Zephaniah 3:17

So I’m reading through Zephaniah, and get to that famous verse, 3:17. Here it is from the NIV:

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.

I, like so many, have loved this verse and the idea of God “quieting us” with his love. But have you noticed that not all the versions translate it that way?  For example, the NASB renders the line “He will be quiet in his love.” Ok, that’s a bit different. Which is it? The NKJV gives us a clue:  “He will quiet you with His love.”

The convention of the KJV and NKJV has always been the translate the main and plain things in regular font and to italicize the words that the translators have inserted to flesh out the meaning in English (a convention I appreciate). So the NKJ is showing here that the verb is the “quiet” and the “you” is what has been inserted.  So some translators have chosen to make the object “you” i.e. the people, the reader; some have rendered it a state of being, i.e. Yahweh is being quiet. Why?

Here’s what I just learned. The Hebrew text of 3:17 seems to read “He will be silent in His love.” It is the Greek and Syriac translations (always cross-referenced by modern translators) that read “He will renew you with his love.” Without getting into the nuances and philosophies of Bible translation, let this suffice: in their own ways, I think both versions are right. But…

If I had to (and I don’t) I would likely vote for the Hebrew reading because it seems to fit better in the context of Zephaniah, i.e. the day of the LORD has brought judgement for the sins of the people; now He is rejoicing and not speaking judgement any more, he is restoring.  Having said that, the notion of God quieting (comforting, renewing, refreshing) the people with his love post-judgment, and as part of the restoration, could make sense as well. My caution, however, is that our modern/post-modern eyes may prefer the warmer, fuzzier reading of quiet and comfort because of our emotional and psychological sensibilities, but the picture of Yahweh “being silent” after speaking many judgements seems to fit better (IMHO) with the vibe of the Old Testament and the Prophets in general, and Zephaniah in particular.

One more thought: Yahweh is pictured as “rejoicing over” the people using two different words for joy in 3:17, one which connotes “spinning about wildly” while singing. In the flow and tone of the text, i.e. rejoicing, dancing, singing, it would seem odd to suddenly insert an image of Yahweh “quietly comforting” his people with his love. There’s nothing “quiet” about this text, certainly from verse 14 on! It does seem consistent, however, to picture Yahweh rejoicing and being silent about the people’s past sins, His judgements now replaced with singing! Here’s how 3:17 in the Amplified Bible reads:

The Lord your God is in the midst of you, a Mighty One, a Savior [Who saves]! He will rejoice over you with joy; He will rest [in silent satisfaction] and in His love He will be silent and make no mention [of past sins, or even recall them]; He will exult over you with singing.

Whichever reading you may prefer, it is good to know that our comfort in God’s love is in fact that he is now silent on our sins. Those sins have ultimately been handled and washed away in the Messiah Jesus.  I leave you with this from the Psalms:

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him (Psalm 103:8-13).

Amen!

Prayer for the Week: July 5th

O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to your with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

-BCP

Habakkuk and Other Conversations with God

So I’ve been working my way through the Minor Prophets recently. (As an aside, it’s really unfortunate that someone named them “minor” just because they’re short. They’re really not minor at all.) You know: Obadiah, Micah, Jonah, Habakkuk, etc. All those that get relegated to the biblical “backburner”– with Leviticus of course– because they are deemed too strange, negative, or otherwise irrelevant for mainstream usage… except for the occasional couple of verses that we can pull out of context to put on Christian greeting cards or use in sermons to illustrate some other point.  But that’s another topic.

The Minor Prophets (and the Majors, of course) are actually really amazing to study, and when read alongside the straight historical books in the Canon (like Chronicles and Kings), you start getting this incredible picture of the totality of what God was doing in those years. You see that several prophets were saying the same kinds of thinigs at around the same time, and in different areas. It makes sense of “Surely God does nothing without first revealing it to His servants the prohpets” (Amos 3:5). God was speaking like cray to the people… and they largely just ignored it.

Rats.

Enter Habakkuk. This book is unique in that there is no straight up “oracle” to the people anywhere. There’s no part of the book that says “Hey Israel, here’s the deal…”  The whole book is basically like pages from Habakkuk’s journal: his conversations with God.  It is the whole conversation that forms the word from God (i.e. the book) to the people.

The basic outline goes something like this:

Part 1: Habakkuk says, “Hey Lord, what’s the deal with this?”

Part 2: God says, “Well it’s like this.”

Part 3: Habakkuk says, “Ok, got it, but that makes no sense.”

Part 4: God says, “Yep, it’s like that and here’s some more detail.”

Part 5: Habakkuk writes a worship song to praise God for who He is and what He’s done.

While there’s much that could be said about the in’s and out’s of the book, how about just this: Habakkuk had a conversation with God. Yep. He asked some hard questions… and God answered. So, he asked more hard questions… and God answered again!  In the end, Habakkuk didn’t have “all the answers,” and he didn’t understand all of qhat God was doing in his time, but he had heard enough to worship. Hmmm… Authentic conversations with God lead to worship. In spite of struggle. In spite of injustice. In spite of unresolved questions.

Worship.

What about us? Are we conversing with God? Are we being authentic?

Prayer for the Week (June 28th)

Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

-BCP

Ascension, Pentecost, and Social Media

I started pondering… listening… a few days ago… about the idea of a “social media fast” starting today and going through Pentecost Sunday.  I spent a couple days praying about it, and felt like last night the Lord was really drawing me in and confirming the idea.

Social media is WONDERFUL and I use it all the time! Just going to lay it down for a while to listen to and focus on the Voice of God.

Why today? Why Ascension through Pentecost? [I'm glad you asked...]

We have been remembering and focusing on the amazing 40 days that the Risen Jesus hung around on the earth in His resurrected body. [Ok-- WOW. That one still gets me...] But on this day, Ascension, we remember that the Risen Jesus told his followers to wait for power and then rose into heaven (cf. Luke 24:49; Acts 1:5-8).

Those first followers then spent 10 days waiting, listening, praying… it was a transition period from the Presence of Jesus… to the Presence of the Spirit. Yep, another Comforter (John 14-16).

So what’s going to happen with me? I don’t know, but you never do when you fast. But practically speaking? You won’t see me on Twitter, Facebook, or blogs until May 31st. I love you all and wish you a wonderful 10 days!  Shalom!