The Pulpit Commentary — Zephaniah — Section 45

ral&.mity or trouble of any kind, and does conscience tell yon that this affliction is not undeserved, nay, that it is the natural consequence and the just punishment of your sin~ Then do not on any acoount let this drive you to despair; do not think that thel'e i~ no hope for you; do not give way to mere idle grief or vain !'egret of the past thnt cannot be ~eoalled; belie"': ~d be assured that the suffering has been sent in mercy as well as Judgment, that it 1s a proof that God has not yet pronounced ~ainst you that most a"·ful of all sentences, "Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone '(Hos. iv. 17); and instead of hardening your heart in disobedience, or wringing your hands in despair, let God's judgments move you to "seek the Lord while he may be found ::md to call upon him while be is near." ' II. But the prophet not only sets forth the strong motives which the impending judgment affords to seek the Lord; he also INDICATES THE WAY IN WHICH THIS IS TO BE no:tni:. More especially there are two parts of this. duty that ho emphasizes the one religious and the other moral, both of which must be combined. 1. 'l'he mor~ directly religious duty is humiliation and prayer to God (vers. 1-3a), The somewhat obscure language of ver. 1, in the exact rendering of which scholars differ, seems to indicate in. the way of general humiliation before God, either a public gathering for a day of t'astina such as that described by Joel (ii. 15-17), or more directly the teeling of shame and humiliation arising in the hearts of those who had before been strangers to it. Then the very expression, "Seek the Lord" (ver. 3), describes religious exercises of prayer. and worship. If the judgment threatened against Israel, or any Divine judgrnent, is to have its right and designed effect, there must be a recognition of a personal God and of our personal relation to him. "Seek righteousness, seek meekness." There is something more ir:iplied here than merely" a power not ourselves that makes for righteousness." Could we be called to seek such a power in any other way than by seeking 'righteous- ness? Yet seeking the Lord is here spoken of as something distinct, 'though not to he separated, from seeking righteousness; and the anger of the Lord, so repeatedly and emphatically mentioned in vers. 2 and 3, is not to be explained away as a mern figure for the infliction of punishment. The "power that makes for Jighteou~ness" is a Person in whose favour lies our only true happiness. Were it· ri9t: 1;0, the evils that follow on sin would be no call to humiliation or to shame, for they. would be the result of a mere law or tendency. But since we have to do· with a Jiving Person, who not only punishes but is grieved and displeased at our sins, ,we have reason not only to fear but to be humbled and ashamed before· hirn. Such feelings are essential to true repentance ; they find expression in that confession. of .sin which everywhere in Scripture is made a requisite for its ,forgivel?ess. .A truo con- fession implies grief and sharne for sin, and an acknowledgment of it, and expression of these feelings to God; and without this, even though the judgments that follow on sin could be removed, God's displeasure and wrath would not be turned away-there would be no reconciliation, and the offender would be no nearer to God than before. But where there is this humiliation before God as the living God with whom we are in a personal relation, then there can be also prayer to him, and this also is implied in the call to seek the Lord. We are not only to tum to him for refuge, as a Power that will save us; we are to speak to him as a Person, and ask him first and chiefly to forgive us for our past sins, and then, if it is hls will, to save us from the judgments th~t they deserve. Such is the religious duty to which the prophet here calls Israel, and this movement of heart-religion must ever enter into the exercises of soul to which we are impelled by God's judgments if these are to have a salutary effect. 2. But this religious exercise must never be se'parated from the moral duty here enjoined along with it. Humilia- tion, confession, and prayer can never be sincere if the)'. r_emain alone, or if the sense of sin prompts to nothing more than these; for the rehg1ous element of repentance,. however important it is, cannot be made to supersede the moral. There must be a grief for sin, not only because it has offended God pereonal!y, but because of its in~rinsic e~il; for the offence that it gives to God does not l\prmg from any mere arbitrary corn mand on his part, but from his own essential nature as the perfectly and unchange- ably Holy Oue. Therefore that is no real approach to him that does not imply a hatred of and turning from sin and a seeking after righteousness. Hence the command, "Seek the Lord," is closely connected with" Seek_righteousness, seek meekness; "_only in this way can the God of Israel, who is essentially holy, be really sought. Righteousness OlI, II, 1-16.] THE BOOK OF ZEPHANIAH. 43