Zephaniah 3:9-20

Shame removed on the day of the Lord

On Friday evening I was driving with Lungisani to our partnership class at

Darren and Merle’s house in Walmer.

And as we were leaving from Summerstrand the sky above us was clear. And

the sun was just setting so the sky was filled with light. But as we looked ahead

to Walmer the sky was filled with darkness and heavy clouds. And so it was

quite a scene. Brightly lit sky on the one side. Dark clouds on the other.

And that’s a picture of what we find in the book of Zephaniah. On the one

hand you’ve got the dark clouds of God’s judgment. And that’s what you find in

chapters 1 and 2. But beside it you’ve got the bright light of God’s salvation.

And we’ve seen glimmers of it, but it comes into full display in the 2nd half of

chapter 3.

And that’s what the day of the Lord will be. For many it’ll be a day of darkness

and of judgment. But for those who are in Christ, it’ll be a day of the glorious

light of salvation.

And that’s what we’ll be focusing on this morning:

Notice the great turning point in verse 9. It starts with the word, “then”. In

other words, on that same day of the Lord when He pours out judgment on the

nations. Then, He’ll also bring salvation for the peoples. Verse 9- He will purify

the lips of the people so that they call on His Name and so that they serve Him,

shoulder to shoulder.

And just notice the extent of God’s salvation in verse 10.

“From beyond the rivers of Cush my worshipers, my scattered people, will

bring me offerings.”

And as we said last week, Cush was the great kingdom to the south of

Jerusalem. Probably including Ethiopia and Egypt, maybe northern Sudan. It

was the great African kingdom to the South. But according to this verse, the

worshipers of God will come from beyond the rivers of Cush.

And so as South Africans and Southern African countries, we are the fulfilment

of this prediction. And especially those of you who’s ancestors have been living

here for thousands of years. Here’s this prediction, almost 3000 years ago that

from the tribes and the nations and the people groups of Africa, God’s

worshipers will be drawn.

It’s a beautiful picture and its fulfilled, even by us sitting here today.

So that’s what we going to be focusing on this morning. This glorious hope of

salvation.

And the main point I want us to see: that on this day our shame will be

removed and replaced with honour.

But just before we dive in and I show you why I think this is the main theme of

this passage, let me just give you a bit of cultural background.

According to those who study cultural anthropology, there 3 main ways of

categorizing the different cultures we find in the world.

Firstly there’s the guilt culture

Secondly, there’s the fear culture

And thirdly there’s the shame culture.

And the difference between these can be illustrated by the following example.

Imagine its late at night and you on a lonely street and you see a little old lady

coming towards you with a big purse filled with jewels and money. And you

think to yourself: there’s no one else to protect this little old lady and there’s

no ways she’d be able to resist me if I decide to steal her jewels and money.

So here’s the first question: do you rob her? yes or no?

And I hope all of us would answer “no”. but here’s the bigger question. why do

we say, no?

What’s the motivation that stops us from robbing her.

And of course the great Christian virtue is the virtue of love. And that would be

the greatest motivation not to rob her. You consider her well-being and what

would it be like for her to lose all her money. And that’s what stops you from

robbing her.

But even if you removed that motivation of love. There still 3 other motivations

that might stop you from robbing her.

And the first one might be the law. Its against the law to rob this lady. You

don’t wanna be guilty of breaking the law. And that’s the primary motivation

for you if you come from a guilt culture. You don’t wanna be guilty of breaking

the law.

But another motivation might be fear of retribution. Even though no one can

see what you doing, this lady might have connections with other powers,

whether its human powers or even spiritual powers, that might bring

retribution upon you. And that would be your primary motivation if you come

from a fear culture. You afraid of being hurt.

But thirdly, you might not be so concerned about the law. You might not be

afraid of retribution. But there might be another motivation that still stops

you. And that would be your respect for yourself or your concern to be a

person of honour. And to rob this lady would be a shameful act and it would

bring shame not only upon you, but also upon your family. And that’s the main

motivation if you come from a shame culture.

Now obviously for every culture, we can relate to each of these motivations at

least in part. None of us want to feel guilty or afraid or ashamed. But the

question is: which one is the primary motivation?

And this isn’t just interesting cultural information. This is important when it for

the sake of the gospel.

Because I suspect for most of us, the typical gospel presentation we’ve heard is

the one that appeals to a guilt culture.

And basically it goes like this: that we all have to meet God as our judge. And

our sins make us guilty in His sight. And therefore our punishment needs to be

paid. But the wonderful news is that Jesus has paid our punishment. And

therefore justice has been met. And we can become innocent and not-guilty in

God’s sight. I think that’s the normal gospel presentation that we are familiar

with. And its had a massive effect in the Western world which is predominantly

a guilt culture.

But the beautiful thing about the Bible is its rich diversity. And the gospel

speaks to every person in every culture and addresses their deepest needs.

And we miss out on this diversity if we try to squash every passage into our

favourite presentation of the gospel.

We need to listen to the language of each passage and allow it to speak for

itself.

And this morning we come to a passage which presents the gospel in terms of

honour and shame. And it teaches us about how our shame can be removed.

And so if you someone for whom this is the greatest motivation. If your

greatest concern is to be honoured in the community. And if your greatest fear

is to be ashamed. Then this is a passage for you.

And so lets look at our first point this morning. I want you to see that on the

day of the Lord, our shame will be removed.

And you can see that in verse 11, where Zephaniah takes us to the root cause

of the shame in the world. Look at verse 11

“On that day you will no longer be put to shame for all the wrongs you have

done to me.”

You see, this is the root cause of our shame in the world. It’s the wrongs that

we’ve done to God. And that’s not to say that every time we get ashamed or

embarrassed, it’s directly caused by some sin against God.

But if you go back to the beginning of the world in the garden of Eden.

Remember Adam and Eve. They were they both naked and they feel no shame.

And its only after they sin against God. That’s when they realized their

nakedness. That’s when they tried to hide. That’s when they experienced real

shame. 1 And so that’s the root cause of shame in the world. Its our rebellion

1 And so this the root cause of shame in the world. And even if you an atheist, even if you refuse to recognize God. The reality is that all of us have a conscience. And maybe its been hardened through a lifetime of rebellion, but deep down,

there’s a deep shame that’s entered our lives because of our sin.

against God. And here’s the great hope of this passage. That on that day, we

won’t be put to shame for all the wrongs we’ve done against God.

What a great hope that is. Just take a moment to think about the most

shameful deed you’ve ever committed. It doesn’t matter how shameful that

deed was. On that day you won’t be put to shame for that deed.

And this is something that our modern society puts a lot of emphasis: how to

overcome shame. And not to be ashamed for how you’ve lived in the past. If

you just do a google search, you’ll come up with numerous articles offering

solutions to shame.

Listen to this quote from a modern therapist named Christy Bonner

She defines shame as the voice in our heads that questions our own worth …

and the devil on our shoulder that convinces us we don’t measure up.”

And so according to her, here’s the solution to shame: its to build up your

sense of self-worth and to convince yourself that you really do measure up.

And that’s just typical of the modern emphasis, that the solution to shame is to

grow in self-confidence and self-esteem and to learn to take pride in yourself.

But I want you to see that’s exactly the opposite of the Biblical solution we find

in this passage. If you look at verse 11 you’ll see the solution to shame isn’t to

take pride in yourself, but rather to be humble. Look at verse 11 again.

Why will we not be put to shame for all our sins against God? Its not because

weve learnt to take pride in ourselves and to appreciate our beauty and self-

worth.

Rather, its because God will remove from His city, those who rejoice in their

pride.

And notice who’ll be left in the city. Verse 12

But I will leave within you the meek and humble, who trust in the name of the

LORD.

In other words, this is the only type of person who won’t be put to shame. It’s

not the proud person who denies her unworthiness. Rather its the humble

person who acknowledges her rebellion and all her shameful deeds. And so

she trusts, not in her own strength, but only in the Name of the Lord.

And it reminds me of a saying that’s tattood on the arm of my brother-in-law.

And he’s not a Christian. He’s quite opposed to the Christian faith. and this is

one of his favourite sayings It’s a quote from the American journalist, Fulton

Oursler. And it says: many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves. Regret

for the past and fear for the future.

And it’s a clear attack on the Christian message: as if acknowledgment of sins

in the past and anticipation of judgment in the future. that these things will

crucify you and enslaves you to a life of shame.

But according to the Bible, the exact opposite is true. Its only as we

acknowledge our sins committed in the past and its only as we anticipate the

judgment in the future: that’s the only way for us to come humbly to the Lord.

And the great truth of the gospel is that Jesus was cruficied between two

thieves. And He took the shame of our past. And He took the judgment for our

future. And if we trust in Him, then 1 Peter 2 verse 6 is true for us: the one who

trusts in Him will never be put to shame.

And so don’t miss this path to shamelessness. Its not the path of this world,

where pride is rejoiced in and seen as a good thing. Rather, it’s the path of

brokenness and humility, trusting not in your own strength, but only in the

Lord and what He has done.

But now I want us to jump to the end of our passage. Verses 18-20 And here

we see that not only will our shame be removed, but positively we’ll be

honoured among the peoples.

And there a number of ways God’s people suffered shame in the Old

Testament. And the first one’s there in verse 18.

That their appointed feasts became a sorrow to them and it became a burden.

And they even suffered reproach and insult for their appointed feasts. This is

something that became especially true during the exile. When God’s people

were driven out of the promised- land and the temple was destroyed. And no

longer could they celebrate their appointed feasts. And that was a great

source of sorrow and even reproach from their enemies.

And maybe you come from a culture which has been stifled. And maybe your

cultural practices have been stifled and even forbidden. Then you can relate to

this. It’s a shameful experience. But in verse 18 God promises: I will remove

from you these sorrows.

But more than that in verse 19 God will deal with her oppressors. And this is

also something that’s closely linked to shame. If you speak to people who’v

suffered oppression, normally they won’t just talk about the the physical or

material loss they’ve suffered. Even more than that they’ll probably talk about

the shame of being oppressed.

But on that day, God will deal with her oppressors.

And then verse 19, He’ll rescue the lame. And that’s also something that might

bring shame to some people. that they physically disabled.

And then finally He’ll gather those who’ve been scattered. And this became

another source of shame for God’s people. That they were scattered from their

homeland. And if you yourself are a foreigner in a different culture and you

always treated as an outsider. Then you might be able to identify with this kind

of shame.

And so in all these ways God will remove His people’s shame.

But look at the end of verse 19. What will He give them in its place?

verse 19.

“I will give them praise and honour in every land where they were put to

shame. At that time I will gather you ; at that time I will bring you home. I will

give you honour and praise among all the peoples of the earth when I restore

your fortunes before your very eyes.”

And so this is the great ending to the book of Zephaniah. Not only that our

shame will be removed, but that in its place we will receive honour and praise.

And I wonder if that’s how we think of heaven. A day in which we will be

praised. I suspect we probably feel a bit uncomfortable with this. I mean surely

its only God who should receive all honour and praise? And isn’t this

contradicting what we just saw earlier. That we are rebels against God and

unworthy of praise.

Well no, this isn’t contradicting that.

I want you to notice the repeated phrase in these final 3 verses. It’s repeated

seven times. Once in verse 18, twice in verse 19, three times in verse 20. It’s

the phrase, “I will”. You see, over and over again, we being .This is something

that God will do.

And so all the praise we receive on that day will be like the praise to the

masterpiece of an artist.

And just like you can’t praise a piece of art without at the same time praising

the artist. In the same way, we’ll simply be included in the praise that is

ultimately being given to God.

And so this is also something we can look forward to about the day of the Lord;

that we’ll be honoured and praised among the peoples.

But now finally I want us to come to the heart of this passage. Right in the

middle we find the greatest honour that any person can ever receive. Not only

will our shame be removed. Not only will we be honoured among the peoples.

But greatest of all, we’ll discover what it means to be deeply loved by God.

And that’s the climax of verses 14-17. If you look at verse 14 you’ll see we

referred to as the daughter of Zion and the daughter of Jerusalem. And that’s a

reference, not just to Jewish Christians but to anyone who puts their faith in

Christ. As we taught in Galatians 3:29 “if you belong to Christ, then you are

Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” And so this is the hope

for all who trust in Christ. And verse 14 calls us to be glad and to rejoice on

that day

And it gives us a number of reasons to rejoice. Firstly, because our punishment

has been taken away. And this is a clear prediction of the sacrifice of Christ,

that when He died on the cross, He took our punishment away.

But not only that, secondly our enemies will be turned back. In other words,

they’ll be defeated. And it doesn’t matter what enemy you think of: whether

it’s physical like a person or a disease or whether its spiritual like sin or the

devil. None of these enemies will be able to plague us anymore. They’ll be

turned back on that day.

But not only will our punishments be removed and our enemies defeated.

Even greater than that is that the LORD Himself will be with us. And therefore,

we’ll have nothing for us to fear. Look at the middle of verse 15.

“The LORD, the king of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm.

On that day they will say to Jerusalem, “Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your

hands hang limp. The LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save.”

But now in verse 17 we come to the climax of these verses. And I wonder if you

noticed how every cultural longing we referred to earlier has been addressed?

So for the guilt culture – the punishment has been taken away.

For the fear culture – the enemy has been turned back. there’s no reason to

fear.

But now finally, we comes to the climax of these verses and what we find here

is surely the greatest antidote to shame: to have God Himself delighting and

loving and rejoicing over you.

And that’s what we find in the middle of verse 17.

“He will take great delight in you,

You see it might be possible for a judge to remove your punishment, but to do

it coldly without any affection.

It might be possible for a king to dwell within you and to protect you, but to do

it simply as a duty without any affection or delight.

But what we see in these verses is that same will not be true of God. When He

looks at us as His saved people, He won’t do so begrudgingly. He won’t be

indifferent towards us. Rather He will take great delight

More than that, verse 17 also says, “He will quiet us with His love,”

And the word for love here is a striking Hebrew word. When you tell someone

that you love them, it might not mean that you feeling particularly pleased

with them or that you passionately in love with them. It might simply mean

that you committed to them. And it’s a decision of your will as much as a

feeling in your heart.

And normally that’s what the OT’s referring to when it talks about God’s love

for us, it uses the Hebrew word, “hesed” which refers to His covenant

commitment. Its His faithful love based on His promise.

But its very striking here in verse 17, he doesn’t use the normal word, hesed.

He uses a different word which describes a different type of love. Not hesed,

but ahaba, which is the same word that’s used to describe Jacob’s love for

Rachel. Remember that love, that he was willing to work 7 years and then

another 7 years, but we told, it felt like just a few days, because of His

passionate love for Rachel. That’s the word that’s used here to describe God’s

love for us. It’s passionate and its full of affection.

And more than that verse 17 says He will rejoice over us with singing. And that

just blows the mind. Every Sunday we gather to sing and to rejoice in the Lord.

But now we see the other side of the picture. Not only will we be singing about

God. But He will be singing about us. Can you imagine God Himself singing for

joy because He’s so delighted in you. Its mind-blowing.

But someone might object to this language and say: “doesn’t this belittle God

to rejoice over us? I mean He’s the Creator. We just creatures. And isn’t this

topsy turvy? God shouldn’t be rejoicing in us. Surely we should only be

rejoicing in Him.

Listen to this answer from John Piper:

It would be unrighteous (for God to rejoice in us) if His joy had its ultimate

spring in us and not in Himself. But that’s not the case. Rather, when we stand

before Him, … He’s going to see His own handiwork.

Does it belittle Michaelangelo to stand with tears of joy as he looks up to the

roof of the Cistene chapel? Nore does it belittle God when the divine work of

redemption is finished and the redeemed in Jesus Christ stand before Him,…

And God lifts His hands and shouts in joy over the victory that He has achieved

over Satan and sin and the world.”

And this is what we read throughout the bible. When we come to heaven, it

won’t just be us receiving our reward from God. Even more than that It’ll also

be God receiving his reward in us. And He’ll receive us as His bride. And thats

what we read in Isaiah 62:5. “As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will

your God rejoice over you.”

And if you think about it: this is a universal custom in weddings that the

bridegroom doesn’t get to see the bride. All day she gets beautifully dressed

and prepared for that moment when she enters the ceremony. When she

walks down the aisle. And its all designed to take the grooms breath away, to

stun him, to move him to tears when he witnesses his beautiful bride

And that’s how God will feel towards us. He will be delighted in His bride.

Listen to this quote by Charles Spurgeon. Believer, you are happy when God

blesses you, but not as happy as God is. You are glad when you are pardoned,

but He who pardons you is more glad. The prodigal son come back to his home

was very happy to see his father, but not as delighted as his father was to see

him. The father’s heart was more full of joy, because his heart was larger than

his sons.

And this is the truth for us. Because of Christ, we are loved and forgiven and

accepted by God. And God’s love for us is even greater than our love for Him ,

because His heart is larger than ours.

And so surely this is the greatest antidote to shame. Surely most exhilarating

and life-changing experience possible to man.

I mean I remember the day clearly when I found out, that not only did I love

Jenna, but she also loved me. And we had cycled out for lunch. And we still had

to cycle home afterwards. But it didn’t feel like I was cycling. It felt like I was

flying. I was just so happy.

But that doesn’t come close to this experience when we fully discover that we

are loved not just by a significant human being, but by the God of the universe.

That He’s delighted in us. That’ll be more wonderful than any earthly

experience.

And so let me close with these words from verse 11.

“On that day you will not be put to shame for all the wrongs you have done to

me.”

Why? Verse 12 because I will leave within you the meek and humble, who trust

in the name of the Lord.

May that be true of us.

Let’s pray.