Friday 19th April
Read Zephaniah 1:10-13
“‘On that day,’
declares the Lord,
‘a cry will go up from the Fish Gate,
wailing from the New Quarter,
and a loud crash from the hills.
11 Wail, you who live in the market district;
all your merchants will be wiped out,
all who trade with silver will be destroyed.
12 At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps
and punish those who are complacent,
who are like wine left on its dregs,
who think, “The Lord will do nothing,
either good or bad.”
13 Their wealth will be plundered,
their houses demolished.
Though they build houses,
they will not live in them;
though they plant vineyards,
they will not drink the wine.’” (NIVUK)
It really is quite hard to feel the impact of these verses 2600 years distant and in a different culture altogether. We feel for those people, back then, and the trouble we know the day of the Lord will bring, and did bring, to them. It is just difficult to grasp what it may mean for us.
Yet, using the same poetic imagination the prophet employed, I suspect we are not so distant from these folk as we think. He describes those who are middle class, going about their lives, building up personal wealth and security in the form of housing or perennial crops and generally existing independent of God and His concerns. If and when they think about God, maybe at a festival or holy day, they give God a non-committal part of their time and consider their duty done. Whatever God is demanding of them in terms of justice for the poor is not really their problem. They are self-made, have worked hard for what they have, and are clearly not bad people compared with everyone else. God will leave them well enough alone in practice. They will just get on with their lives and if God wants to look out for the poor, that is fine – He doesn’t have to worry about them as they have their lives together perfectly fine without Him.
Does that description sound like anyone you know?
