17<\/strong>. Render with R.V., The LORD thy God is in the midst of thee, a mighty one who will save<\/strong>.<\/p>\n he will rejoice over thee<\/em> ] Comp. Isa 62:5<\/span>; Isa 65:19<\/span>.<\/p>\n He will rest in his love<\/em> ] Or, he will be silent<\/em>. The words seem to mean that God’s love will be so strong and deep as to hush motion or speech; it will be a silent ecstasy. The Sept. rendering, he will renew thee<\/em> (reading d<\/em> for r<\/em>), offers no acceptable alternative.<\/p>\n The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save – <\/B>What can He then not do for thee, since He is Almighty? What will He not do for thee, since He will save? whom then should we fear? If God be for us, who can be against us? Rom 8:31<\/span>. But then was He especially in the midst of us, when God the Word became flesh and dwelt among us; and we beheld His Glory, the Glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and Truth Joh 1:14<\/span>. Thenceforth He ever is in the midst of His own. He with the Father and the Holy Spirit come unto them and make Their abode with them Joh 14:23<\/span>, so that they are the temple of God. He will save, as He saith, My Father is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of My Fathers hand. I and My Father are One Joh 10:29-30<\/span>. Of the same time of the Christ, Isaiah saith almost in the same words; Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees, Say to them that are of a feeble heart, Be strong, fear not, behold your God will come, He will come and save you Isa 35:3-4<\/span>; and of the Holy Trinity, He will save us Isa 33:22<\/span>.<\/P> He will rejoice, over thee with joy – <\/B>Love, joy, peace in man are shadows of that which is in God, by whom they are created in man. Only in God they exist undivided, uncreated. Hence, God speaks after the manner of men, of that which truly is in God. God joyeth with an uncreated joy over the works of His Hands or the objects of His Love, as man joyeth over the object of his love. So Isaiah saith, As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee Isa 62:5<\/span>. As with uncreated love the Father resteth in good pleasure in His well-beloved Son, so God is well-pleased with the sacrifices of loving deeds Heb 13:16<\/span>. and, the Lord delighteth in thee Isa 62:4<\/span>; and, I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in My people Isa 65:19<\/span>; and, the Lord will again rejoice over thee for good Deu 30:9<\/span>. And so in a two-fold way God meeteth the longing of the heart of man.<\/P> The soul, until it hath found God, is evermore seeking some love to fill it, and can find none, since the love of God Alone can content it. Then too it longeth to be loved, even as it loveth. God tells it, that every feeling and expression of human love may be found in Him, whom if any love, he only loveth Him, because He first loved us 1Jo 4:19<\/span>. Every inward and outward expression or token of love are heaped together, to express the love of Him who broodeth and as it were yearneth over (it is twice repeated) His own whom He loveth. Then too He loveth thee as He biddeth thee to love Him; and since the love of man cannot be like the love of the Infinite God, He here pictures His own love in the words of mans love, to convey to his soul the oneness wherewith love unites her unto God. He here echoes in a manner the joy of the Church, to which He had called her 1Jo 4:14<\/span>, in words the self-same or meaning the same.<\/P> We have joy here for joy there; singing or the unuttered unutterable jubilee of the heart, which cannot utter in words its joy and love, and joys and loves the more in its inmost depths because it cannot utter it. A shadow of the unutterable, because Infinite Love of God, and this repeated thrice; as being the eternal love of the Everblessed Trinity. This love and joy the prophet speaks of, as an exuberant joy, one which boundeth within the inmost self, and again is wholly silent in His love, as the deepest, tenderest, most yearning love broods over the object of its love, yet is held still in silence by the very depth of its love; and then, again, breaks forth in outward motion, and leaps for joy, and uttereth what it cannot form in words, for truly the love of God in its unspeakable love and joy is past belief, past utterance, past thought. Rup.: Truly that joy wherewith He will be silent in His love, that exultation wherewith He will joy over thee with singing, Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man 1Co 2:9<\/span>.<\/P> The Hebrew word also contains the meaning, He in His love shall make no mention of past sins, He shall not bring them up against thee, shall not upbraid thee, yea, shall not remember them Jer 31:34<\/span>; Jer 33:8<\/span>; Mic 7:18<\/span>. It also may express the still, unvarying love of the Unchangeable God. And again trow the very silence of God, when He seemeth not to hear, as He did not seem to hear Paul, is a very fruit of His love. Yet that entire forgiveness of sins, and that seeming absence are but ways of showing His love. Hence, God speaks of His very love itself, He will be silent in His love, as, before and after, He will rejoice, He will joy over thee.<\/P> In the next few verses Zep 3:18-21<\/U><\/span> still continuing the number three, the prophecy closes with the final reversal of all which, in this imperfect state of things, seems turned upside down, when those who now mourn shall be comforted, they who now bear reproach and shame shall have glory, and those who now afflict the people of God shall be undone.<\/P> <\/p>\n Zep 3:17<\/span><\/p>\n The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n God in the midst of His Church<\/strong><\/p>\n Almost all the messages of the prophets to the ancient Church begin with the most awful threatenings and end with the most animating promises.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The Church is encouraged by the assurance that Jehovah is her God, her own covenant God.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>By assurances of Gods everlasting, unchanging love, and of His gracious designs respecting her. He has formed an unalterable determination to save her.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>That God rejoices in His love, and in all its sanctifying, saving effects upon His people.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>That her God is no less able than willing to effect her salvation. He is a God at hand, and not afar off. The Lord Thy God is in the midst of thee.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>To indulge unbelieving fears; or<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Slavish fear; or<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>A desponding, pusillanimous fear.<\/p>\n The second exhortation is, Let not thine hands be slack. Slackness is opposed to zeal and diligence. The remark is no less applicable to our spiritual than to our temporal concerns. Slackness or indolence is the principal cause why so few Christians are eminently pious or useful. Inferences–<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>All the doctrines and promises of Gods Word, and all the gracious assurances of His love, have a practical tendency, and are designed to produce holy zeal and activity.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Learn whether our belief of the Divine promises, and the hopes and consolations which we derive from them, are real and scriptural.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Is God in the midst of us, resting in His love to us, and rejoicing over us with joy? Then with what emotions does it become us to receive and embrace Him! (E. Payson, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Gods activity<\/strong><\/p>\n This text is cast in the Gospel mould. It has the true evangelical mark. It discovers the revelation of Gods character, which the teaching of Christ and His apostles fully confirms.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Those who labour for bread.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Those who find their wages in the work itself.<\/p>\n The one is the labourer, the other the artist. God takes delight in His work. (William Pierce.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The connection existing between God and His people<\/strong><\/p>\n In religious concerns men are always prone to run into the opposite extremes of presumption and despair. Both these mistakes arise from defective or partial views of the character and design of Jehovah.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>A character of Divine delight.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>A character of Divine permanency.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>A character of Divine expression. With singing. (Willlam Jay.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The presence of God in the midst of His Church<\/strong><\/p>\n A <\/em>revelation of the Divine goodness is essential, in proportion, to human affliction and sorrow This is true in personal and individual experience, and also in the general history of the Church. Where affliction is found, there consolation is found.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The nature of sin.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The danger of an unconverted state. (Andrew Reed, B. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n God and His people<\/strong><\/p>\n God is everywhere. His special presence in His Church is the present theme.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Under the former dispensations of mercy.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Under the present administration of the kingdom of God, the dispensation of the fulness of times; the ministration of the Spirit.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>In the heavenly world.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The power of God. Including physical power, mental power, moral power.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>God is mighty in the use of intellectual power to save His people.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>God is mighty in moral and spiritual power to save His people. God is mighty–<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> To convert.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> To pardon.<\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> To make His people holy.<\/p>\n (4)<\/strong> To protect and secure His people.<\/p>\n (5)<\/strong> To make, His people peaceful, joyful, and happy.<\/p>\n (6)<\/strong> To glorify His people.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The presence of God in His Church is its glory.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The power of God is the strength of His people (T. E. Thoresby.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n A transfiguring presence<\/strong><\/p>\n One of Goethes tales is of a rude fishermans hut which was changed to silver by the setting in it of a little silver lamp. The logs of which the hut was built, its floors, its doors, its roof, its furniture–all were changed to sider by this magic lamp. The story illustrates what takes place in the life when Christ comes into it. The character is transformed, but not the character only; all life is made new when one becomes -a child of God. Everything after that is different. The outward conditions and circumstances may be the same, but they shine now with a new beauty.<\/p>\n He will save<\/strong>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Mighty to save<\/strong><\/p>\n These words are full of encouragement.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>To banish every alarming apprehension. There is much to excite their anxiety.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>To prevent faint-heartedness and <\/strong>lukewarmness. They were to be up and doing.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The deliverance they were to experience. Regarding the passage as applicable to our great and glorious salvation, we are shown–<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> His ability to save.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> His purpose to save.<\/p>\n (3)<\/strong> The feelings with which He saves.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The consolations they were to realise.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>The honour they were to receive. It is only for the heirs of salvation that this honour is reserved, and it is by them alone that true consolation is enjoyed. (Author of Footsteps of Jesus.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n He will rejoice over thee with joy<\/strong>.–<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Gods joy in salvation<\/strong><\/p>\n It is obvious, He can save–for He is in the midst of them, and mighty. Here is nearness and power. But He will save–He is inclined, He is engaged. He will save, He will rejoice over them with joy. What is this salvation? It does not exclude temporal preservation and deliverance. We are not to look for miracles, but we may look for Him who performed them. Temporal deliverances are promised conditionally. Salvation includes redemption from the curse of the law, deliverance from the powers of darkness, freedom from the sting of death, release from the dominion and being of sin. This salvation is ensured. This salvation is begun. (William Jay.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Christs joy in His people:–In the time of Zephaniah the iniquity of the Jews was very great, and as a nation they were fast ripening for punishment. Battle and defeat, exile and slavery, were in store for them, but these would pass away, and days of rejoicing would come again. Referring to that time, the prophet calls for songs of hope.<\/p>\n Gods delight in saving souls<\/strong><\/p>\n A knowledge of ourselves will show us how much need we have of repentance; and a knowledge of God will encourage us to repent.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The evil of sin. Under whatever circumstances it may be committed, sin is directly levelled against Him.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The danger of dying in an unconverted state. Will it be no aggravation of our guilt in the day of judgment to have despised such a loving and gracious God?<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>The obligation that lies upon believers to serve the Lord. What should you render unto the Lord for all His benefits? Have no end, no aim, no wish, but to please and honour the God of your salvation. (Skeletons of Sermons.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The joy of God over His own<\/strong><\/p>\n This is one of those revelations of the character of God which are sometimes called anthropomorphic. And it is argued that to ascribe human attributes to God is to limit Him. But we may fearlessly rejoice in the inspiring revelation of the text, that society is necessary to the fulness of the Divine nature. God cannot do without His children; He finds His joy in them.<\/p>\n He will rest in His love.–<\/strong><\/p>\n The Almighty resting in His love<\/strong><\/p>\n God rules in an unquiet world. Yet is He ever at rest. He will rest in His love. The idea in the text is of Deity in repose–silent–looking calmly on all the disorders of the Church and the world, as knowing that there is one attribute of His nature which will suffice to rectify all things for the deliverance of His people.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>It is the rest of a moral satisfaction with all the arrangements He had made for mans spiritual and everlasting happiness. In this sense God rested from His work of creation. But this contentment of God with the results of His own doings was to receive a yet higher illustration. It was great to make a soul like ours; how much greater to redeem! The Almighty has delight in the provisions made for the spiritual recovery of our race. Behold, then, the great Father of spirits reposing with delighted tranquillity on the appointments and provisions of Messiahs kingdom.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>It is the rest of a Divine foreknowledge and purpose. The quietness of an Omniscient mind which, seeing the end from the beginning, will not allow itself to be moved from the fixed order of its determinations. This abstaining from interference is observable in the general order of earthly affairs, and in the lot of individual believers. To all human seeming things are left to take their course. This resting of God in His own moral determination is often remarkably illustrated in Scriptures as in our Lords delay in going to sick Lazarus.<\/p>\nFuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I. <\/strong>What is here said to the Church by way of encouragement.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>What is said by way of exhortation. Fear thou not. There are various kinds of fear mentioned in the Scriptures,–filial fear, reverential fear, humble fear, unbelieving fear, slavish fear, etc. The text forbids the Church–<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>Gods work upon the earth. This is one of the fundamental facts of our religion,–God is in our very midst. Think of the unworthy conceptions the heathen formed of God, and the imperfect conceptions Jews formed. Christianity brought God in Christ to the homes of men, to the workshops; God became God with us in the very breath we breathe. But Christianity is more than teaching. It is not a school; it is a Church. Doctrine by itself might enlighten mens minds; the doctrine and Christs presence together will conquer the heart. God is great in salvation; God is mighty to save.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>How does God think about His work? What is His attitude in it, His personal interest in it? The activities of man go into two great divisions–<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>What does the text say concerning Gods relation to us? The Lord thy God. He is our Maker; the former of our bodies; and the former of our spirits within us. But as far as we are sinners we are not the work of His own hands.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>What does the text tell us concerning His residence? In the midst of thee. God is everywhere, but not everywhere as Friend and Saviour.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>What says our text concerning His sufficiency? Is mighty. Is anything too hard for the Lord?<\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>What says our text concerning his work? He will save. Save from what?–From our supreme calamity and peril. But some may say, We are saved already. But you may know more of this salvation, feel more of it, rejoice more in it, and communicate it more to others.<\/p>\n
V. <\/strong>What does the text tell us concerning His heart? Here is a love accompanied with three characters.<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>God is in the midst of the church. He is in the midst of them for gracious purposes. There He is to record His name; there He is by the sweet experience of His promises and there He is by the most abundant communications, beyond all they ask, of that grace which is requisite for their comfort.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>God is in thy midst of his people to save them. There He communicates the immense blessings of salvation. So gracious is God, so dependent and necessitous is man, that everything may be considered as coming to us in the way of salvation. All that we receive we receive from the hand of God freely. It is one thing to find a Helper, but another thing to find a Saviour.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>He is mighty to accomplish that salvation. It is not every effort in favour of another that can be considered as salvation. Wherever salvation is wrought by one individual in favour of another it implies weakness on the part of the one, and power on the part of the other. Consider the mightiness of the Son of God as essential to qualify Him to become a Saviour. He must be mighty to save, so as to overcome the defects in our own strength, to satisfy the outstanding claims of justice against the sinner, to bring us with Divine approbation before God.<\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>He is resolved on that salvation. He will save. The declaration is so put as to pledge the will of God to the accomplishment of the work. It is not on our determination and resolves that the work is suspended, but on the resolution, the determination of Christ.<\/p>\n
V. <\/strong>Christ our Saviour delights in our salvation. Though it has cost Him so much, there is nothing gives Him half the pleasure. He is said to <\/strong>rest in His love. Infer from this subject two things–<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>Gods dwelling among his people.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Gods deliverance of His people.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>Gods delight in His people. He fills Himself with joy over His redeemed Church.<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>The exhortation which god here addresses to his people. They are called upon–<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>The grounds on which the above exhortation rests.<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>The Lord God in the midst of thee is mighty. He doeth what He will with His own, and all things are His. The greatest feel His power, and the least are not exempt from His care.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>He will save–From all useless dread and alarm, from all unnecessary trials and assaults. There is no promise that a believer shall be saved from suffering and sorrow and temptation; what is promised is, that he shall not be overcome of these. Christ will show Himself as Saviour in the days to come, as truly as in days past. He has saved. He will save.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>He will rejoice over thee with joy. His people are His by creation, purchase, adoption, and by a begun and progressive sanctification. There is nought in the contemplation of the natural man to call forth the joy of the Saviour.<\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>He will rest in His love. Margin, He will be silent, or keep silence in His love. This suggests the idea of a love too great for utterance.<\/p>\n
V. <\/strong>He will joy over thee with singing. If this is not an amplification of the preceding promises, rather than a new promise, it speaks of a time when the watchful care of the Saviour will be followed by a feeling of ecstatic joy–of a time when the silence of unutterable emotion will be broken in upon by the triumphant voice of Him whose voice is as the sound of many waters. Then, if these things be so, let me say, What manner of persons ought we to be, in all holy conversation and godliness? (J. B. Omond.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>Gods power to save. We shall not speak of Gods power in general, but as it is manifested in the <\/strong>salvation of His Church and people.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>His determination to save. If He should leave us to ourselves none of us would be saved. He takes the matter into His own hands, and determines to save those whom He has given to His Son. He does not destroy our free agency; but He overcomes our reluctance, and draws us to Himself by an operation no less powerful than that which He exerted in raising His Son, Jesus Christ, from the dead.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>His delight to save. Not merely will He feel an inward pleasure; but as a man, overjoyed at any event, involuntarily expresses his joy by singing, or some other outward token, so will God manifest His pleasure to the returning soul.<\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>His immutability towards <\/em>those whom He intends to save. Man is often alienated from the object of his affections, either by means of some unexpected evil He has discovered, or through his own fickleness and inconstancy. But God changeth not. In this glorious character of God we may see–<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>It is the joy of a strong being. The Lord thy God is mighty. Little natures are capable of little happiness. In our gladdest hours we can but dimly guess what is the bliss of an infinite Being. This joy God found in creation, in which His might was revealed.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>It is the joy of a helpful presence. In the midst of thee. There is delight in being with and doing for those we love. This <\/em>is Gods joy in His providence.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>It is the joy of giving. He will save. Not in receiving, but in giving, is found the highest and deepest joy. God finds this blessedness in the work of redemption. The incarnation and atonement are but the self-giving of God.<\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>It is a silent joy. He will rest in His love; literally, He will be silent in His love. Sometimes joy is too deep for speech. It is the unheard running of the still waters.<\/p>\n
V. <\/strong>It is an excellent joy. He will joy over thee with singing. Not silent all the time. Sometimes He sings. What are some of the notes of Gods song? We may make God glad. The sweetest words that can climb to heaven are, God be merciful to me a sinner. He will stop the music of glory, and hush the converse of the angels, to hear it stealing up to His throne. (George Elliott.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>The nature of this rest.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>It is descriptive of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ resting in His love as the great means for the salvation of mankind. It must be a sight of the goodness of God, if anything, that will lead a man to repentance. Then if God so rest in His love, how should we rest in it. How assured and tranquil should we feel in this, God loves me. There is always a firm footing there. (Daniel Moore, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n