Who’s on Your Rooftop?

(All Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation, NLT.)

I Walked Right Past It

I must confess, I have read the little book of Zephaniah more than once. And every time, I walked right past verse 5. It’s a short verse, tucked in among the judgments. It doesn’t jump off the page.

This week it jumped.

For they go up to their roofs and bow to the sun, moon, and stars. They claim to follow the LORD, but then they worship Molech, too.Zephaniah 1:5 (NLT)

I had to stop and ask the Lord, “Why this verse? Why now?” What follows is what I have heard.

Here is what got me. Zephaniah wasn’t preaching to pagans. He wasn’t preaching to people who had never heard of God. He was preaching to church folks. People who sang the songs, knew the stories, and showed up for the feasts.

They never walked away from God. They just made room for a few other gods beside Him.

And I have to ask the question I don’t want to ask. If Zephaniah walked into the American church this Sunday, would he recognize us? Would he recognize me?

Revival Downstairs, Idols Upstairs

Zephaniah preached in the days of King Josiah (Zephaniah 1:1). Josiah was one of the good kings. He found the lost Book of the Law, tore his clothes in repentance, and cleaned out the temple. It was a revival.

If you had walked into the temple back then, you would have said, “Praise God, things are turning around.”

But Zephaniah didn’t stop at the temple. He climbed up on the rooftops.

In Judah, the flat roof was where life happened. Families slept up there, worked up there, sat up there in the cool of the evening. It was home. And it was on those rooftops that the people quietly bowed to the stars. Josiah had to tear down altars that kings had built up on the roof (2 Kings 23:12). Jeremiah talks about whole neighborhoods burning incense to the stars from their rooftops (Jeremiah 19:13).

So here’s the picture. Revival downstairs. Idols upstairs. The public worship looked good. The private worship went somewhere else.

That is a picture I know a little too well.

“Their King”

The word the NLT translates “Molech” is the Hebrew word Malcam. It most likely points to Milcom, the god of the Ammonites. But the word itself simply means “their king.”

Sit with that for a minute. The people swore by the LORD, and they swore by their king. Two thrones. One heart trying to bow to both.

So let me ask it plain. Who is the king of the American church?

We would all say Jesus. Judah would have said the LORD. The question isn’t what we say. The question is what wins when the two kings disagree.

I have watched the church in America tie itself to a political party. And I’m not talking about one side. I have seen it on the right and I have seen it on the left. I have seen believers who know their favorite news host better than they know the Sermon on the Mount. I have seen Christians feel closer to an unbeliever who votes like them than to a brother in Christ who doesn’t. I have seen the flag and the cross pressed together until you can’t tell where one ends and the other begins.

Here is what I keep coming back to. Jesus came to rescue sinners from every nation, not to build a party.

But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.Philippians 3:20 (NLT)

The most chilling line in the trial of Jesus didn’t come from the pagans. It came from the religious leaders.

“We have no king but Caesar,” the leading priests shouted back.John 19:15 (NLT)

The men who said that were the most religious men in Jerusalem. That ought to put the fear of God in every one of us.

Now hear me. I’m a veteran. I love this country. I believe Christians should vote, serve, and pray for our leaders. This isn’t about walking away from public life. It’s about who sits on the throne. Christ is King. Every party, every leader, every cause gets measured by Him. Not the other way around.

Our Sun, Moon, and Stars

Why would anyone in Judah bow to the sky? Because they believed the stars ran the things that mattered. The rain. The harvest. Good fortune. The future. Bowing to the stars was a way to make sure life went well.

We don’t bow to the sky in America. We’re more sophisticated than that. But we sure know how to make sure life goes well.

We trust the 401(k). Jesus didn’t call money a tool. He called it a master.

No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.Matthew 6:24 (NLT)

We trust comfort. We pick churches the way we pick restaurants, by what suits us. There was a time in America when I could find a Bible study every night of the week. Now we struggle to get people to stay for a second hour on Sunday.

We trust image. Followers. Numbers. A full parking lot.

And some of us have gone right back up on the roof and started reading the stars again. Horoscopes. “Manifesting.” “Speak your truth.” A Jesus who exists to help me reach my goals. It uses His name, but it serves me.

Zephaniah names the attitude underneath all of it:

I will search with lanterns in Jerusalem’s darkest corners to punish those who sit contented in their sins, indifferent to the LORD, thinking he will do nothing at all to them.Zephaniah 1:12 (NLT)

That’s the danger. Not loud rebellion. Quiet indifference. Sitting comfortable and assuming God doesn’t really mind.

My Rooftop First

It would be easy to write this as a prosecutor. To stand on the street and point up at everybody else’s roof. But that is not what the prophets did. Jeremiah wept over Jerusalem. And if I’m honest, I have to climb up on my own roof before I say a word about yours.

God has been healing me for a long time. That wounded seven-year-old boy. That young sailor. That middle-aged pastor. And now this older man who just wants to be like Jesus. In every one of those seasons, I had something on the rooftop. Something I trusted when I was scared. Something I ran to when I was hurting. Something I kept up there where the church couldn’t see it.

So here are the questions I’ve had to ask myself.

Does my arrogance or attitude push people away from the Jesus in me? Is it sometimes my own unbelief that keeps them from coming?
What do I scroll through and watch when nobody is looking?
Does my family see the same man the people at church see?
What do my calendar and my bank statement say I really worship? Those two are the most honest theology books I own.
Where does my mind run when I’m anxious, bored, or hurt? Whatever I run to for comfort is acting like a god.

Jesus told us to give, to pray, and to fast in secret, where only the Father sees (Matthew 6:1–18). The Christian life is supposed to be more real on the rooftop than in the sanctuary, not less.

One more thing. Judah had the Book of the Law back in hand. They had the right answers. It didn’t fix their hearts. You can have sound doctrine and a compromised rooftop. Getting the theology right matters. But it’s not the same as giving God everything.

Answer Honest

Now it’s your turn to climb up the ladder. Take your time with these. Answer honest. Not the church answer. The real one.

When I’m afraid about the future, what is the first thing I reach for?
Is there a party, a leader, or a news source I’d be slower to question than the Word of God?
If I lost my income, my reputation, or my comfort tomorrow, would my faith stand or fall?
Which commands of Jesus do I quietly treat as optional because they cost too much?
Who do I feel closer to: a believer who votes differently than me, or an unbeliever who agrees with me?
What would my family say I really live for?
What’s on my rooftop that I wouldn’t want my church to see?

The apostle John closed his first letter with one simple, tender warning:

Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.1 John 5:21 (NLT)

The God Who Sings Over Us

Zephaniah starts with some of the hardest words in the prophets. But thank God, he doesn’t end there. By chapter 3, the Lord is talking about a people He has refined:

Those who are left will be the lowly and humble, for it is they who trust in the name of the LORD.Zephaniah 3:12 (NLT)

Look at what marks them. Not power. Not influence. Not a seat at the table in Washington. Humble, undivided trust. No more swearing by the LORD and their king. Just the LORD.

And then comes one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible:

For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.Zephaniah 3:17 (NLT)

That is why God wants the whole heart. He’s not a cold commander taking ground. He’s a Father who wants to delight in His kids, calm their fears, and sing over them. Every idol on the rooftop is something we’ve trusted to do what only He can do.

So the answer isn’t finger-pointing, and it isn’t despair. It’s repentance. Climb up on the roof. Name what you find there. Tear it down. Then come back home to the God who has been waiting the whole time to rejoice over you.

The American church doesn’t need a bigger platform. It doesn’t need a better strategy or more political clout. It needs an undivided heart. It needs to keep the main thing the main thing.

The rooftop is never the last word. Jesus is.

— Brother Bill