Seek Righteousness, Seek Meekness

2012-08-20

“Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD’S anger.” (Zephaniah 2:3).

This verse appears after a section about the LORD’S wrath that will annihilate the wicked from the face of the earth. Zephaniah is a rather sobering and frightening book:

Zephaniah 1:2-3: “I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the LORD. I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes of the sea, and the stumblingblocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land, saith the LORD.”

Zephaniah 1:18: “Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.”

So when we finally see 2:3, we see that there just may be a way to escape the wrath of the Lord; the way of deliverance is righteousness and meekness. When Judah was taken captive, an immediate fulfillment of some of this book, some people were spared and left in the land: “But the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen” (2 Kings 25:12). When the day of the LORD comes in the future, the great return of Jesus Christ, deliverance will come again for those who believe on him. How do we escape this great wrath to come?

Those people that will be delivered from the wrath are the “meek of the earth.” According to Psalm 37:11 and Matthew 5:5, the meek “shall inherit the earth.” But meekness requires humility, and humility comes from knowing who we are before God: defiled wretched creatures so wicked that God cannot even look upon us.

Those who are meek will seek righteousness, and seek meekness. And if we seek righteousness, we will find that we are not righteous, but by faith we can obtain the LORD’S righteousness. By believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, we receive his righteousness, and not any righteousness we obtain to in our selves. We do not have righteousness in us apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.

You need his righteousness. Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins in our place, the torture and death we deserved. He rose from the dead, and he is coming again. If we trust that he has paid for all our sins, and that he is coming again, we will be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger. But we have to trust him and possess his righteousness, for there is no other way to be saved from that coming day of calamity. Let us humble ourselves before the Lord, and trust in him today.