In addition to the judgment on the nations, Zephaniah says
that there will also be judgment on Israel.
He sees that the priests and leaders of the nation are not godly in
their conduct and leadership. The nation
will not hear His voice of correction, and has not learned from His judgments
against the nations. In other words,
there is no fear of the Lord within her, no knowledge of Him. He is, however, in the midst of her, and each
day offers justice but they refuse to listen and accept the truth. For this reason, judgment will also fall on
the nation but in the end there will be a remnant and that remnant will include
those from the nations who will also worship in truth. The proud and haughty will be replaced by the
humble and lowly, those who fear the Lord and bow their heads and knees to His
majesty in love.
It is easy to identify with the complaint of those who have
worked all day and yet are paid the same wages as those who worked only an hour
isn’t it? I would have expected more as
well, initially because I saw the generosity of the owner but then, after I
received the same wages, because I thought I had earned more than those who had
worked only a short while. The original
workers agreed to work for the wages given but now, that level of pay seemed
unfair. The money hadn’t diminished in
actual value, only relative value had changed.
What had been worth the effort now seems less than enough. The rewards of the kingdom of God are given
equally would seem to be the point Jesus is making here, whether you come in
early in life or at the very end of your life.
We also need to remember that it was He who earned it on our
behalf. From the beginning of our
salvation to the end, it is all down to grace and mercy, the generosity of God
that we have any work to do for the kingdom.
Peter’s admonition is to keep our conduct honorable among
non-believers “so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see
your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” His expectation is that these others will
indeed speak against God’s people. He doesn’t
have the illusion that people will think highly of Christians nor is it his
goal to be spoken well of by them. He does,
however, believe that it is important that the witness of our lives be
honorable. His example in all this is,
obviously, Jesus, whose life could not be criticized, He was perfectly righteous
and, when men spoke against Him, beat Him and, ultimately, crucified Him, He
made no defense. You cannot defend
yourself against unrighteousness, all you can do is live to please the real
judge of all men. Peter surely
remembered Jesus’ teaching, “Blessed are you when others revile you and
persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice
and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the
prophets who were before you.” We are
living in an unrighteous world, let us, with our lives, testify that He is righteous
in all His ways by doing what I bid us to in the confession, true and earnest
repentance of sins, love and charity towards our neighbors, and the intention
of leading a new life, following the commandments of God, and walking from
henceforth in his holy ways.
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