A reflection on Zephaniah 3:14-20 and Isaiah 12:2-6 for the Third Sunday of Advent, December 12, 2021.
Sing aloud, O daughter Zion;
shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter Jerusalem!
The Lord has taken away the judgements against you,
he has turned away your enemies.
The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall fear disaster no more.
On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
Do not fear, O Zion;
do not let your hands grow weak.
The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
a warrior who gives victory;
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
he will renew you in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
as on a day of festival.
I will remove disaster from you,
so that you will not bear reproach for it.
I will deal with all your oppressors
at that time.
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 home,
at the time when I gather you;
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.
Zephaniah 3:14-20 (NRSVA)
Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid,
for the Lord God is my strength and my might;
he has become my salvation.
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say on that day:
Give thanks to the Lord,
call on his name;
make known his deeds among the nations;
proclaim that his name is exalted.
Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;
let this be known in all the earth.
Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah 12:2-6 (NRSVA)
The prophet Zephaniah is a prophet of hope. His words are well chosen as we go deeper into the Advent season.
There is a very real sense in which Zephaniah speaks into the midst of an unfolding reality for the Israelites. He is pointing to a coming day. His words, ‘On that day’ indicate that all God is saying through him is not yet reality.
And yet, Zephaniah is asking for a response in the present. Sing now. Rejoice now. Why? Because,
The Lord has taken away the judgements against you,
he has turned away your enemies.
The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall fear disaster no more…
Yet in the very next phrase Zephaniah speaks in the future tense. Rejoice – for the day is coming.
Not every action of God that the prophet describes, however, is in the future. An vital element of his message from God is a very present reality. ‘The Lord, is in your midst…’ and later ‘your God, is in your midst…’
God is present now and God is promising to act in the future.
Zephaniah seems to give a lot of space to ensuring that the Israelites know what this God-among-them is doing. Removing judgment; casting out the enemy; removing fear; delighting – and singing – over his people; removing disaster; bringing healing; welcoming the outcast; gathering the people; removing shame, and; restoring their fortune.
In essence, God is bringing them ‘home’.
For Zephaniah this as yet incomplete action of God is reason for celebration now. The promised future brings change to the unchanged present. It invites us to remould the present in light of the future action of God.
Isaiah is doing something similar. He asks for a present trust in the God who saves. At the very same time the joy of this same salvation sits in the future,
And then, of course, there is the clear common denominator between the present and the future, between Zephaniah’s prophecy and Isaiah’s. In both messages from the heart of God we have the promise of God in our ‘midst’.
A God who is present in the now and the not yet.
And that is good news indeed!
Conversation Starters:
How do you respond to the promises of God? Do you allow them to fill you with a present hope and joy?
How does the presence of God in both the now and the not yet encourage you to embrace the waiting spirit of Advent? What do you find natural about this waiting season? What do you find unnatural about it?