Zephaniah 3:7-8

DISCOURSE: 1229
WHAT RECOMPENCE WE MAY EXPECT FOR OUR NEGLECT OF GOD

Zephaniah 3:7. I said, Surely thou wilt fear me, thou wilt receive instruction; so their dwelling should not be cut off, howsoever I punished them: but they rose early, and corrupted all their doings. Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey.

IN great national calamities we are apt, for the most part, to overlook the hand of God, and to trace events only to second causes, or to ascribe them to mere chance. But whatever there be either of “good or evil in the city,” God must be acknowledged as “the doer of it.” Moreover, in whatever he does, he has some fixed design: and to answer that design should be the labour of all his creatures. Now the general design of his judgments is, to awaken the inhabitants of the earth from their torpor, and to teach them righteousness: and if smaller judgments produce not this effect upon us, we may expect heavier to ensue. One very important object to be attained by cutting off the nations around Judζa, and by sending the ten tribes into captivity in Assyria, was to reform his more peculiar people, the tribes of Benjamin and Judah. And as his people were far from improving his judgments for that end, he declared that he would visit them in a way suited to display the enormity of their guilt, and the riches of that grace which they had so abused.

In order to accommodate this subject to the present occasion, we shall consider,

I. What God has been expecting from us—

Dreadful have been the judgments which God has inflicted on the surrounding nations—
[To whatever part of Europe we direct our attention, we shall see that the different nations have, during the last twenty years, been visited with calamities of a most afflictive kind: but more particularly, the recent devastation of Russia, the destruction of its ancient capital by fire, and the total annihilation of the French army in the space of a few weeks, are events that demand particular notice at this time [Note: In October, 1813.]. Indeed, with the exception of our highly-favoured land, there is scarcely a country to which, at some period of this war, we may not in a measure apply the words preceding our text; “I have cut off the nations: their towers are desolate; I made their streets waste, that none passeth by: their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant.”]

And has not God been speaking to us by these great events?
[Yes, surely: he has sought to reclaim us from our evil ways: he has “said with himself, Surely thou wilt fear me; thou wilt receive instruction; so that thy dwelling shall not be cut off, howsoever I punish thee.” Of us this improvement of his judgments might well be expected, not only on account of the peculiar protection which has been afforded us, but on account of the transcendant advantages which we enjoy in the knowledge of God’s word, and the ministration of his Gospel [Note: Here shew particularly wherein that improvement should have consisted; and our additional obligation to it, arising from our religious privileges: ver. 5.] — — — And now, I ask, was not this expectation reasonable? and is not that complaint which God made against his people of old, in the fullest and strictest sense applicable to us [Note: Isaiah 5:3.]? — — —]

Alas! We have reason to blush and be confounded, when we reflect,

II.

How we have disappointed his expectations—

Hear the accusation of God against us; “They rose early, and corrupted all their doings”—
[There is no sin, in the commission of which we are not as eager as ever. It should almost seem that “the goodness, and long-suffering, and forbearance of God, which should have led us to repentance,” have produced rather the contrary effect, of lulling us to sleep in our sins. The accusation is more fully stated in a preceding verse [Note: ver. 2]: let us consider it more minutely: let us make use of it as a light by which to search and try our ways — — — exceeding heinous?]

And is not the accusation applicable to all ranks and orders amongst us, even as it was against the Jews of old?
[We do not in general wish to speak of others: but in a view of national iniquities we are constrained to do so, especially where the prophets lead the way. Behold then what the prophet speaks respecting the princes, the judges, the prophets, and the priests of his day [Note: ver. 3, 4.]: we will not say that precisely the same iniquities prevail amongst those different orders in our land; but we appeal to you, whether any material change has taken place amongst the higher ranks; or whether those, whose duty it is to instruct and reform the world, have increased in activity and zeal, by any means to the extent that the occasion has called for? Alas! if we consult the records of the New Testament, and see what the Apostles preached, and how they lived, and then compare it with the lives and ministrations of the sacred order amongst us, we shall see cause to wonder that God has not already removed his candlestick from us, and left us in utter darkness — — —

And well may the misconduct of these orders be more distinctly noticed, since on them depends, in so great a degree, the state of all the other classes of society. If all ministers would preach the Gospel with fidelity, and exemplify its holy precepts in their lives; and if our princes and nobility would take the lead in the great work of reformation; an immense change would soon be wrought in every quarter of the land: but if, for want of their exertions, the whole land continue in its iniquities, let them not wonder that their criminality is exposed, and that the judgments reserved for them are proportioned to the guilt which they contract.]
The disappointment of God’s expectations from us leads us naturally to consider,

III.

What we may expect from him—

On this part of our subject we shall be led to extremely different views, according to the interpretation which we put on the concluding words of our text. Some understand the words thus: “Ye have disappointed all my reasonable expectations; therefore expect from me the most tremendous judgments.” Others justly observe, that the word “therefore” may properly be translated “nevertheless [Note: That is evidently the true sense of the word in Micah 5:2.];” and that the sense is, ‘ye have disappointed all my reasonable expectations; nevertheless that shall not induce me to alter my gracious purposes towards Jews and Gentiles, whom I will unite under one head, and sanctify as my peculiar people.’ In confirmation of this latter sense, we must say, that this is the very way in which God often introduces his most glorious promises [Note: Isaiah 43:22; Isaiah 57:16 and Habakkuk 2:12.]; and that the two verses following our text seem to require it. But as we cannot certainly determine which of the senses is the right, we include both; and shew what we may expect from God,

1. In a way of judgment—

[Often does God denounce especial vengeance against those who have abused his mercies [Note: Isaiah 5:5; Jeremiah 5:5.]: and well indeed may we expect to have it executed upon us: well may we be constrained to drink the dregs of that cup which has been put into the hands of the surrounding nations. And how fearful will be our state, if “God pour upon us his indignation, even all his fierce anger!” Let us not indulge in presumptuous security. Who that had been told a few years ago that either the ancient capital of the Russian empire, or that of the British empire, would before this be certainly destroyed by fire, would have imagined on which the lot should fall? O let us tremble for ourselves, and labour to fulfil the gracious designs of God, before his wrath come upon us to the uttermost — — —]

2. In a way of mercy—

[The Jews have an idea that the Messiah’s advent was deferred on account of the wickedness of their nation: but it was not deferred; nor shall any thing prevent the final execution of God’s promises, in the restoration of the Jews, and the bringing in the fulness of the Gentiles [Note: ver. 9, 10.] — — — No: we look for those events with full assurance that they shall be accomplished in due season. It is probable, indeed, that great calamities will precede those events [Note: Luke 21:25.]; and there is great reason to hope, that the calamities of the present day are preparing the way for them. May God hasten forward that glorious period! and then, grievous as have been the distresses of the world for so many years, we shall not think we have sustained one too much, if it has been accessary in any measure to the promotion of so blessed an end.]

Application—

[Let us now drop all idea of national concerns, and come to those which are purely personal. Let us call to mind our personal transgressions, and reflect upon the personal judgments or mercies that await us — — — And may God reap the fruit of all his kindness; and Christ “see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied!”]