Zephaniah 3:4-20

For Reading and Meditation:     Matthew 5:21-26

"God';s wrath," said George MacDonald, "is always judicial. It is always the wrath of the Judge administering justice. Cruelty is always immoral but true justice - never." Those who experience the fullness of God's wrath get precisely what they deserve. That may sound hard, but it is...

WHOM? The lost, the wretched, the unworthy. Every applicant; for "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." "Him that cometh to Me I will in NOWISE cast out." HOW? Freely, without money and without price; fully, by His blood, power, and providence; eternally, all who flee to Him for refuge, all who build on Him for pardon, peace, and life, shall be saved with an everlasting salvation, they shall not be ashamed nor confounded, world without end. WHY? Because it is His...

MAN'S love is changeable, being a passion; God's love is unchangeable, being a perfection. Having loved, He always will love. Nothing can occur in time, but what He knew from eternity; consequently there can be no reason today, why God should not love me, but what He knew would be before He set His heart upon me. He fixed His love upon us in the fore-view of all that would be done by us, or felt within us; and connected us with Jesus, that He might never withdraw His love from us. Oh, to be...

"I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the Name of the LORD." Zephaniah 3:12

When true religion is ready to die out among the wealthy it finds a home among the poor of this world, rich in faith. The LORD has even now His faithful remnant. Am I one of them?

Perhaps it is because men are afflicted and poor that they learn to trust in the name of the LORD. He that hath no...

"They shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid." Zephaniah 3:13

Yesterday we thought of the afflicted and poor people whom the LORD left to be a living seed in a dead world. The prophet says of such that they shall not work iniquity nor speak lies. So that while they had neither rank nor riches to guard them, they were also quite unable to use those weapons in which the wicked place so much reliance: they could...

"I will save her that halteth." Zephaniah 3:19

There are plenty of these lame ones, both male and female. You may meet "her that halteth" twenty times in an hour. They are in the right road and exceedingly anxious to run in it with diligence, but they are lame and make a sorry walk of it. On the heavenly road there are many cripples. It may be that they say in their hearts — What will become of us? Sin will overtake us; Satan will...

"He hath cast out thine enemy." Zephaniah 3:15

What a casting out was that! Satan has lost his throne in our nature even as he lost his seat in heaven. Our LORD Jesus has destroyed the enemy's reigning power over us. He may worry us, but he cannot claim us as his own. His bonds are no longer upon our spirits: the Son has made us free, and we are free indeed.

Still is the archenemy the accuser of the brethren; but even from...

"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." Zephaniah 3:17

What a Word is this! Jehovah God in the center of His people in all the majesty of His power! This presence alone suffices to inspire us with peace and hope. Treasures of boundless might are stored in our Jehovah, and He dwells in His church; therefore...

Most pitiable was the condition of the Israelites in Egypt. Pharaoh seemed to delight in eliciting the most incredible proofs of their subjection to his rod. There is ordinarily a limit beyond which masters dare not go in trifling with the lives and feelings of even the most abject slaves; but there seemed to be no limit to Pharaoh's power to oppress. The sacred sentiment of paternity he trampled on; and seemed to feel that the Israelites were the very impersonation of helplessness. But soon...

The Lord your God … went in the way before you to search out a place for you to pitch your tents, to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day. § As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings, so the Lord alone led him. § The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His...