PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Zephaniah 1-2
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“Those who swear by the Lord and who also swear by Molek.” (Zephaniah 1:5)
Molek is the a name associated with child sacrifice (2 Kings 23:10).
In 2 Kings 23:10 the valley of Hinnon is mentioned, where ‘gehenna’ comes from.
‘Gehenna’ is the word Jesus used, which is now translated as hell.
God is angry because the leaders are turning the land into ‘hell’.
Those in power (political and religious) are sacrificing the people under them.
According to Zephaniah, God is preparing to sacrifice the people-sacrificers (1:7).
Jesus comes as the kind of leader God wants, one that sacrifices himself.
As Jesus followers, we should not be sacrificing people in the name of the Lord.
Has Christianity become a hybrid of worshipping God by sacrificing people?
Do we use fear, control, judgment and excommunication to crush the people?
Is God presented as a Molek, an angry God demanding sacrifice to be appeased?
The Lord wants us to offer ourselves for the sake of justice and humility (2:3).
The Lord wants us to carry the cross for others, not to hang others on the cross!
This is the calling of leaders, to give themselves for those under their care.
PRAYER
Lord, forgive us as leaders when we sacrifice the people in your name, instead of offerings ourselves for them in your name! May we make our communities more like heaven than gehenna!
On what do I place my security? Nothing on earth is secure! There is a day of reckoning – the prophets foretold it and warned the people – both Israel/Judah and the nations around them. I too will be reckoned with and my security cannot be in myself, my reputation etc. or what good I may have been able to do – all personal assets do not measure up to the stain of sin. No my righteous comes from beyond myself and this worlds assets that may have been entrusted to my care! Lord Jesus, I look to you for my salvation- I will shelter under your ‘wings’ when the day of wrath/cleansing comes!
There will be a day of reckoning. But did Jesus not die on the cross for our salvation?
For me, the day of reckoning is when everyone stands before Jesus, and at that moment it will become clear those who trust in their own rightness, and those who know their weakness and need for mercy. It will be like the first time when Jesus came; the humbled will fall on their knees and the arrogant will close their hearts even when they see Jesus in all his loving glory. As I see it, no one who wants mercy will be turned away on the day of reckoning, only those who refuse it to the very end. Jesus died for everyone (“Father, forgive them…”) but not everyone accepts his loving mercy. If you want his mercy, I can assure you that you have it! He loves you!
Te people were called to repent. It is the Lord God Who is able to save His people but His people need to seek Him and do what He commands – to act justly and live according to His Word and not their own desires. Only the Lord is able to save and take care of those who live for Jesus. Serve Him always.
Be not dismayed whate’er betide,
God will take care of you;
Beneath his wings of love abide,
God will take care of you.
Refrain:
God will take care of you,
Through ev’ry day,
O’er all the way;
He will take care of you,
God will take care of you.