“Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil. On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: ‘Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival, so that you will no longer suffer reproach. Behold, at that time I will deal with all your oppressors. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. At that time I will bring you in, at the time when I gather you together; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes,’ says the Lord.” – Zephaniah 3:14-20
We are in the season of Advent which marks the beginning of the Church's liturgical year and encompasses the four Sundays leading up to the celebration of Christmas. The holy day which, of course, solemnizes the birth of King Jesus.
So, Advent is a time of preparation, a season of directing our hearts and minds toward not only the first coming of Christ, but the second. The time of our King’s final return when he will establish his kingdom in full, spreading his rule to the four corners of the earth. As such, Advent is to be both a re-enactment of the preparation of Israel for the first coming of their Messiah, as well as a dress rehearsal for his return at the end of the age.
Thus, it is a time of fasting in preparation for feasting. One corporate practice we have added to our liturgy to aid us in this preparation is the lighting of the Advent wreath or crown. A tradition that ceremonializes not only the passage of the four weeks of Advent, but the Light of God coming into the world.
The evergreen garland symbolizing, as we have noted, the enduring victory of the coming king over the principalities and powers of death. Promising eternal life even in the midst of the seemingly eternal death of winter. The lit candles representing “the fragile light of hope amidst the deep darkness of the season.” That the light of God will soon come into the world and that the darkness will not overtake it—as is promised of John 1:5. A hope that grows in strength with each passing week of Advent as another candle is lit. Thus, this wreath symbolizes the crown of light and life.
The third candle (which we will light today) is called the Shepherd’s Candle and it represents a reprieve from the hopeful gloom of winter. It’s colored pink because rose is the liturgical color of celebration. Thus, this candle symbolizes not only the elation the world experienced at the birth of Jesus (a great joy seen in the shepherds’ response to the heavenly messengers’ pronouncement), but also the gladness of the celebrants themselves having reached the halfway point of Advent. (The lighting of the pink candle means that we are halfway to Christmas.)
So today we will reflect upon celebration itself. Or, even more particularly, joy. Joy in the birth of the King. According to scripture, man was designed to live Corem Deo, before the face of God. Given this, the fullness of our joy is to be found in His presence (Psalms 16:11). The reason why this divine proximity fills us with such delight, in part, is because the Lord himself is full of exuberance as the prophet Zephaniah declares.
Verse 17 states that when Yahweh returns to his bride Judah, he does so with much rejoicing: dancing and singing in celebration of their reunion, even shouting his hymns of praise. The prophet here picturing Yahweh as a boisterous balladeer. A kind of cavorting minstrel, not a picture of the Almighty we commonly consider, especially in Reformed circles. For such unrestrained joviality strikes us, as it did David’s wife Michal, as a bit undignified for a king (2 Samuel 6).
And yet, the Psalter and the prophets often present God using such rhapsodic imagery. Not without reason. Recall Augustine’s famous phrase: Cantare amantis est: “Singing is what the lover does.”
The reason we sing and dance, as James Schall has pointed out, is because we come to a point when both prose and sitting still are not sufficient to express our joy. There are times, in other words, when it is fitting to rejoice and exult with all our might (verse.14).
When my son was young, he collected football cards. And at one point we ordered his favorite player’s rookie card from a seller on eBay. This is almost 20 years ago, now, back when ordering from eBay was not only a bit sketchy, but could take months to process. And after an exceedingly long delay, because of which I was pretty sure that we had been bamboozled, a small package addressed to Neal arrived at our address. Upon retrieving the card from the packaging, my young son broke out into the most heartfelt performance of O My Soul, Bless Thou Jehovah I’ve ever heard. A six-year-old boy’s unrestrained expression of pure gratitude toward his Heavenly Father.
Spontaneous outbursts of joy are common to lovers. An enthusiasm that is soon shared by their beloved. In Zephaniah, when the bride groom breaks out into song and dancing, we are told that the daughters of Zion and Jerusalem join in (verses 14 and 16).
Here, Judah is caught up in the joy of her husband, Yahweh. His delight has become her delight. His song, her song. (Which is something that I think should be represented at every wedding feast. The wife completing her husband’s joy by participating in it. I’ve been to weddings where the bride and groom not only dance a first dance but sing a first song. What a beautiful picture of the shared joy of Yahweh and his bride Judah, or of Christ and his Church.)
Joy, as we have noted in the past, is meant to be shared. To hoard joy is to soon frustrate it. Therefore, delight only reaches its perfection when it’s distributed. This is true of all joy including divine joy. We might even say that the reason God created Adam in the first place was to make his joy complete by sharing it.
And this is the very joy that breaks out at the announcement of the birth of the second Adam. For as soon as the good news is declared, as Peter Leithart has noted, song breaks out everywhere. Indeed, what we find in the opening chapters of Luke’s Gospel is a Messianic musical. Mary singing her Magnificat following the annunciation. Zechariah singing his version of it following the naming of his son John who will lead the way to the Christ. And the whole host of heaven singing (to the shepherds) glad tidings of the savior’s birth. Everywhere the news comes, song breaks out.
Now, an important caveat to this is that Zephaniah’s prophecy concerning the reunion of Judah and Yahweh doesn’t begin with a call to joy, but with the opposite. Indeed, the prophet begins the chapter with a frightening description of the dread that will soon come upon the nation as a result of divine judgment.
“I have cut off nations;
their battlements are in ruins;
I have laid waste their streets
so that no one walks in them;
their cities have been made desolate,
without a man, without an inhabitant.
I said, ‘Surely you will fear me;
you will accept correction.
Then your dwelling would not be cut off
according to all that I have appointed against you.’
But all the more they were eager
to make all their deeds corrupt.”
– Zephaniah 3:6-7
God is warning Judah that he has cut off other nations. As he stretched out his hand against Egypt, bringing the plagues upon them. Or, as he laid waste to the great city of Nineveh. But this time he will exercise his judgment upon his own nation and her “oppressing city” Jerusalem.
“Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled,
the oppressing city!
She listens to no voice;
she accepts no correction.
She does not trust in the Lord;
she does not draw near to her God.
Her officials within her
are roaring lions;
her judges are evening wolves
that leave nothing till the morning.
Her prophets are fickle, treacherous men;
her priests profane what is holy;
they do violence to the law.”
– Zephaniah 3:1-4
Idolatry and all of its accompanying sins are present among God’s people. They have rebelled against Yahweh and now stand condemned. Under this threat of darkness, the righteous of Judah cry out for deliverance from this oppression. But, when that day of deliverance comes, says the prophet, it will not be the kind of day they desire.
“Their goods shall be plundered,
and their houses laid waste.
Though they build houses,
they shall not inhabit them;
though they plant vineyards,
they shall not drink wine from them.
The great day of the Lord is near,
near and hastening fast;
the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter;
the mighty man cries aloud there.
A day of wrath is that day,
a day of distress and anguish,
a day of ruin and devastation,
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness,
a day of trumpet blast and battle cry
against the fortified cities
and against the lofty battlements.”
– Zephaniah 1:13-15
Clearly this is not a day of light and hope and rescue but of darkness, despair and desolation. Thus, Zephaniah calls upon the righteous to humble themselves in order to escape the Lord’s wrath.
“Gather together, yes, gather,
O shameless nation,
before the decree takes effect
—before the day passes away like chaff—
before there comes upon you
the burning anger of the Lord,
before there comes upon you
the day of the anger of the Lord.
Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land,
who do his just commands;
seek righteousness; seek humility;
perhaps you may be hidden
on the day of the anger of the Lord.”
– Zephaniah 2:1-3
We are told in chapter 3 verse 12 that a faithful remnant did repent and survived the judgment, as Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians. That through these faithful few the covenant would continue and the Messiah would come and all of the evils that Judah had suffered would eventually be reversed.
A day of new creation is prophesied here, a new exodus when all of God’s people will be gathered together from the four corners of the earth. A day when their exile will come to an end. A coming reunion when there will be exuberant rejoicing: singing and dancing before the Lord with all their might.
The movement of this text, then is one from mourning to dancing. From groaning to singing. A transition that begins with the coming of Jesus. When the bridegroom returns to rescue his beloved from her exile (which has continued since their days in Babylon).
But this good news is once again accompanied by a prophetic warning to the people of Israel (and to all nations). This time through the preaching of John the Baptist, the last of the Old Covenant prophets, who warns the nation to repent in preparation for the return of their King. For his salvation of the righteous, will also be accompanied by a judgment of the wicked.
Therefore, all must repent of their sins so as to avoid the pouring out of the Lord’s wrath. For the winnowing fork is in his hand, John warns, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. When the savior comes, all will be baptized, says the prophet. All will be immersed. Some in the Spirit, some in fire.
John’s ministry, you might say, is like that of the messenger that was sent ahead to disrupt the Canaanites before Israel moved in and conquered their land during the Exodus. John is singing a dirge, as Peter Leithart put it, a hymn of warning to the people to prepare themselves for the King’s arrival, so that they don’t mistake the nature of that coming. For the King is returning to reclaim his lands, to bring the order of heaven back to earth. He is coming to conquer, to rule with all authority. Those who resist that effort will be destroyed.
(A lover also sings songs of warning. Before God ushered the Israelites into the promised land, He made Moses compose a song warning the people of the consequences of failing to fulfill their obligations to the covenant.)
The season of Advent then, is not just one of joyful expectation, but of impending dread. It is easy to become sentimental around this time of year, for we are surrounded by sentimental celebrations. Thus we can forget (the reason for the season) that the season of Advent is inherently political.
As Leithart puts it:
“Our desire for the Bridegroom’s arrival is a hunger and thirst for God’s kingdom, and that means a longing for God to come to judge the earth. As Bride, we long for justice. As Bride, we long for the overthrow of the unjust.”
It is easy to look at the baby Jesus as safe. As non-threatening. To sentimentalize the nativity. Look at the cute little baby. Isn’t that nice?
A more fitting response is that of King Herod. Who knew exactly what the birth of this baby meant. The threat he posed to every tyrant. From the smallest to the greatest.
(If many of the people in our community really understood the meaning of Christmas, the impending judgment it witnesses to, they would want to kill that little baby lying in the manger. We believe kill babies in the womb because they are “inconvenient.” Really, it’s because they threaten our sovereignty. Our free choice.)
As the bride of the prince, we fast and morn in his absence, but when he returns, we will feast and rejoice. The celebration of Christmas is a foretaste of that wedding feast. Thus, we should sing Joy to the World the Lord has Come.
But the sobering truth is that such rejoicing will be accompanied by much lament. Singing and dancing (in the tent) along with weeping and gnashing of teeth (outside of it). Many Jews in Jesus’ day (just as was the case in the days of Zephaniah) rejected both of these prophetic songs. They rejected the warning dirge of John the Baptist (and all of the prophets), and therefore the rejoicing hymn of the angels at the coming of the Christ. As a result, the city of Jerusalem and its temple were once again destroyed. As God’s temple today, we don’t want to meet a similar fate.
Advent is not a time of sentimental ease; it is a time of preparation for the coming of God’s kingdom. The return of our King. A return that will see the overthrow of many nations (and their temples). And the exaltation of others. Therefore, we should be preparing our households, our churches, our cities, our nation for that coming judgment. So that we can join the angels of heaven in chorus on that day. Singing a new song unto the Lord. Praising his name in dancing. Worshipping God with all of our might.
“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever.” – Jude 24-25