Home Sweet Home (Zephaniah 3:14-20)
International Bible College required that we have eight campaign credits to graduate. Every semester, we students would load up and go work with a church: We’d knock on doors, conduct Bible studies, and preach when asked. The week after our campaign was always break week, and I’d head home to the bluegrass of Kentucky.
When I was a senior, I had my eight campaign credits, so when campaign week rolled around, I asked to go home and not participate. To my surprise, Jerry Davidson, our Christian service director, told me, “No.” So I called Mom and Dad and told them I’d only be home for break week.
On the second day of our campaign, Jerry had a change of heart and told me that I had fulfilled my requirements and to go on home. I called Dad at his office and told him I was headed home the next morning, but I asked him not to tell Mom. I got up early on Wednesday morning and started the six-hour drive to Kentucky. When I got to Lexington, I was about 45 minutes from home. I pulled into a Speedway directly across from the airport and called Mom. I told her that the campaign was going extremely well and that I’d see her Saturday afternoon. About an hour later, I pulled into the driveway at home. You should have seen Mom’s face! To this day, that’s one of my favorite memories of going home.
I’m sure each of you has a special memory of going home. You might also have a special memory of going home from college. Perhaps you recall walking through the front door and smelling your momma’s cooking. Or you might remember the smell of your father’s cologne as he hugged you. Maybe you remember coming home and seeing your siblings or grandparents or neighbors or pets. Whatever memories you have of home, Dorothy got it right when she said, “There’s no place like home.”
Zephaniah spoke to people who would soon be leaving home on account of their sins: Zephaniah 1:4-6. The judgment would be the Babylonian Captivity when the Israelites would be far from home.
In this morning’s passage, Zephaniah promised the people that God would gather them home; he declared, “God will bring you home.”
Scripture (Zephaniah 3:14-20)
verse 14:
The people should rejoice and exult; the day they longed for has come.
verse 15:
The Lord had taken away the people’s judgment; they had been severely chastised for their idolatry, but the Lord has taken that away.
The Lord would be in their midst, and the people would never again need to fear evil. While I’m confident that Zephaniah spoke metaphorically, it’s worth noting that a few hundred years after the Jews returned from Babylonian Captivity, the Lord Jesus did physically come into their midst.
verse 16:
The people would have no reason to fear once they were gathered back to Zion; however, they needed to be careful that their hands not grow weak. As I read the text, I can’t help but think of all the work Nehemiah and others did in rebuilding Jerusalem’s wall. When they went back, the people couldn’t be idle, for they had much work to do.
verse 17:
God would rejoice over his people on the day when he regathered them to Jerusalem.
verse 18-19:
God would gather all his people who mourned that they could not attend the yearly festivals in Jerusalem. And God would gather all the lame and the outcast.
verse 20:
God promised to make his people “renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth” when he brought them home to Jerusalem.
Application
You know that this was not some hollow promise. God sent the nation of Judah into Babylon for their sins. However, 70 years later, God, true to his word, brought his people home. God brought the Israelites home, and “God will bring you home.”
Our God has a home prepared for you; Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you[.] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (Jn 14:2-3). This morning’s text promised to bring the Israelites from Babylonian Captivity back to the Promised Land; yet, I believe we can take principles from this passage and talk about God’s taking you from Deer Park to heaven. As you read Zephaniah through that lens, the prophet gave you principles about your “Home Sweet Home.”
Home Sweet Home is a Happy Home.
The Jews would experience joy coming home from captivity: “Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!” (Zeph 3:14).
You should be the most joyful people in all the world—you have an eternal home with God. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Phil 4:4). This life is hard and full of sorrows, but you have a home waiting for you where sorrow, sin, and death cannot invade. That truth should give you joy even in the midst your struggles, for you know that struggle won’t last forever, but heaven will!
Home Sweet Home is a Hustle Home.
The Jews had work waiting for them when they returned to Jerusalem: “On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: ‘Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak” (Zeph 3:16).
You cannot allow your hands to grow weak from serving as you await your eternal abode. “My beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor 15:58). Hustle as you anticipate your heavenly home—seek the lost, serve your brethren, serve the Lord. Don’t wait for someone to tell you to do something; do it. “Let not your hands grow weak.”
Home Sweet Home is a Habitation Home.
God would be with his people when they returned to Jerusalem: “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save” (Zeph 3:17).
When you get home, God will be with you. “We who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thess 4:17). “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Rev 21:3). When this world is no more, you shall forever be with your God who created you and who loves you.
Home Sweet Home is a Harming Home.
After the captivity, God would punish his people’s oppressors: “[God] has cleared away your enemies. Behold, at that time I will deal with all your oppressors” (Zeph 3:15, 19).
When Jesus comes again, he will deal with all who trouble you. That is God’s promise: “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Rom 12:19). That is precisely what God will do: “God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you. . . . They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thess 1:6, 9).
Obviously, you pray for your enemies; you specifically pray that they might come to know Jesus and enter that heavenly home instead of facing divine destruction. However, take solace in knowing that those who trouble you will face God’s wrath.
Facing God’s wrath is the last thing I’d want to do, facing God’s wrath is the last thing I’d want for any of you, and facing God’s wrath is the last thing I’d want for my enemies: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb 10:31). Are you going to fall into the hands of the living God, or will you find “Home Sweet Home” in heaven above?
This sermon was originally preached by Dr. Justin Imel, Sr., at Church of Christ Deer Park in Deer Park, Texas.