The Humble Will Shelter

Evening in Jerusalem. On the flat rooftops, people are lighting little fires of incense and bowing, not to the Lord, but to the stars. And down in the street, a man is about to say: hush.

His name is Zephaniah. The very first verse of his book tells us who he is: the son of Cushi, from a family line that reaches back four generations to a man called Hezekiah. He spoke, the verse says, in the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah. Josiah had come to the throne as a boy of eight, after his father and grandfather had filled the land with idols. Altars to Baal stood in Jerusalem. Priests served foreign gods. People said prayers to the Lord in the morning and swore by a pagan god called Milcom in the afternoon, as if it made no difference. Into that mixed-up city, Zephaniah brings a message he has not invented. It begins, “The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah.”

The message is hard to hear. God says he will stretch out his hand against Judah and Jerusalem. He names what he sees: the leftover worship of Baal, the priests who serve idols, the people on the housetops worshipping the sun, moon and stars, and the people who have simply turned away and stopped asking for the Lord at all. Then Zephaniah calls for silence. “Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God: for the day of the Lord is at hand.” The day of the Lord. Not a day for parties. A day when God himself steps in to set things right, and nobody can hide behind a pile of excuses.

But listen to what comes next. Zephaniah does not only warn. He invites. “Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger.” Meek means gentle and humble, the kind of person who does not push to the front. Zephaniah is saying: there is still time. Turn around. Look for God. Choose what is right. Choose humility. The ones who do will find a place to shelter, like a child hiding under a parent's cloak in a storm.

And then, near the end of the book, the clouds part. God promises a new day after the storm. He will give the peoples pure lips, “that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent.” Shoulder to shoulder, one voice. And in Jerusalem he will leave a people who are humble and lowly, who take refuge in his name. They will not do wrong. They will not tell lies. There will be no deceit in their mouths. “For they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.” Like sheep in a safe field, resting after a hard night. The proud will be gone. The humble will stay.

Those rooftop altars were real. The book of Second Kings describes how King Josiah, in a great clean-up of the land, pulled down the altars that earlier kings had built on the roof of an upper room in the palace. He also removed the priests who burned incense to the sun, the moon and the stars. The prophet Jeremiah, who lived at the same time, also speaks of houses where incense was offered on the rooftops to the host of heaven. Zephaniah was not exaggerating. He was describing his own neighbours.

The humble will shelter. You'll find this in the book of Zephaniah, chapter one, verses one to seven, chapter two, verse three, and chapter three, verses nine to thirteen. A prophet who warned of a hard day, and then held the door open for anyone willing to turn back. So here is a question to carry with you. What does it look like for you to seek the Lord humbly this week?