· Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18
· Psalm 90:1-8, 12 (12)
· 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
· Matthew 25:14-30
Sometimes you have to wonder what in the world the translators were thinking. They translated Zephaniah 1:12 as "I will punish the people who rest complacently on their dregs", but then they put a little footnote in tiny letters that says "Hebrew: who thicken." So "I will punish the people who thicken on their dregs."
Of course if you know nothing about making wine, the original makes no sense at all. But here is the thing: first of all you crush the grapes in a wine press. Out comes a slurry that contains grape juice, but also the pulp, skin, seeds, stems, and other things that were thrown in or fell into the press, such as insects, spiders, who knows what else. So now you have to separate the juice from the solids by filtering. But once you have filtered out the visible solids, there is always a certain amount of suspended particles that have passed through the filter, and that remain suspended as long as the liquid is agitated. If you let the liquid sit, the particles will gradually fall to the bottom. That's the dregs. If you let the wine sit on the dregs, it will get a bad taste, so you carefully drain out the liquid without disturbing the bottom, so the dregs aren't stirred back into the wine. But you can never get all the liquid out, or you'd be getting the dregs along with it; so when you have drained as much as you can, there is still some wine sitting on the dregs. Now if you let that sit instead of cleaning the container right away, it will congeal into a sticky mass that is impossible to clean out of the wine jar, so now your jar is ruined and you can throw it out. This residue is so tenacious and typical of wine-making that archaeologists have identified it in old clay jars from Egypt dated to 3150 BCE, and that slurry is the earliest evidence we have of wine-making.
So that's what Zephaniah wrote down. It's not just about "complacency", which is bad enough. It's about people who sit in their impurity, out of laziness, until they harden into a vile sticky gunk that ruins the container.
There is a sort of sequel to Zephaniah 1:12 in Philippians 2:17: "But even if I am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you." Paul is not sitting on his dregs, becoming sticky and useless. He is being poured out. Is that a good thing? Not for him. Listen: "Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked." (2 Corinthians 11:24-27)
For the wine, being poured out means being consumed; and for the jar, being poured out means being emptied. For Paul, and for Jesus whose life was even more poured out for us, it's both. They are consumed and absorbed by their flock until they are empty. They are exhausted, not only as "tired" but as "emptied out completely." And this often happens to those God chooses to do his work. Mother Theresa, for example, while doing works of great glory for the Lord, felt an inner darkness and fatigue she didn't understand.
Many people think that by being "saved" or "born again" or by "accepting Jesus as their personal saviour", they are gonna get a better deal in this life. They're probably the same people whose prayers sound more like a letter to Santa: "I want this loot and this loot and this loot, we-ask-this-in-Jesus'-name-amen." That could not be further from the truth.
If God chooses you to be a disciple, your life will be poured out in his service. It will be consumed and exhausted, and when you think there is nothing left in you, somehow the Spirit will continue pouring you out for the glory of God. It will not feel good. It will not make you happy. It will not make you rich, famous, popular, with your own TV show and fan mail. It will make you empty and exhausted.
So what? It's not about you. The work of God is for the world, not for the individual. When your life is poured out in the service of God and you are empty and exhausted, your reward is in heaven. If you are looking for rewards in this life, you've come to the wrong God. If you don't want to get poured out, you can go sit on your dregs until you coagulate into a vile jelly. Go right ahead. Get your rewards in this life, cause you sure won't get any in the next. But if you want to serve the Lord, be prepared to get poured out, consumed, exhausted, and yet poured out again when you think you're empty. Just like Jesus and the Apostles.
Praise be to God, the Compeller, the Witness, the Truth, Owner of the Kingdom.
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