Rēad to Read …Again
Daily Reading: Habakkuk 1-3, Zephaniah 1-3
Habakkuk 1:5
Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you.
Not once nor twice, but many times through many voices God told His people through His prophets that which He was to do. They did not believe that which they heard. The same is too often true today. God tells His people that which He will do through His Word through His preachers and teachers, but His people do not hear. They hear the words but do not receive the message.
Consider James 1:22, But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. Evidently, we can hear without doing by deceiving ourselves. It is one thing to be deceived by another, but deceiving oneself, that is an unforced error that results in devastating results. It is one thing to not believe a preacher, that’s understandable, but to not believe God’s Word! Why?
Just as God worked a work in the days of Israel that they did not believe, so too will He work a work in our day that most will not believe. He will return.
Zephaniah 3:17
The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.
The prophet Zephaniah was contemporary with king Josiah and ministered at the same time of Habakkuk. In fact, he and Josiah were probably related. He was also of royal blood in that he was the great grandson of king Hezekiah. Both kings were high watermarks of the kings of Judah (the southern kingdom). Hezekiah was one of the best kings, and the richest, and Josiah was the most God centered king since David sat on the throne. Under Josiah many reformations were made, bringing God’s nation back into obedience to God’s laws as given by Moses.
Zephaniah influenced those reforms of the king. In his prophecy he proclaimed the judgments of God, called the nation to repentance to stave off those judgments, and gave promises of deliverance and blessings of the Lord. He told Judah five things that God would do for them in chapter 3 verse 17.
1. Be in their midst
2. Save them
3. Rejoice over them
4. Rest in His love for them
5. Joy over them with singing.
With all the doom and gloom, there is always a ray of hope of good tidings for God’s people. Amen.
Dr. William T. Howe
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