Zephaniah 3:9-20
Shame removed on the day of the Lord
On Friday evening I was driving with Lungisani to our partnership class at
Darren and Merle’s house in Walmer.
And as we were leaving from Summerstrand the sky above us was clear. And
the sun was just setting so the sky was filled with light. But as we looked ahead
to Walmer the sky was filled with darkness and heavy clouds. And so it was
quite a scene. Brightly lit sky on the one side. Dark clouds on the other.
And that’s a picture of what we find in the book of Zephaniah. On the one
hand you’ve got the dark clouds of God’s judgment. And that’s what you find in
chapters 1 and 2. But beside it you’ve got the bright light of God’s salvation.
And we’ve seen glimmers of it, but it comes into full display in the 2nd half of
chapter 3.
And that’s what the day of the Lord will be. For many it’ll be a day of darkness
and of judgment. But for those who are in Christ, it’ll be a day of the glorious
light of salvation.
And that’s what we’ll be focusing on this morning:
Notice the great turning point in verse 9. It starts with the word, “then”. In
other words, on that same day of the Lord when He pours out judgment on the
nations. Then, He’ll also bring salvation for the peoples. Verse 9- He will purify
the lips of the people so that they call on His Name and so that they serve Him,
shoulder to shoulder.
And just notice the extent of God’s salvation in verse 10.
“From beyond the rivers of Cush my worshipers, my scattered people, will
bring me offerings.”
And as we said last week, Cush was the great kingdom to the south of
Jerusalem. Probably including Ethiopia and Egypt, maybe northern Sudan. It
was the great African kingdom to the South. But according to this verse, the
worshipers of God will come from beyond the rivers of Cush.
And so as South Africans and Southern African countries, we are the fulfilment
of this prediction. And especially those of you who’s ancestors have been living
here for thousands of years. Here’s this prediction, almost 3000 years ago that
from the tribes and the nations and the people groups of Africa, God’s
worshipers will be drawn.
It’s a beautiful picture and its fulfilled, even by us sitting here today.
So that’s what we going to be focusing on this morning. This glorious hope of
salvation.
And the main point I want us to see: that on this day our shame will be
removed and replaced with honour.
But just before we dive in and I show you why I think this is the main theme of
this passage, let me just give you a bit of cultural background.
According to those who study cultural anthropology, there 3 main ways of
categorizing the different cultures we find in the world.
Firstly there’s the guilt culture
Secondly, there’s the fear culture
And thirdly there’s the shame culture.
And the difference between these can be illustrated by the following example.
Imagine its late at night and you on a lonely street and you see a little old lady
coming towards you with a big purse filled with jewels and money. And you
think to yourself: there’s no one else to protect this little old lady and there’s
no ways she’d be able to resist me if I decide to steal her jewels and money.
So here’s the first question: do you rob her? yes or no?
And I hope all of us would answer “no”. but here’s the bigger question. why do
we say, no?
What’s the motivation that stops us from robbing her.
And of course the great Christian virtue is the virtue of love. And that would be
the greatest motivation not to rob her. You consider her well-being and what
would it be like for her to lose all her money. And that’s what stops you from
robbing her.
But even if you removed that motivation of love. There still 3 other motivations
that might stop you from robbing her.
And the first one might be the law. Its against the law to rob this lady. You
don’t wanna be guilty of breaking the law. And that’s the primary motivation
for you if you come from a guilt culture. You don’t wanna be guilty of breaking
the law.
But another motivation might be fear of retribution. Even though no one can
see what you doing, this lady might have connections with other powers,
whether its human powers or even spiritual powers, that might bring
retribution upon you. And that would be your primary motivation if you come
from a fear culture. You afraid of being hurt.
But thirdly, you might not be so concerned about the law. You might not be
afraid of retribution. But there might be another motivation that still stops
you. And that would be your respect for yourself or your concern to be a
person of honour. And to rob this lady would be a shameful act and it would
bring shame not only upon you, but also upon your family. And that’s the main
motivation if you come from a shame culture.
Now obviously for every culture, we can relate to each of these motivations at
least in part. None of us want to feel guilty or afraid or ashamed. But the
question is: which one is the primary motivation?
And this isn’t just interesting cultural information. This is important when it for
the sake of the gospel.
Because I suspect for most of us, the typical gospel presentation we’ve heard is
the one that appeals to a guilt culture.
And basically it goes like this: that we all have to meet God as our judge. And
our sins make us guilty in His sight. And therefore our punishment needs to be
paid. But the wonderful news is that Jesus has paid our punishment. And
therefore justice has been met. And we can become innocent and not-guilty in
God’s sight. I think that’s the normal gospel presentation that we are familiar
with. And its had a massive effect in the Western world which is predominantly
a guilt culture.
But the beautiful thing about the Bible is its rich diversity. And the gospel
speaks to every person in every culture and addresses their deepest needs.
And we miss out on this diversity if we try to squash every passage into our
favourite presentation of the gospel.
We need to listen to the language of each passage and allow it to speak for
itself.
And this morning we come to a passage which presents the gospel in terms of
honour and shame. And it teaches us about how our shame can be removed.
And so if you someone for whom this is the greatest motivation. If your
greatest concern is to be honoured in the community. And if your greatest fear
is to be ashamed. Then this is a passage for you.
And so lets look at our first point this morning. I want you to see that on the
day of the Lord, our shame will be removed.
And you can see that in verse 11, where Zephaniah takes us to the root cause
of the shame in the world. Look at verse 11
“On that day you will no longer be put to shame for all the wrongs you have
done to me.”
You see, this is the root cause of our shame in the world. It’s the wrongs that
we’ve done to God. And that’s not to say that every time we get ashamed or
embarrassed, it’s directly caused by some sin against God.
But if you go back to the beginning of the world in the garden of Eden.
Remember Adam and Eve. They were they both naked and they feel no shame.
And its only after they sin against God. That’s when they realized their
nakedness. That’s when they tried to hide. That’s when they experienced real
shame. 1 And so that’s the root cause of shame in the world. Its our rebellion
1 And so this the root cause of shame in the world. And even if you an atheist, even if you refuse to recognize God. The reality is that all of us have a conscience. And maybe its been hardened through a lifetime of rebellion, but deep down,
there’s a deep shame that’s entered our lives because of our sin.
against God. And here’s the great hope of this passage. That on that day, we
won’t be put to shame for all the wrongs we’ve done against God.
What a great hope that is. Just take a moment to think about the most
shameful deed you’ve ever committed. It doesn’t matter how shameful that
deed was. On that day you won’t be put to shame for that deed.
And this is something that our modern society puts a lot of emphasis: how to
overcome shame. And not to be ashamed for how you’ve lived in the past. If
you just do a google search, you’ll come up with numerous articles offering
solutions to shame.
Listen to this quote from a modern therapist named Christy Bonner
She defines shame as the voice in our heads that questions our own worth …
and the devil on our shoulder that convinces us we don’t measure up.”
And so according to her, here’s the solution to shame: its to build up your
sense of self-worth and to convince yourself that you really do measure up.
And that’s just typical of the modern emphasis, that the solution to shame is to
grow in self-confidence and self-esteem and to learn to take pride in yourself.
But I want you to see that’s exactly the opposite of the Biblical solution we find
in this passage. If you look at verse 11 you’ll see the solution to shame isn’t to
take pride in yourself, but rather to be humble. Look at verse 11 again.
Why will we not be put to shame for all our sins against God? Its not because
weve learnt to take pride in ourselves and to appreciate our beauty and self-
worth.
Rather, its because God will remove from His city, those who rejoice in their
pride.
And notice who’ll be left in the city. Verse 12
But I will leave within you the meek and humble, who trust in the name of the
LORD.
In other words, this is the only type of person who won’t be put to shame. It’s
not the proud person who denies her unworthiness. Rather its the humble
person who acknowledges her rebellion and all her shameful deeds. And so
she trusts, not in her own strength, but only in the Name of the Lord.
And it reminds me of a saying that’s tattood on the arm of my brother-in-law.
And he’s not a Christian. He’s quite opposed to the Christian faith. and this is
one of his favourite sayings It’s a quote from the American journalist, Fulton
Oursler. And it says: many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves. Regret
for the past and fear for the future.
And it’s a clear attack on the Christian message: as if acknowledgment of sins
in the past and anticipation of judgment in the future. that these things will
crucify you and enslaves you to a life of shame.
But according to the Bible, the exact opposite is true. Its only as we
acknowledge our sins committed in the past and its only as we anticipate the
judgment in the future: that’s the only way for us to come humbly to the Lord.
And the great truth of the gospel is that Jesus was cruficied between two
thieves. And He took the shame of our past. And He took the judgment for our
future. And if we trust in Him, then 1 Peter 2 verse 6 is true for us: the one who
trusts in Him will never be put to shame.
And so don’t miss this path to shamelessness. Its not the path of this world,
where pride is rejoiced in and seen as a good thing. Rather, it’s the path of
brokenness and humility, trusting not in your own strength, but only in the
Lord and what He has done.
But now I want us to jump to the end of our passage. Verses 18-20 And here
we see that not only will our shame be removed, but positively we’ll be
honoured among the peoples.
And there a number of ways God’s people suffered shame in the Old
Testament. And the first one’s there in verse 18.
That their appointed feasts became a sorrow to them and it became a burden.
And they even suffered reproach and insult for their appointed feasts. This is
something that became especially true during the exile. When God’s people
were driven out of the promised- land and the temple was destroyed. And no
longer could they celebrate their appointed feasts. And that was a great
source of sorrow and even reproach from their enemies.
And maybe you come from a culture which has been stifled. And maybe your
cultural practices have been stifled and even forbidden. Then you can relate to
this. It’s a shameful experience. But in verse 18 God promises: I will remove
from you these sorrows.
But more than that in verse 19 God will deal with her oppressors. And this is
also something that’s closely linked to shame. If you speak to people who’v
suffered oppression, normally they won’t just talk about the the physical or
material loss they’ve suffered. Even more than that they’ll probably talk about
the shame of being oppressed.
But on that day, God will deal with her oppressors.
And then verse 19, He’ll rescue the lame. And that’s also something that might
bring shame to some people. that they physically disabled.
And then finally He’ll gather those who’ve been scattered. And this became
another source of shame for God’s people. That they were scattered from their
homeland. And if you yourself are a foreigner in a different culture and you
always treated as an outsider. Then you might be able to identify with this kind
of shame.
And so in all these ways God will remove His people’s shame.
But look at the end of verse 19. What will He give them in its place?
verse 19.
“I will give them praise and honour in every land where they were put to
shame. At that time I will gather you ; at that time I will bring you home. I will
give you honour and praise among all the peoples of the earth when I restore
your fortunes before your very eyes.”
And so this is the great ending to the book of Zephaniah. Not only that our
shame will be removed, but that in its place we will receive honour and praise.
And I wonder if that’s how we think of heaven. A day in which we will be
praised. I suspect we probably feel a bit uncomfortable with this. I mean surely
its only God who should receive all honour and praise? And isn’t this
contradicting what we just saw earlier. That we are rebels against God and
unworthy of praise.
Well no, this isn’t contradicting that.
I want you to notice the repeated phrase in these final 3 verses. It’s repeated
seven times. Once in verse 18, twice in verse 19, three times in verse 20. It’s
the phrase, “I will”. You see, over and over again, we being .This is something
that God will do.
And so all the praise we receive on that day will be like the praise to the
masterpiece of an artist.
And just like you can’t praise a piece of art without at the same time praising
the artist. In the same way, we’ll simply be included in the praise that is
ultimately being given to God.
And so this is also something we can look forward to about the day of the Lord;
that we’ll be honoured and praised among the peoples.
But now finally I want us to come to the heart of this passage. Right in the
middle we find the greatest honour that any person can ever receive. Not only
will our shame be removed. Not only will we be honoured among the peoples.
But greatest of all, we’ll discover what it means to be deeply loved by God.
And that’s the climax of verses 14-17. If you look at verse 14 you’ll see we
referred to as the daughter of Zion and the daughter of Jerusalem. And that’s a
reference, not just to Jewish Christians but to anyone who puts their faith in
Christ. As we taught in Galatians 3:29 “if you belong to Christ, then you are
Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” And so this is the hope
for all who trust in Christ. And verse 14 calls us to be glad and to rejoice on
that day
And it gives us a number of reasons to rejoice. Firstly, because our punishment
has been taken away. And this is a clear prediction of the sacrifice of Christ,
that when He died on the cross, He took our punishment away.
But not only that, secondly our enemies will be turned back. In other words,
they’ll be defeated. And it doesn’t matter what enemy you think of: whether
it’s physical like a person or a disease or whether its spiritual like sin or the
devil. None of these enemies will be able to plague us anymore. They’ll be
turned back on that day.
But not only will our punishments be removed and our enemies defeated.
Even greater than that is that the LORD Himself will be with us. And therefore,
we’ll have nothing for us to fear. Look at the middle of verse 15.
“The LORD, the king of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm.
On that day they will say to Jerusalem, “Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your
hands hang limp. The LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save.”
But now in verse 17 we come to the climax of these verses. And I wonder if you
noticed how every cultural longing we referred to earlier has been addressed?
So for the guilt culture – the punishment has been taken away.
For the fear culture – the enemy has been turned back. there’s no reason to
fear.
But now finally, we comes to the climax of these verses and what we find here
is surely the greatest antidote to shame: to have God Himself delighting and
loving and rejoicing over you.
And that’s what we find in the middle of verse 17.
“He will take great delight in you,
You see it might be possible for a judge to remove your punishment, but to do
it coldly without any affection.
It might be possible for a king to dwell within you and to protect you, but to do
it simply as a duty without any affection or delight.
But what we see in these verses is that same will not be true of God. When He
looks at us as His saved people, He won’t do so begrudgingly. He won’t be
indifferent towards us. Rather He will take great delight
More than that, verse 17 also says, “He will quiet us with His love,”
And the word for love here is a striking Hebrew word. When you tell someone
that you love them, it might not mean that you feeling particularly pleased
with them or that you passionately in love with them. It might simply mean
that you committed to them. And it’s a decision of your will as much as a
feeling in your heart.
And normally that’s what the OT’s referring to when it talks about God’s love
for us, it uses the Hebrew word, “hesed” which refers to His covenant
commitment. Its His faithful love based on His promise.
But its very striking here in verse 17, he doesn’t use the normal word, hesed.
He uses a different word which describes a different type of love. Not hesed,
but ahaba, which is the same word that’s used to describe Jacob’s love for
Rachel. Remember that love, that he was willing to work 7 years and then
another 7 years, but we told, it felt like just a few days, because of His
passionate love for Rachel. That’s the word that’s used here to describe God’s
love for us. It’s passionate and its full of affection.
And more than that verse 17 says He will rejoice over us with singing. And that
just blows the mind. Every Sunday we gather to sing and to rejoice in the Lord.
But now we see the other side of the picture. Not only will we be singing about
God. But He will be singing about us. Can you imagine God Himself singing for
joy because He’s so delighted in you. Its mind-blowing.
But someone might object to this language and say: “doesn’t this belittle God
to rejoice over us? I mean He’s the Creator. We just creatures. And isn’t this
topsy turvy? God shouldn’t be rejoicing in us. Surely we should only be
rejoicing in Him.
Listen to this answer from John Piper:
It would be unrighteous (for God to rejoice in us) if His joy had its ultimate
spring in us and not in Himself. But that’s not the case. Rather, when we stand
before Him, … He’s going to see His own handiwork.
Does it belittle Michaelangelo to stand with tears of joy as he looks up to the
roof of the Cistene chapel? Nore does it belittle God when the divine work of
redemption is finished and the redeemed in Jesus Christ stand before Him,…
And God lifts His hands and shouts in joy over the victory that He has achieved
over Satan and sin and the world.”
And this is what we read throughout the bible. When we come to heaven, it
won’t just be us receiving our reward from God. Even more than that It’ll also
be God receiving his reward in us. And He’ll receive us as His bride. And thats
what we read in Isaiah 62:5. “As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will
your God rejoice over you.”
And if you think about it: this is a universal custom in weddings that the
bridegroom doesn’t get to see the bride. All day she gets beautifully dressed
and prepared for that moment when she enters the ceremony. When she
walks down the aisle. And its all designed to take the grooms breath away, to
stun him, to move him to tears when he witnesses his beautiful bride
And that’s how God will feel towards us. He will be delighted in His bride.
Listen to this quote by Charles Spurgeon. Believer, you are happy when God
blesses you, but not as happy as God is. You are glad when you are pardoned,
but He who pardons you is more glad. The prodigal son come back to his home
was very happy to see his father, but not as delighted as his father was to see
him. The father’s heart was more full of joy, because his heart was larger than
his sons.
And this is the truth for us. Because of Christ, we are loved and forgiven and
accepted by God. And God’s love for us is even greater than our love for Him ,
because His heart is larger than ours.
And so surely this is the greatest antidote to shame. Surely most exhilarating
and life-changing experience possible to man.
I mean I remember the day clearly when I found out, that not only did I love
Jenna, but she also loved me. And we had cycled out for lunch. And we still had
to cycle home afterwards. But it didn’t feel like I was cycling. It felt like I was
flying. I was just so happy.
But that doesn’t come close to this experience when we fully discover that we
are loved not just by a significant human being, but by the God of the universe.
That He’s delighted in us. That’ll be more wonderful than any earthly
experience.
And so let me close with these words from verse 11.
“On that day you will not be put to shame for all the wrongs you have done to
me.”
Why? Verse 12 because I will leave within you the meek and humble, who trust
in the name of the Lord.
May that be true of us.
Let’s pray.