Thoughts on Zephaniah 1-2

Today’s reading: Zephaniah 1-2; Hebrews 9

Reading Zephaniah this morning puts me in mind of the Christians who talk about America as “God’s country,” and act as though the nation can do no wrong as a result.

I’m honestly not sure how prevalent this view is among serious theologians, but it’s definitely a popular view among various groups. I would tend to put it into the bucket of unexamined but accepted beliefs. These are the kinds of things you hear from a pastor, teacher, parent, etc. throughout your life and just accept as true without ever really stopping to consider them. On the one hand, I think this is true of all Christianity for far too many Christians, who accept it because they were raised in it and told it’s true, and not because they have actually considered it and found it worth believing. But on the other hand, for this belief in particular, it is incredibly common to hear that the nation was founded by Puritans seeking religious freedom and that the founding fathers were all Christians and established the US as a Christian nation, with the result that America is a nation uniquely blessed by God. It doesn’t matter that the Puritans were only one of the groups settling the colonies, or that the founding fathers were not all Christians, but also atheists and deists, because these things have just been accepted as established fact.

But the reason that Zephaniah got me thinking about this this morning is what God says of the nation that He Himself established, called His own, and promised to protect and flourish. Despite Israel being God’s people, and Jerusalem being the city of His temple, where He chose for His presence to dwell among His people, Israel and Jerusalem will fall, just like the other nations that oppose God. Having been established and protected by God Himself doesn’t exempt them from judgement when they turn from Him to other gods, or when they turn to violence and injustice. The people wanted to ignore the words of Zephaniah and the other prophets because they were God’s people, so how could He ever let them fall? Clearly the prophets were wrong! But they weren’t wrong. Israel was God’s nation, but only the faithful remnant of Israel would actually be preserved from God’s ultimate judgement.

And if this was true of the nation God explicitly established, how much more so of America? Even if this was a “Christian nation” at one point, which I personally consider a dubious claim at best, that doesn’t mean God will protect, preserve, or use it indefinitely. The more we turn from God, and the more corruption and injustice rule the day, the less we should assume anything about having God’s hand on us. More than that, we definitely cannot afford to turn a blind eye to that corruption and injustice in the name of this being “God’s country,” because if we are to learn anything from Israel, God expects His people to represent Him well.

Our hope is not in a Christian national identity, but in our identity in Christ. We, like the faithful remnant Zephaniah talks about, aren’t going to be saved by association with a country or people, but through faith. That should be our hope and focus, pointing people to the grace and forgiveness found in the cross, rather than thinking our hope will be found in nations.