Zephaniah 3:17 The LORD your God in the middle of you is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over you with joy; he will rest in his love… 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. I. THE NATURE OF THIS REST. 1. It is the rest of a moral satisfaction with all the arrangements He had made for man's 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 Messiah's kingdom. 2. 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 Lord's delay in going to sick Lazarus. II. 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.) Parallel Verses KJV: The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. |
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