A Promise for Dark Times

ZEPH. iii. 12.

IT would appear that the prophet Zephaniah exercised his office in the days of Josiah, the godly king of Judah, who was an eminent reformer in his time. From the contents of Zephaniah’s prophecy we may come to the conclusion that he was a zealous supporter of Josiah in his reforming work. As the messenger of the Lord of hosts, Zephaniah gives expression to the Lord’s purpose to cut off the idolaters who were polluting the house of God—”the remnant of Baal, and them that worship the host of heaven”—and to punish others who, by their “violence and deceit,” were a disgrace and dishonour to the community. In his second chapter he predicts the judgments of God upon the heathen outside—the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, and Ethiopians—but in the third and last chapter he returns to speak of Jerusalem in terms of severe condemnation as a filthy, polluted, and oppressing city, and to pronounce a woe upon her. In the mercy of the Most High, however, it is not all woe. The Lord intimates, through the prophet, a better day yet to come, when, after He has poured His indignation upon the gathered nations and kingdoms, He will “turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord with one consent,” and when He will take away out of the midst of Jerusalem them that rejoice in its pride. The promised time seems plainly the New Dispensation. It is at this point in the prophet’s utterance that the words of our present theme come in, and they may be justly regarded as embodying a promise to Jerusalem, taken in the sense of the visible Church—a promise that has reference to both dispensations: “I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord.” The Lord promises to leave a certain people in the midst of the visible, professing Church in all generations. There are

three things, then, to which we desire, briefly, to direct attention: first, God’s true children described as “an afflicted and poor people”; secondly, their special exercise mentioned: “they shall trust in the name of the Lord”; and thirdly, the promise to leave them in the midst of Jerusalem.

1. Let us notice God’s true children described as “an afflicted and poor people.” The description cannot apply, in the connection in which it comes in, to any others than the children of God. They alone are a spiritual blessing to the community, and they alone truly trust in the name of the Lord. The words “poor” and “afflicted” are therefore to be understood principally, if not exclusively, in relation not to common or worldly matters, but to spiritual conditions.

(1) They are a “poor people.” In what respects are they such? Many of them have, no doubt, been poor as to this world’s goods, but what essentially distinguishes them is an inward poverty of spirit, which is mentioned by the great Head of the Church in the opening words of the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This poverty of spirit, produced by the Holy Ghost, manifests itself in at least two ways. They are deeply sensible of that spiritual destitution which sin has brought upon them in common with the rest of fallen mankind, and they are also sensibly dependent upon the grace of God in Jesus Christ for every spiritual blessing of which they stand in need. These things cannot be affirmed of merely nominal professors of religion who are “rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing.” Many also there are who have a very high assurance of salvation, but who have no inward sense of the ruin and destitution which sin has made upon the human soul. They are strong and self-sufficient, and are not daily dependents upon God’s bounty in His Son. The religion of such persons, it is to be feared, is a delusion that they would be infinitely better without. The “poor in spirit” are those who are truly “rich toward God,” and are in possession of a right and title to all the blessings of the everlasting covenant; and blessed be His name that He promises to leave some such in the midst of Jerusalem.

(2) They are an “afflicted people.” True it is that God’s people are frequently afflicted with tribulation such as is common to mankind in general, bodily sickness, loss of friends, and such-like, but they have affliction of another kind which the world at large knows nothing of. For example, they pass through affliction in the form of persecution from their fellow-creatures for their loyal adherence to Christ and His Word. “All who live godly in Christ Jesus” will meet with affliction of this sort, in more or less degree, from their fellows, who may be openly ungodly, false professors of religion, or even sincere professors who are less steadfast in their attachment of “the faith.” Then, they are an afflicted people, in the sense that they are afflicted in spirit

with the presence of sin in their own hearts and in the world around them. God’s children are a people who are acquainted with “the plague of their own heart,” and often cry with the Apostle Paul, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” The workings of indwelling sin are a constant affliction till the end of the journey. And they are greatly afflicted in spirit when they observe wickedness abounding in Church and State. At the present time we believe that all God’s true people are grieved with the idolatry, superstition and vain ceremonies, as well as the false doctrines and infidel theories about the Holy Scriptures that are rife in many sections of the visible Church, as they are also much afflicted with the manifest lack of the fear of God and of obedience to His laws in the State and general community. It is further the case that they are afflicted when they see signs of God’s displeasure upon the nation and the world. Many are the judgments that seem to be hanging over us as a country at the present time: the rebellion and bloodshed in Ireland, and the general strife of classes throughout the land. Those whom God has graciously promised to leave are afflicted with everything that is evil in Church and world, and earnestly labour and pray for deliverance. Such are “the salt of the earth and the lights of the world.”

1. Their special exercise mentioned: “they shall trust in the name of the Lord.” The “afflicted and poor people” exercise trust in the Lord’s name in view of all the circumstances in which they are placed. They do not trust in their own name, or in the name of any of their fellow-creatures; they are brought to see that vain is the merit or help of man, and that man can do nothing to deliver himself or others, apart from the graciously extended help of God. The Lord has been pleased to make His name—the expression in Word of His character—known to the children of men as a God who pardons iniquity, and saves, and helps poor sinners for the sake of His Son Jesus Christ. This revelation of His character and purposes is held forth in the Gospel as an object of faith or trust, and it is they who are made spiritually alive who cordially receive this revelation, and trust in the name of the Lord. They endeavour to exercise complete dependence upon the Lord, according to His name, for all that He promises to give, and that they realise to be necessary, and thus their trust and expectation are towards Him in the greatest extremities, personal, ecclesiastical, national, or world-wide. Such an attitude of mind and heart is more valuable than can be estimated, for the Lord Jehovah, in whom is everlasting strength, along with all other temporal and spiritual blessings, has respect to the faith and supplication of His children, and will be true to His gracious promises, commanding great deliverances, reformations and revivals at the “fourth watch of the night,” when all to the eye of sense is dark and frowning. They who trust in Him will not be put to shame. “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee”

(Ps. lvi.). The poor, believing, trusting people in the Lord’s name will secure blessing and deliverance for Church and world.

1. The promise: “I will also leave in the midst of thee.” Except the Lord build the house, the builders build in vain; and except the Lord watch the city, the watchmen watch in vain. In like manner, except the Lord preserve a seed to do Him service in the midst of Jerusalem, no power of man can accomplish the task. He must raise up from time to time those who are “poor in spirit,” and are afflicted on account of the workings of sin and Satan and wicked men, and whose trust is in the name of the Lord. This is the character of the promise in the text, and it is a matter of great encouragement to all who desire the prosperity of the kingdom of Christ. It is a promise that implies the new birth of spiritual children in Zion—God’s own workmanship, by the power of His Word and Spirit—who will be witnesses for Him and His Word from one generation to another, and who will be instrumentally the preservers and deliverers of Jerusalem and all nations from the complete and universal havoc which the arch-enemy, the devil, would desire to effect. May the Lord add to the number of His living and faithful witnesses, and hasten the time when all nations will call upon His name, to serve Him with one consent.

YE sweeping judgments of heaven, what havoc do you often make of nations! O death, what multitudes cuttest thou down every moment! perhaps more than an hundred thousand of our guilty race are often thy daily meal. While I speak, what thousands perish by thy unrelenting hand; and expire in thy bloody jaws! Lord, be Thou their present help in time of need. Awful thought! how many of them launch forth into eternal fire! How terrible to die without thoughts of death, and preparation for it, or to go to hell, after quenching of conviction, and despising of Christ! Let Jesus keep my house, my heart, always in order; for I shall die, and not live. Let Him, by the Gospel, cut thousands from their natural root, and bind them up in the bundle of life with Himself.—John Brown.

CHASTISEMENT is not so much threatened, as promised, to a child of God. It is a double honour to be a Christian sufferer. By affliction God separates the sin which He hates from the soul which He loves. And the more we fear sin, the less we shall fear trouble. Sin is the poison, affliction is the physic. If God humble us, let us humble ourselves. Though His hand be against us, His heart is towards us: His providence crosseth us, but His promise blesseth us. It is good to bear temporal crosses in order that we may wear an eternal crown. Let, therefore, our troubles stir up our graces, as well as our griefs. And let us always remember that our enjoyments are greater than our afflictions, and our afflictions much less than our sins deserve.—John Brown.