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Foreign attire and the fear of man
To what extent should we as a church conform to our culture? That’s a very tough question, and it’s a similar problem to what was taking place in Judah in Zephaniah’s day:
Zephaniah 1:7-9
7 Be silent before the Lord GOD!
For the day of the LORD is near;
the LORD has prepared a sacrifice
and consecrated his guests.
8 And on the day of the LORD’s sacrifice—
“I will punish the officials and the king’s sons
and all who array themselves in foreign attire.
9 On that day I will punish
everyone who leaps over the threshold,
and those who fill their master’s house
with violence and fraud.”
Two statements stood out to me the most. The first was that God condemns the governors of Judah for wearing foreign clothes (v. 8). I don’t think this was prohibited in the law per se; rather, it sounds like it the wearing of foreign clothes is an outward sign of an inward focus on looking like the surrounding nations. Whenever our primary concern is to look like the unbelieving culture around us, we have (metaphorically) made foreign attire a priority rather than following the Lord.
The second statement was that God would punish “everyone who leaps over the threshold” (v. 9). A couple of sources I looked at drew my attention to 1 Samuel 5:5, where stepping over the threshold is mentioned as a custom of the Philistines in honor of their god, Dagon. So the people of Judah have adopted a foreign religious practice, mixing the Lord’s commandments with those of idols. This is syncretism at its finest.
Obviously, we should seek God’s approval, not man’s (Galatians 1:10). This is very hard for me since the fear of man is very powerful in my life; I want other people to love and respect me. Often, I forget that it’s more important to show love to others in my speech than to come up with a clever thing to say. On an individual and corporate level, we have to remember that often what is pleasing to God will end up being inconvenient, difficult, and countercultural. It affects what we say, how we say it, how we dress, how we spend our money, how we spend our time, how we treat those who rub us the wrong way, even the way in which we think. The gospel calls for total transformation, and the fear of man is not compatible with it.
Following the Lord in daily devotion
In a time when I was more sarcastic than I am now (yes, I have toned it down a little), I would sometimes refer to “quiet times” and “devotionals” as the evangelical Christian sacraments. It seemed to me that there was a constant obsession with them in a lot of evangelical circles — you’ve got to punch in your daily time with the Lord or else you’re a sinner!
I’ve mellowed out a bit in the last few years. One of the main reasons is that I’ve seen in my own life and in the lives of others what happens when daily Bible study and prayer are neglected. Without fail, it’s the times when we are weak in this area that are also times of sin and spiritual dryness. When my mind is not daily brought back to a dependence on God and His Word, I am prone to wander away, my eyes no longer fixed on Jesus.
Of course, another reason these disciplines are so important is because God says so:
Zephaniah 1:4-6
4 “I will stretch out my hand against Judah
and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal
and the name of the idolatrous priests along with the priests,
5 those who bow down on the roofs
to the host of the heavens,
those who bow down and swear to the LORD
and yet swear by Milcom,
6 those who have turned back from following the LORD,
who do not seek the LORD or inquire of him.”
Verses 4 and 5 talk about how the people of Judah have rejected the LORD in favor of other gods. Sometimes, this rejection takes the form of a fake recognition of God (v. 5) — of divided loyalties. The people have tried to keep both their bases covered by trying to please the LORD and Milcom at the same time. I see this in my own life as I try to please God and at the same time focusing on pleasing myself or others. It just doesn’t work.
The people have rejected the Lord, and they no longer follow Him. What does it look like when we no longer follow the Lord? It means we “do not seek the Lord or inquire of him” (v. 6). We don’t seek the Lord’s help by praying, and we don’t inquire of His wisdom by studying the Bible. This is a sure path to idolatry.
So, as it turns out, daily devotions are important after all. Don’t slack off!
