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With Singing

             The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)

          Now and again, I hear or read questions about how God could condemn someone to eternity in Hell for telling a little white lie, stealing a pack of gum, eating an apple (or according to one atheist, eating a poisoned apple). Here’s a hint, it wasn’t an apple, and the “poison” wasn’t in it. Everyone makes mistakes. They shouldn’t be punished forever because of them, should they?

          The thing is, Adam and Eve didn’t eat the Fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil because they were hungry, or mistakenly. They chose to eat it. In the Mosaic Law, there were procedures for when someone, including the whole nation, did something wrong accidentally or impulsively. But the Israelites had not just screwed up. Their problem wasn’t making mistakes. It was knowing the Law and breaking it, not once or once-in-a-while, but consistently for centuries. And our problem isn’t that we make mistakes. It’s that we choose to do something. It’s not an “oops.” It’s not lying, theft, or poor diet choices that sends someone to Hell. It’s treason. It’s telling God will are in charge, we will worship who, what, when, where, how, and why we want, and ultimately worship ourselves instead of worshipping Him. That is what Israel did for hundreds of years, and God punished the nation, but it wasn’t with eternity in Hell. It was with a few centuries of the hell of control by someone less gentle, loving, or forgiving.

          And then God sent word to Zephaniah, to tell the Israelites what is quoted above.  God is Emmanuel. God is Yahweh (Jehovah) Gibbor. He promised to save, take great delight in and love them, and rejoice over them with singing. He would no longer rebuke them.

          I suspect that Israel might not be “there” yet. It’s coming. We aren’t there yet. It’s coming. And it sounds as though God is looking forward to. But again, using myself as an example, while I have come to accept the notion that God has saved me, is saving me, and will save me, the rest is incomprehensible. God take delight in me? God loving me? God no longer rebuking me? It isn’t that I feel rebuked, but still… God rejoicing over me with singing? I go back to the vignette of the guy in the courtyard throwing his arms wide and shouting, “I love you. I love you.” Only, God has made it a musical, possibly because “Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,” (William Congreve) or “the savage beast” as many have adapted it. Music reaches farther into our souls than mere words, and remains there.




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