Strange Apparel and Stolen Thresholds…

I was reading in the book of Zephaniah a few nights ago and two verses resonated in my spirit.

Zephaniah 1:8-9 KJVR
8 And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD’S sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.
9 In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.

Another translation puts it this way…

Zephaniah 1:8-9 ESV
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.

As Zephaniah speaks about coming destruction and judgment, he slips a statement in dealing with Judah and the children of Israel.

He declares that there are two groups that Jehovah will descend upon with wrath in particular among all there.

Those princes or the sons of the King who have begun to emulate the foreign nations by their apparel and appearance. They who have sold out their distinctives and become indistinguishable from the world around them.

Then there is another group. They are the ones who enter into the homes and lives of others robbing, destroying, and pillaging. They take what is not theirs and destroy the safety of their fellow Israelites wantonly.

What is shown in the flesh in the Old Covenant is reflected in the spiritual in the New.

There is a principle at work that runs a thread through these verses and through our lives today.

God speaks many times and many ways of these actions and attitudes that bring Him into a situation personally.

He decries those who are brought into the family, becoming in Spirit and spirit princes, brothers of Christ the first born, and fellow laborers who cast away the distinctives of appearance to embrace a world not their own. There are those who fade into the world so well that they lose their witness. Those who willingly trade their Spiritual adornment for the trinkets and baubles of the flesh.

There is yet another group that walks under the stern gaze of a reproving Christ. Those who enter the lives and spirits of their brethren and steal away their safety. They use their liberty as license and destroy the weaker and younger ones. Their words and actions and attitudes destroy the faith and conscience of those around them.

Are we guilty of these things?

Do we appear as the world around us or is there that which sets us apart from it?

Do we with Paul love our brothers enough to sacrifice our liberty for their safety?

Have we broken the walls down around our brothers souls and left them prey for an enemy?

Just a few thoughts to consider…

It is truly a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.