We give ourselves too much credit sometimes. We might get the idea that we can run the world just fine without God. Some might make faithful expression in public schools punishable. Some push for ways to govern that intentionally elevate man by rejecting the ways of God. Well, I’ve been to Russia. The effects of trying to kick God out of the country are still palpable, but in some ways the clouds are parting there.
In Zephaniah’s day in the early 7th century B.C., some in and around Jerusalem may have wondered whether or not God was there at all. Maybe He had given up on them and left, or maybe the leadership up to that time had been successful in kicking God out. God spoke through Zephaniah and made a very comforting admission: He wasn’t going anywhere.
In Zephaniah 3:1-5 God described the failed and immoral leadership of Jerusalem as roaring lions, evening wolves, treacherous, profane, and violent. But right after saying that, God said this:
“The Lord within her is righteous; he does no injustice; every morning he shows forth his justice; each dawn he does not fail; but the unjust knows no shame.”
Even within conditions like Zephainah described, those who sought God would find Him ready and willing to bless them. We are foolish when we think we can kick God out or that there is a place God will not go to seek and save the lost through Christ His Son. Anyone involved in prison ministry can tell you story after story of the radical redemption of the hardest of men in the prison system. I have personally seen the powerful faith and redemption God is bringing to Northern Uganda after their brutal civil war. And there in Moscow on a subway train in Russia I saw it again. I was sitting with some of the people on our ministry team when we noticed a little girl of about 5 or 6 sitting on her grandmother’s lap behind us and very interested in these strange Americans. None of us knew how to speak Russian other than a handful of phrases that we had been taught or had gathered there. But we had been taught a short praise song in Russian that said, “King of Kings and Lord of Lords, glory hallelujah.”
In quiet voices there on a subway train in Russia we all sang this short song over and over to the little girl smiling at us with her fingers in her mouth. About the third time we sang it, she began to sing it with us in her own quiet little voice. The most amazing thing was her grandmother, looking down at the little girl with a pleasing smile and peaceful eyes. How could she ever have dreamed that one day Americans would be on a subway in formerly Communist Russia singing a song about the Jesus she knew and called Savior even during the dark days of Stalin? What a turn of events this must have seemed to her! I will never forget their faces. The Lord was still within Russia, even after all that those brutal regimes had done to stomp out religion, the “opiate of the masses.” Those who sought the righteous and just God through faith in Christ found Him there. He does not abandon us no matter the conditions that prevail at the time.
As crazy as it sounds given the way we can behave, He stays because He loves us. His judgment comes to break down all of the architecture of boasting and pride that clutters our lives and lands and keeps us from the redemption and restoration we long for. Let’s do these things together—humble ourselves and seek the Lord; seek righteousness; seek humility (Zephaniah 2:3). What does seeking the Lord imply? It means to pursue Him in humility. It means to cast all your hopes, cares, and troubles on Jesus instead of what this fleeting world may offer. It means to persist in seeking Him even when times are tough. It means to trust God with all you’ve got. He won’t fail. Christ is victorious over all things including death and Hell, so seek Him who is able to keep you close in both the best and worst of times.
by Parker Bradley, author of The Twelve: A Transformational Journey Through The Minor Prophets
