THE FAVOR OF THE LORD

Shout for joy, O daughter of Zion!
Shout in triumph, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem!
The Lord has taken away His judgments against you,
He has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
You will fear disaster no more.
In that day it will be said to Jerusalem:
Do not be afraid, O Zion;
Do not let your hands fall limp.
The Lord your God is in your midst,
A victorious warrior.
He will exult over you with joy,
He will be quiet in His love,
He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy
(Zephaniah 3: 14-17)

So, say that we do all these things to prepare for the coming of the Lord - the repenting, the doing our duty, the being generous, and most of all, just trusting the Lord to be mindful of us and our needs - what do we get out of all that?

(Yeah, we're human. We do expect to "get" something. Mary was remarkable, because she accepted what came to her without question. Most of the rest of us keep needing the reassurance that there is some point in going through the rough stuff. Me included.)

The first thing to notice in these verses is that we are told to rejoice. Right off the top. We aren't told what the benefits of His favor are, we are told to celebrate. And not quietly. We're told to shout it out, to exult in our hearts.

Then we learn what the Lord will do for us: take away His judgments against us, clearing away our enemies. God will be with us, and we will not need to fear disaster.

I don't know about other people, but those are sort of big things to me. Not that I have many enemies that need clearing away - I really hope I don't. But "judgments against me", well, that's a different matter. I have a collection of smallish sins - of not being as diligent as I ought, of holding onto my pride for a long time, resentments and angers - a general mess of things that are not really in line with the life the Lord calls us to live. But here I am told that the Lord has cleared out the judgments against me for those things, His judgements, that is.

Instead, I'm told that the Lord is with me, and that I need fear disaster no more.

Now, to me, not fearing disaster is a rather big thing.

We are living in a tough time. So many people I know are without jobs. These are educated people, intelligent and capable people, people who want to be working at things that use their skills and abilities. These are people just scraping by, and I am one of them. Nothing ahead of me is certain. I've spent months hunting jobs and none have come through - until this last week. So I've been well into the "fearing disaster" territory.

It was hard to hold on to the intention of trusting the Lord to provide for my needs. Certainly, scripture assured me that He would meet my needs, but I couldn't see it. And yet, He did come through. For my immedate concerns. I still don't know what He intends to do about my need for a more regular income. I don't know what He intends to do for my friends who are in such need. All I do know is that He made my current relief possible, and that gives me a lot to rejoice.

But as I look at these verses, I notice one little bit of warning in the middle of all this recommendation to celebrate.

"Do not let your hands fall limp."

What's that?

Part of it is certainly about staying active in celebrating and rejoicing. Throwing those hands up and dancing and waving. But I also think there is something else about it too. I think it is also a nudge that when that turn in circumstances comes to us, and we are freed from anxiety, we are not supposed to sit back and relax. We are not to "rest on our laurels." We are not to let our hands fall limp and unoccupied.

I think we are called to take the energy of our celebrations and get on with the tasks at hand, the work we should be doing, or even giving of our extra to those in need.

But the big thing is that God is with us. He is with us in the midst of our noisy celebration, and also in our quiet moments. He rejoices over us.

For this day, that's a big - and special - deal. And I want to make noise about it.