A few faithful warriors

For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs. (Zephaniah 3:17)

Judah was in pretty bad circumstances all due to their idol worship and all the wickedness they had embraced because of the influence of the foreign peoples they were living amongst. The whole purpose of Zephaniah's words was to call Judah, and especially Jerusalem, to repentance and restoration. They have become rebellious, full of themselves, moving further and further away from the worship of the one True God. The people had 'mixed' religious practices, some were what God had asked in the Law of Moses, others were from the regions in which they now resided. Whenever we allow a 'mixture' of practices or beliefs, departing from what scripture clearly defines as moral, upright, honorable, or holy, we are in danger of doing exactly what Judah is found at fault of doing. The danger is that God pronounced judgment as a result of their departure from 'pure and undefiled' worship of the One True God on them, so what makes us think anything will be different for us?

As long as there is a remnant willing to fall on their knees, call upon his name, repent and turn from the evil of the times, there will always be hope for God's redemptive work. We may not see it on the horizon or appreciate all that God is doing behind the scenes, but he is at work! The principle of the 'remnant' is interwoven throughout all the prophetic writings of scripture. Sin might abound, but the 'remnant' who seek his face are more powerful than any amount of evil that abounds. There have always been those who remain true to him in spite of the wickedness around them. From Noah down through the ages, the remnant has been there. The preservation of 'goodness' and 'grace' rests on the shoulders of those who will seek him, calling for his intervention, and looking forward to his redemption. 

We may not see the 'remnant' as all that important, but it has always been the one willing to step up, step into the gap, and keep on praying that has brought God's intervention and grace. Let us not stop being the 'remnant' that seeks God even when it seems evil's intent is carried out more than goodness is. We won't know what God will do with a few faithful warriors until we see his armies back up their prayers. Just sayin!