Post by Les on Jul 13, 2023 13:21:17 GMT -5
Personal Responsibility By: Tom Felten
Click here for the Audio Message
They were still eager to act corruptly in all they did.
Zephaniah 3:7
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Zephaniah 3:1–8
My friend’s eyes revealed what I was feeling—fear! We two teens had behaved poorly and were now cowering before the camp director. The man, who knew our dads well, shared lovingly but pointedly that our fathers would be greatly disappointed. We wanted to crawl under the table—feeling the weight of personal responsibility for our offence.
God gave Zephaniah a message for the people of Judah that contained potent words about personal responsibility for sin (Zephaniah 1:1, 6–7). After describing the judgements He would bring against Judah’s foes (ch. 2), He turned His eyes on His guilty, squirming people (ch. 3). “What sorrow awaits rebellious, polluted Jerusalem,” God proclaimed (3:1 NLT). “They [are] still eager to act corruptly” (v. 7).
He’d seen the cold hearts of His people—their spiritual apathy, social injustice and ugly greed—and He was bringing loving discipline. And it didn’t matter if the individuals were “leaders”, “judges” or “prophets” (vv. 3–4 NLT)—everyone was guilty before Him.
The apostle Paul wrote the following to believers in Jesus who persisted in sin, “You are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. . . . [God] will judge everyone according to what they have done” (Romans 2:5–6 NLT). So, in Jesus’ power, let’s live in a way that honours our holy, loving Father and leads to no remorse.
Reflect & Pray
Why should you take personal responsibility for your sin? How do your wrong choices bring shame to God?
Heavenly Father, please help me pursue good choices for You.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Though the prophet Zephaniah (1:1) is rather obscure, there’s no mystery about the message he was commissioned to deliver—it was one of judgment for God’s people (1:4–2:3; 3:1–7) and the surrounding nations (2:4–15). The phrase the day of the Lord is found here more than in any other book in the Old Testament. The term refers to ongoing periodic judgments when God called peoples and nations to account for their attitudes and actions which opposed His, as well as the time of future judgment when Christ returns. Zephaniah 1:15–16 summarizes this time of reckoning with these words: wrath, distress, anguish, trouble, ruin, darkness, gloom, clouds, blackness, a day of trumpet, and battle cry.
Arthur Jackson
Zephaniah 3:1-8
King James Version
3 Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city!
2 She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in the Lord; she drew not near to her God.
3 Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow.
4 Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.
5 The just Lord is in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity: every morning doth he bring his judgment to light, he faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame.
6 I have cut off the nations: their towers are desolate; I made their streets waste, that none passeth by: their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant.
7 I said, Surely thou wilt fear me, thou wilt receive instruction; so their dwelling should not be cut off, howsoever I punished them: but they rose early, and corrupted all their doings.
8 Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.
Click here for the Audio Message
They were still eager to act corruptly in all they did.
Zephaniah 3:7
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Zephaniah 3:1–8
My friend’s eyes revealed what I was feeling—fear! We two teens had behaved poorly and were now cowering before the camp director. The man, who knew our dads well, shared lovingly but pointedly that our fathers would be greatly disappointed. We wanted to crawl under the table—feeling the weight of personal responsibility for our offence.
God gave Zephaniah a message for the people of Judah that contained potent words about personal responsibility for sin (Zephaniah 1:1, 6–7). After describing the judgements He would bring against Judah’s foes (ch. 2), He turned His eyes on His guilty, squirming people (ch. 3). “What sorrow awaits rebellious, polluted Jerusalem,” God proclaimed (3:1 NLT). “They [are] still eager to act corruptly” (v. 7).
He’d seen the cold hearts of His people—their spiritual apathy, social injustice and ugly greed—and He was bringing loving discipline. And it didn’t matter if the individuals were “leaders”, “judges” or “prophets” (vv. 3–4 NLT)—everyone was guilty before Him.
The apostle Paul wrote the following to believers in Jesus who persisted in sin, “You are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. . . . [God] will judge everyone according to what they have done” (Romans 2:5–6 NLT). So, in Jesus’ power, let’s live in a way that honours our holy, loving Father and leads to no remorse.
Reflect & Pray
Why should you take personal responsibility for your sin? How do your wrong choices bring shame to God?
Heavenly Father, please help me pursue good choices for You.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Though the prophet Zephaniah (1:1) is rather obscure, there’s no mystery about the message he was commissioned to deliver—it was one of judgment for God’s people (1:4–2:3; 3:1–7) and the surrounding nations (2:4–15). The phrase the day of the Lord is found here more than in any other book in the Old Testament. The term refers to ongoing periodic judgments when God called peoples and nations to account for their attitudes and actions which opposed His, as well as the time of future judgment when Christ returns. Zephaniah 1:15–16 summarizes this time of reckoning with these words: wrath, distress, anguish, trouble, ruin, darkness, gloom, clouds, blackness, a day of trumpet, and battle cry.
Arthur Jackson
Zephaniah 3:1-8
King James Version
3 Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city!
2 She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in the Lord; she drew not near to her God.
3 Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow.
4 Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.
5 The just Lord is in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity: every morning doth he bring his judgment to light, he faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame.
6 I have cut off the nations: their towers are desolate; I made their streets waste, that none passeth by: their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant.
7 I said, Surely thou wilt fear me, thou wilt receive instruction; so their dwelling should not be cut off, howsoever I punished them: but they rose early, and corrupted all their doings.
8 Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.