Zephaniah and call people to consider that the final judgement for sin is fixed, and call them to take heed, repent, and trust in Jesus Christ for the promiser of forgiveness and eternal life in him.

b. Action to take.

For those who heed the call to consider the finality of God's judgement to come, there is an action to take. We must seek the Lord. The way we seek the Lord is to be humble before him and acknowledge that we deserve to be judged because of our sin and sinfulness, and then do what God commands.

What does God command? The command is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and receive the salvation promised through faith in him. If we are humble before God and confess our sin, we will have in faith trusted in Jesus and by the call to seek the Lord be more diligent in seeking him in the reading and meditating on the Bible, and being more diligent in prayer. Such action brings its reward always. Those who draw near to the Lord, find the Lord drawing near to them with blessing and assurance. In doing this we will find that the Lord becomes more exceedingly precious, and the things of the world will lose their attraction. We will find we will know the will of God more clearly, and in the midst of the judgements coming on the world will be at peace.

b. Attitude to adopt.

This brings us to the third point arising out of the verses before us. In seeking the Lord, we must seek righteousness and seek humility. What will this mean?

The Apostle Paul gives us the answer in Philippians 3: 7-11. Firstly, Paul tells us we must consider all things loss for the sake of Christ, and for his sake be ready to lose all things. This is only achieved if we truly seek humility. Humility is to know by experience what Jesus teaches in the first three Beatitudes which we read in Matthew 5: 3, 4, & 5. We must be poor in Spirit. This is the experience when in humility before God we know the depth of our sin and sinfulness, and confess this condition before the Lord. From this comes a mourning over sins committed and sin within that causes us to sin. This is true spiritual sorrow before God, which brings about a spirit of humble confession before God. From this comes a meekness which can be described as a spirit within us which causes us to be surprised when people speak well of us.

Secondly, Paul says he has a great desire to be found in Christ, not having a righteousness of his own by keeping the law of God, but that he may be clothed in the righteousness of Jesus which is the gift of God to all who believe. This is the constant position of all true Christians. We mourn over are many sins, and our continual sinning, and the light of this our trust is only in the righteousness of Jesus, which is imputed to us by God and reckoned as ours, and put to our account by God, which causes us to be declared righteous by God in his sight. Being so justified by faith we have peace with God.

From this Paul speaks of his on-going desire. It is to know Christ, and to know the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. The power of Christ's resurrection is the power of the new life that we are raised to by new birth, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which follows. The fellowship of his sufferings is the fellowship with God that is ours through being justified in the sight of God, and being raised to sit in heavenly places with Christ. Becoming like him in his death, is the experience of being dead to Satan, sin, the flesh and the world, so that having turned our eyes upon Jesus, and seen his glory, we love him and desire only to please him.

d. Hope that is realised.

For those who sought the Lord in the time of Zephaniah, and were humble and did the Lord's commands, it was the assurance that in the coming judgement, the Lord would not forsake them. They would have the assurance that come what may, he would be their God, and keep them safe in his love in this life and the next. It also was a peace that in the midst of the coming judgement, perhaps God would be gracious and mitigate the suffering for them, and perhaps allow them to stay in their land when the nation was taken away into exile.

For us today, this seeking the Lord, being humble before him, and living by his word in the Bible, means that the certainty of our eternal salvation is made more assured to us, so that though by faith we know the promise of eternal life in Christ, yet in our daily life the assurance of it may be made more and more clear, so that all fear is removed.

It will mean also that in the midst of life and as we face the future, we will know with deep assurance that God is working all things for our good, and even when the all things may be painful and testing, yet still God is working for our good. We will know that our future is sure and mapped out by our Lord, and as we seek his guidance and will for the future we will know that he is with us, and that he will keep us in his will in all the choices in life we have to make.

CONCLUSION.