A True Hero
The Lord your God is with you as a hero who will save you. He takes great delight in you. He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)
Everyone likes a hero. Any good action book must have a hero and a villain. It’s the hero craze that has made Marvel and Disney so popular lately. We want a hero who can rescue us from the things that we fear.
Zephaniah tells us that we have a hero who can save us from the things we fear most. God is our hero. He is the one who can save us.
Zephaniah lived and wrote during the reign of King Josiah. Josiah was a young king, and yet God praises him for turning the people back to God. Josiah tore down the idols and the Asherah poles that the evil kings of Judah had erected. And the Lord blessed Josiah. But the Lord had also promised that he would send the people into exile for their idol worship. And the people were afraid. The Lord even repeats that promise through Zephaniah. But God also promises to be their hero, to bring them back from their exile and save them.
What are you afraid of? Are you afraid to die? Are you afraid that someone might find out about the things that you have done? Are you afraid that your true thoughts about someone might be discovered? Sin and death are frightening things. Sin bullies us and entices us to follow after it. And Satan uses death to frighten us into forgetting the truth.
But the Lord is our hero. In sending Jesus to this earth, he has rescued us from the clutches of sin and death. They have no power over us anymore. And they cannot frighten us. No longer does our sin count against us. No longer is death eternal separation from God. Instead, we are forgiven, wiped clean by the blood of Jesus. And death is just a portal into eternal life. It means an eternity spent with God.
Because of Jesus, God takes great delight in his people. He quiets us when we are frightened and rejoices that we are his. This is who our hero is. Amen.
The song for today is “My Jesus, My Saviour” by Light Generation