“For then I will change them to peoples with purified lips, That all of them may call on the name of Yahweh, To serve Him shoulder to shoulder.”
Zephaniah 3:9, LSB
God gave these words to Zephaniah to give to those in Judah not only to call them out for their idolatry but also to give them hope for the future. God was foretelling the coming of the Christ to the people and when the full revelation of the Gospel would be given to the people. The people of God have always been rebellious against the Word and often try to seek comfort through the Law, which only emboldens them into thinking that they are righteous by their own doing and don’t truly need God. Our Lord seeks for us to know Him purely and wishes that His Word be proclaimed always in its purity. We like to put “God and,” but, as it says, there is simply a statement, “In the beginning God.” As we have the Word written on our hearts and the pure Gospel revealed there is nothing more. We simply have God before us as revealed in Jesus Christ and the salvation that He has given to us. In this we are called to stand and serve Him shoulder to shoulder.
Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.