“The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, he will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.” Zephaniah 3:17 NKJV
I wondered what that meant–“He will be quiet in His love”. Does it mean that because He loves me He will cease rebuking? No, I don’t think that’s right. The proverbs tell us that The Lord rebukes the son that He loves. I needed to do some digging.
I’m so glad I did.
It’s interesting to note that the Hebrew word used here was commonly used to denote the love between a man and a woman. Love like what we think of in human terms. Love that is deeply felt and pursued by choice.
Have you ever been told that you’re difficult to love? Ouch. I mean, really, ouch. That sting doesn’t quit.
Maybe sometimes we read of God’s agape– his unique, divine love–and we think in the secret, wounded places of our hearts “I like that, but He loves me because He must. . . Because He is love.” Something in that robs a bit of the sheen from that truth.
Listen, oh my tender heart, to what Matthew Henry writes of this verse:
“I know not where there is the like expression of Christ’s love to his church. . . The great God not only loves his saints, but he loves to love them, is pleased that he has pitched upon these objects of his love.”
This is the kind of love a bridegroom lavishes upon his bride as he stares into her eyes with wonder and joy and LOVE.
And my God looks at me like that? My heart just melted. He loves me with a joyful love!
thefreeslavesdevotion 