The Book of Zephaniah Study No.1
1. ORACLES OF JUDGEMENT (1:1-2:3)
a) A Warning of a Universal Judgement (1-3)
Exposition
(Vs.1) “The word of the LORD that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, during the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah:
We read where the Word of the Lord came to the prophet Zephaniah. While we are not told exactly how the Word of the LORD came to the prophet we know that the Messiah our Lord Jesus, the eternal Word of God, pre-existed within the Tri-Unity of the God head before His incarnation. We do know from the Old Testament that the Angel of the LORD was in fact the pre-incarnate Messiah who could take upon himself human form and converse with men and women before He became a flesh and blood human being at His incarnation.
When the Word of the LORD came to the boy Samuel the LORD called His name three times and we are specifically told on the third time that the LORD stood at the end of the bed as before where Samuel had been sleeping and spoke to Him personally (1 Samuel 3:10). We see this with others in the Old Testament that the Word of the LORD Himself presented Himself in human form and conversed with both men and women (Genesis 16:7; 17:1, 22; 18:22-23,33; 33:24-30) (Judges 6:11-12; 13:1-20) (Joshua 5:13-15).
We are told in our text in verse one that the Word came to the prophet and there is no reason to doubt that He personally spoke to the prophet. The Word then, was the Pre-existent Messiah before He became a flesh and blood man. The Lord Jesus was around in the Old Testament, being Himself the Eternal Word of God, who was God and equal with God and was with God from all of eternity, (John 1:1-2) one, who has always existed and will always exist (Micah 5:2) (Hebrews 13:8). As we have seen Zephaniah was of the royal line. He was of the nobility (Zechariah 1:1). Let’s continue…
(Vs. 2-3) “I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth,” declares the LORD. “I will sweep away both men and animals; I will sweep away the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. The wicked will have only heaps of rubble when I cut off man from the face of the earth,” declares the LORD.
Through the prophet we see that there will be an ultimate judgement from God that will fall upon the whole world. Many references to this final judgement are given in the Word of God in both Testaments. Everything God has not established will be demolished and everything God has not built will be destroyed. The prophet Isaiah tells us the Lord is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it, ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants. (Isaiah 24:1) Every level of society will be shaken. This shaking will come upon the religious world, the domestic world and the business world. The world systems will be totally plundered and the nations collapse under the judgements of God. (Isaiah 24:2-3) Even the constellations themselves will be shaken. (Isiah 24:21-23) It will be a judgement upon global lawlessness.
Today the one word that would describe our world is lawlessness. God’s laws and commandments are being violated, ignored and broken without any qualms of conscience. Even the whole of nature itself will be affected by this coming judgement. The Lord Jesus Himself told us what the last days would be like before His Second Coming. He said that as it was in the days of Noah so it will be in the last days before He comes back. What were people doing in the time of Noah?
In the time of Noah there was satanic infiltration of the human race, murder and violence, evil imaginations continuously and people living only for the things of this life being indifferent to the ark of salvation God has provided in the Lord Jesus to save them, and not having any real concept of the coming wrath of God or the seriousness of their sin and rebellion against God, “having no reverence or fear of God before their eyes.” People were marrying, giving in marriage and living life as if God did not exist and that there was no accountability to Him in their mindset for the way in which they chose to live and were consequently swept away in judgement (Genesis 6:1-8) (Matthew 25:37-41).
In these opening verses of Zephaniah the prophet is prophesying for the end of this present age. As we will also see later in this prophecy there will be a faithful remnant that will be kept through this judgement and saved from it at the end, the same as we see with Noah and seven others, a remnant that will not be judged along with the rest of the world because they have been seeking the Lord by doing His commandments, seeking, hungering and thirsting for that righteousness of God that comes from faith, and seeking humility before Him. (2:3)
In both Testaments there has always been a faithful remnant that, despite severe opposition, have endured to the end and been saved and delivered by the LORD in that situation not always out of it, such as we see in the account of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who, because they refused to bow down and worship the image of the Babylonian beast empire, were thrown alive into the fiery furnace of King Nebuchadnezzar, but were protected by the Pre-incarnate Son of God walking around with them in the flames (Daniel 3:19-25).
Whatever our destiny in God’s foreknowledge and perfect plan for our lives and the days ordained for us have already been written in His book, even before they came to be (Psalm 139:15-16) Our comfort as God’s blood redeemed saints is that we will have the Lord Jesus with us in all the changing circumstances in this life that we will ever face in this world because He shows Himself faithful to those who are faithful and has promised to never leave us nor forsake us (Psalm 18:25) (Hebrews 13:5-6) (Isaiah 41:10-13) (Psalm 94:14) (Psalm 27:1) (John 14:16).
Our attitude should be like the three Hebrews who said to the pagan king; “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (Daniel 3:16-18).
Noah persevered for 120 years building that ark in a desert and there was no sign of water or rain. He and his family, eight in all, was the subject of ridicule and jest. Noah we are told was a preacher of righteousness and for 120 years warned the people about their need to be put into right standing with God by exercising faith and coming into the ark of salvation, which typified the Lord Jesus, the ark of our salvation, and the only one who can shield us with His blood against the coming wrath of God upon a Messiah hating, Messiah rejecting world (Romans 5:9).
So it will be for faithful Jews and Gentiles who believe in the Messiah for salvation, the Gentile believers having been spiritually grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel, all spiritual children of Abraham. (Romans 4:16-18; 11:15-18) (Ephesians 2:11-22). This last judgement will be upon the nations and the breadth and scope of it will far exceed any depiction of the end of the world we have seen in the disaster movies made in Hollywood. Let’s now continue…
b) A Warning against Judah’s Idolatry (1:4-6)
(Vs.4) “So I will stretch out My hand against Judah And against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, And the names of the idolatrous priests along with the priests.”
Baal was the name of the supreme ‘god’ or ‘deity’ worshiped in ancient Canaan and Phoenicia. The practice of Baal worship infiltrated Jewish religious life during the time of the Judges (Judges 3:7), became widespread in the Northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of Ahab (1 Kings 16:31-33) and also affected the Southern kingdom of Judah (2 Chronicles 28:1-2). Baal was a fertility god who was believed to enable the earth to produce crops and people to produce children. Baal worship was rooted in sensuality and involved ritualistic prostitution in the temples. At times, appeasing Baal required human sacrifice, usually the firstborn of the one making the sacrifice (Jeremiah 19:5). The priests of Baal appealed to their god in rites of wild abandon which included loud, ecstatic cries and self-inflicted injury (1 Kings 18:28).
God can put up with many things but when it comes to the murder of the innocent in the womb of their mother He draws the line in the sand. The pagans including many Israelites sacrificed their babies on the altar of Baal and today babies are being sacrificed on the altars of abortion clinics. In scripture any form of idol worship is the worship of demons. (Deuteronomy 32:16-17) (Psalm 106:36-37) (1 Corinthians 10:20). Those who advocate abortion and the right of women to have abortion and those who have it done for non-therapeutic reasons open themselves up to demons. Those within wider Christendom who bow down to images, venerate religious relics and icons and genuflect before images of the ‘saints’ and before the bread and the wine on the altar practice idolatry. Idolatry comes in many forms. An idol is anything we give more importance to that we do the Lord. Many things are not idols in themselves but when we allow them to control us they become idols and we become idolaters. We may have money but we need to control how we use it and the importance we place on it, but when it controls us it becomes an idol and we know that the love of money is the root of all evil and many, including multitudes of Christians who love money pierce themselves with many griefs and make shipwreck of their faith. (1Timothy 6:9-10)
When you look at the impact of the prosperity hyper faith money preachers are having on the wider Body of the Messiah you see this kind of thing which inevitably will bring upon them and upon those who follow them the judgement of God. These connivers are teaching covetousness and that godliness is a means to financial gain, (1Timothy 6:5) whereas godliness with contentment is great gain in God’s estimation according to his Word. (1Timothy 6:6)
A day is coming when the LORD will cleanse His temple being the people of God. He spoke through the prophet Malachi; “Behold, I will send My messenger, who will prepare the way before Me. Then the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple— the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight— see, He is coming,” says the LORD of Hosts. But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap. And He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will present offerings to the LORD in righteousness. Then the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will please the LORD, as in days of old and years gone by.” (Malachi 3:1-4)
We see this when the Lord Jesus made a whip and drove the money changers out of the Temple. When the Lord Jesus comes back He will remove all those who have been fleecing His people of their money and using their supposed faith in God as a mask for covetousness. Nothing impure or offensive or wicked will be found anywhere in the Messianic kingdom. As for the priests, the pastors, the teachers and false prophets that led astray God’s people, they will not be around having been removed from human contact.
Those who have promoted false visions, dreams and unbiblical doctrines will have gone to their own place where there is weeping and grinding of teeth. Everything that is offensive to God’s truth, righteousness and justice will be removed when the Lord Jesus comes to judge those leaders who have led His people astray. As Matthew writes in his gospel concerning this last judgement; “As the weeds are collected and burned in the fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will weed out of His kingdom every cause of sin and all who practice lawlessness. And they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 13:40-42) Now let’s continue…
(Vs.5-6) “…those who bow down on the roofs to worship the starry host, those who bow down and swear by the LORD and who also swear by Molech, those who turn back from following the LORD and neither seek the LORD nor inquire of Him.”
Jeremiah the prophet spoke about the idolatrous practices of God’s people worshipping the constellations and bowing to them in worship that would inevitably bring upon the kingdom of Judah the armies of Babylon. “The houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink-offerings unto other gods” (Jeremiah 19:13). “The Chaldaeans that fight against this city, shall come and set fire on this city, and burn it with the houses, upon whose roofs they have offered incense unto Baal, and poured out drink-offerings to other gods, to provoke Me to anger” (Jeremiah 32:29). The roofs of the houses in Jerusalem were flat. People worshiped on the house-tops, probably to have a clearer view of that magnificent expanse of sky, “the moon and stars which God had “ordained” (Psalm 8:3) which they worshiped instead of Himself. God’s people engaged in worshipping Him but at the same time worshipped the constellations.
When you look at Roman Catholicism you see people bowing down to statues and icons and images of the saints or venerating so called ‘holy relics’ or genuflecting before the bread and the wine on the altar as an act of worship believing the bread and the wine to be the incarnate literal body and blood of the Lord Jesus, you have acts of idolatry. You see worship of created things rather than the creator Himself who is to be worshipped in Spirit and truth, and God seeks those who will worship Him in this way. One cannot worship in Spirit and truth if they are in violation of the Commandments and Word of God. (John 4:23-24) The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and will never lead any believer into false doctrinal error that goes against the Word of God (John 16:12-15). When you see ecumenism and interfaith worship you have idolatry and scripture teaches us that bowing down to created things or worshipping in any other way other than the way God has ordained in His word is in itself the worship of demons. (Deuteronomy 32:16-17) (1 Corinthians 10:20).
When you look at many modern worship services these days the people are in fact not worshipping God but worshipping the worship itself with its strobe lighting, mesmerising electronic presentations, its ‘manifestations’ of one sort or another and its ‘star studded cast’ of gospel musicians being treated like rock stars, not to mention the gurus up front looking ‘cool’ in their designer fashions, trendy tee shirts and skinny jeans and prophesying blessing and prosperity while fleecing the sheep of their hard earned money.
The apostle Jude wrote about these ‘shepherds’ “who feed only themselves being clouds without rain,” because they cannot produce what they prophesy. Just like the prophets of Baal these false shepherds put on a dazzling display and seek to create a sensational atmosphere but they cannot bring down the real fire of God which purifies the heart and purges the conscience from works that lead to death to serve the Living God! The means by which God does His purifying and sanctifying work is through the blood of the Messiah applied to the doorpost of the human heart by the Eternal Spirit of God (Hebrews 9:14). These are the true worshippers God seeks and the ones who worship Him in Spirit and in truth! Now let’s continue…
c) A Warning about the Day of the LORD (1:7-18)
(Vs.7-9) “Be silent before the Sovereign LORD, for the day of the LORD is near. The LORD has prepared a sacrifice; He has consecrated those he has invited. On the day of the LORD’s sacrifice I will punish the princes and the king’s sons and all those clad in foreign clothes. On that day I will punish all who avoid stepping on the threshold, who fill the temple of their gods with violence and deceit.”
During the time of Zephaniah he would have seen the worship services in Jerusalem being conducted by the priests and the worship leaders with their musical instruments and the people of God going through their rituals and ceremonies in the Temple accompanied at times with shouts, with loud worship and praise and in their fervency fuelled undoubtedly by the myriad of false prophets telling them what they wanted to hear. The people pretended to be in submission to the LORD while at the same time in their homes and in their hearts entertaining false gods and embracing them on the rooftops of their houses at night as they stared at the constellations in the heavens. Satan always mixes truth with error. He never tells outright lies and uses scripture out of context as he knows the Bible more than most Christians do. He always seeks to secretly introduce destructive heresies. Satan always lays truth and error side by side (2 Peter 2:1-3).
In all of the noisy worship there was a call from God through the prophet for silence, to stop all of their religious activity and to realise that the Day of the LORD was rapidly approaching for the kingdom of Judah, for its leaders, its priests, its prophets and for the majority of the people worshipping false gods. The Lord had prepared a sacrifice and had set apart those whom He would use to punish backslidden Judah, whether they were princes or the king’s sons or the people who had clothed themselves with foreign garments. His instrument of judgement would be the Babylonians. Not only had God’s people adopted the dress and demeanour of the pagan nations but had also embraced their way of life. They were not clothed with the garments of salvation or wrapped around with the garments of God’s righteousness bestowed by faith in the heart resulting in obedience to God in the life. (Romans 4:1-5) (James 2:21-24) True Biblical faith produces obedience to God. (Romans 1:5; 16:26)
While a believer will at times struggle to obey the LORD and at times miss it, the attitude of their heart will be to do the will of God from their heart and seek to walk in a way that pleases Him. In the time of Zephaniah by and large the people were worshipping God with their lips but their hearts were far from Him (Isaiah 29:13). The revival under Josiah did not last even though it was a genuine revival. The term “to leap on or “over the temple threshold” may refer to the pagan practice of leaping over the threshold of their pagan temple to avoid evil spirits and possibly this practice had been adopted by many Israelites as they entered the Temple to worship God bringing upon themselves judgement for such a superstitious practice. Most likely the Babylonians would leap over the threshold of the Temple in Jerusalem to plunder it and to take the spoils back to put in the temple of their pagan gods, pagan temples filled with violence and deceit. Much of modern worship today reflects the world.
A famous preacher once said; “A ship in the water is alright but water in the ship isn’t.” Some worship mimics pagan rock concerts and breeds the worship of worship itself rather than the worship of God offered up in Spirit and in truth. Worship should be lively and spontaneity a feature of it but also there will be times of quietness as well as times of repentance and reflection yet at other times praising God as loudly as possible. It is all part of worship and when offered up in Spirit and in truth it is acceptable to God. While God allows for flexibility in worship styles He expects everything to be done in decency and order, not chaos! (1 Corinthians 14:14). After all we have been given a spirit of love, power and self-control, or of a sound mind, or way of thinking (2 Timothy 1:7). It has been said that when many Christians come to Church to worship the LORD they leave their minds out in the carpark!
However, much of the modern worship services reflect the spirit of the world rather that the Spirit of God. We are to be in the world as the ship is in the water but not of the world as water in the ship. Many of these mega-church services displaying this kind of worldly worship were stopped by COVID-19 but now the so called ‘Pandemic’ is over they have re-surfaced. God is regrouping His people, a faithful remnant in these last of the last days who will worship him in Spirit and in truth despite severe opposition and adversity, not only from the pagan world, but from those within wider Christendom who have already changed sides as it were, and are now serving Satan’s interests rather than God’s interests. And then we read…
(Vs.10-11) “On that day,” declares the LORD, “a cry will go up from the Fish Gate, wailing from the New Quarter, and a loud crash from the hills. Wail, you who live in the market district; all your merchants will be wiped out, all who trade with silver will be ruined.”
It was through the Fish Gate that the Babylonians entered the city and invaded both the upper and lower quarters of Jerusalem. Even outside of the city of Jerusalem the sounds of the invading Babylonians were heard bringing fear and terror into the hearts of the people of Judah and the crash on the hills would see the temple on Mt Zion destroyed. Everything that the people of God had trusted in for their security was completely demolished by the Babylonians. The word “mortar” was a name applied to the valley of Siloam from its hollow shape. It was the valley between Mt Zion and the Mount of Olives, at the eastern extremity of Mount Moriah, where the merchants dwelt. The mortar also conveys the ideas that like grain crushed in a mortar so the backslidden Israelites would be ‘crushed’ in the mortar of God’s judgement. This ‘crushing’ would see all activity in Jerusalem cease and the people silenced unable to protest or do anything about the invasion. Many of the merchants who sought to escape the city with their silver would find it a burden to carry and would not escape from the clutches of the Babylonians.
Today when you consider the wealth of Western Christendom, whether it be the Papacy or the wealthy denominations or the health and wealth faith prosperity churches which are numerous, it is all going to be destroyed by the Islamic armies of the beast empire of the Islamic Antichrist. Both Israel and wider Christendom by and large are away from the LORD and just as the armies of Babylon blanketed the whole land of Israel like locusts so in the last days the armies of Islam will blanket the whole Land of Israel and lay waste wider Christendom. We see this revealed in Joel’s army of ‘Locusts.’ Already the Islamic ‘locusts’ are well ensconced in Europe, England, America and even in Australia. Democracy is fast becoming a thing of the past. Satan is at work to destroy Israel and the faithful Church by every means he can. Having said this in the prophet Joel we are also told that God in His sovereignty and love will have mercy on His people and that He will drive this army of ‘locust’ into the Mediterranean and the dead sea, and that their stench will rise to the heavens (Joel 2:18-20). Let’s continue…
(Vs.12-13) “ At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those who are complacent, who are like wine left on its dregs, who think, ‘The LORD will do nothing, either good or bad.’ Their wealth will be plundered, their houses demolished. They will build houses but not live in them; they will plant vineyards but not drink the wine.”
It is written in the Torah “For the eyes of the LORD roam to and fro over all the earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him” (2 Chronicles 16:9a). God was looking for spiritual fruit from His people but was hard-pressed to find it. Nothing is hidden from Him with whom we must all give an account of our lives to Him. As the author of Hebrews writes; “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:13). In Jewish tradition on the night before they celebrate Passover, immediately after sundown, one begins the search for leaven. The aim of the search is to be sure that no leaven has been left behind after the cleaning of the house. In the Bible leaven represents three things. Firstly it represents sin (1 Corinthians 5:6-8). Secondly it represents hypocrisy (Luke 12:1). Thirdly it represents false doctrine (Matthew 16:5, 11-12).
In the time of Zephaniah God’s searchlight, being His Holy Spirit was searching for these three things in the lives of His people. Sin, hypocrisy and false doctrine and religious practices that were common place in Jerusalem, the city where God had put His name (2 Chronicles 6:6). Fresh running water gives life and vitality to the body but stagnant water is a stench to the nostrils and poison to the stomach when consumed. Those who are stagnant in spirit God Himself says He will punish, why? because they have turned aside from loving Him with all of their being and their neighbours as they would themselves, and because they have allowed idols to be erected on the altar of their hearts causing them to no longer flow with the Spirit of God.
Added to this, the Israelites in the time of Zephaniah were indulging in the practices and lifestyles of the pagans while professing to be followers of God much like we see in wider Christendom today. In the time of Zephaniah God’s people were taking it easy and living comfortably and had little or no real concern for the things of God. This Biblical concept of “being at ease in Zion” is common place within Israel and within wider Christendom today. Those who indulge in these things that turn people’s affections away from God have the attitude that He will not do good or evil to them but in their spiritual deception do not realise that God Himself says; “Woe to those at ease in Zion… You dismiss the day of calamity and bring near a reign of violence. You lie on beds inlaid with ivory, and lounge upon your couches. You dine on lambs from the flock and calves from the stall. You improvise songs on the harp like David and invent your own musical instruments. You drink wine by the bowlful and anoint yourselves with the finest oils, but you fail to grieve over the ruin of Joseph” (Amos 6:1, 3-6).
Many churches are into this kind of thing today but they do not grieve over the spiritually backslidden state of the wider Body of the Messiah or the lack of those ‘ministers’ who do not, or cannot rightly divide the Word of Truth. It’s all fun and ‘happy clappy’ feel good sessions, with gurus wearing designer clothing, with trendy tee shirts and skinny jeans telling tantalising, ear tickling stories and only focusing on God’s love but not telling them about the need for repentance, holy living, separation from the world and the coming judgement of God upon a wicked crooked and perverse generation, and the need to reject sin, and to hunger and thirst after the righteousness which God gives to all who diligently search for it (Matthew 5:6).
Multitudes of Christians hunger and thirst for miracles, signs, wonders, manifestations, personal prophecies, prosperity and health but very few hunger and thirst after righteousness, a righteousness and holiness without which no one shall see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). When the Babylonians entered the city of Jerusalem everything the people of Judah possessed and had acquired and had lived for were totally plundered. God’s judgement was against the wealthy that were callous seekers of their own pleasures. His searching would be like that of a man tracking down an escapee with a searchlight. God’s intention was to bring down the rule of the wealthy that He compared to wine left in its dregs which became undrinkable.
It can also apply to those who having consumed much wine that sit is stupor over the near empty wine cask. The wealthy who were into prosperity big time were so wicked in their thinking that they were oblivious to the impending judgement of God thinking that He was powerless and that He would just stand idly by. God’s judgement would reverse the fortunes of the wealthy in Judah who had enriched themselves, much like we see with the faith prosperity ‘prophets, apostles and leaders’ we see today within wider Christendom becoming inebriated with their wealth and prestige at the expense of the sheep! The aim of those wealthy in Judah to build and to plant and grow their businesses would be frustrated by God’s judgements. Judgement is coming to those mega churches in the western democracies into money and wealth and whose ministers are building their own empires and taking multitudes of their adherents with them into the dark pit of Hades.
Many Christians in the western democracies once associated with Judeo-Biblical Christianity are now living in a post-Christian, neo-pagan society because the glory of the LORD has departed long ago. The modern ‘Babylonians’ are on the move In the empire of Islam which ultimately will decimate many ‘Christian’ nations in western Christendom as they have already done in eastern Christendom. Already we see an Islamic ‘Trojan horse’ well ensconced within Europe, England, and America and increasing in Australia. Israel as a nation must turn back to the God of their forefathers of faith Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but most importantly to their Messiah our Lord Jesus, their Passover Lamb who has been sacrificed for their sin and for our sins as well, whose blood has fully and forever atoned for all of it (1 Corinthians 5:7).
As for wider Christendom it must throw out its ecumenism, interfaith, faith prosperity, seeker-friendly associations and practices, and the so called ‘prophets’ with the false fire, dreams, revelations and manifestations and unbiblical doctrines and practices and come back to the Word of God. As Hosea writes; “Sow for yourselves righteousness and reap the fruit of loving devotion; break up your unploughed ground. For it is time to seek the LORD until He comes and sends righteousness upon you like rain” (Hosea 10:12). Having said all of these things in these very last days God has a faithful remnant in Israel and in Christendom who will inherit the Kingdom of God on earth when the Lord Jesus has come back, having destroyed all opposition and inaugurated His Messianic Kingdom. Now let’s read on…
(Vs.14-16) “The great Day of the LORD is near—near and coming quickly. Listen! The cry on the Day of the LORD will be bitter, the shouting of the warrior there. “That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the corner towers.”
Many in Israel as usual would go to sleep or be about their daily business and many even engaged in their acts of worshipping their false gods. When it seemed their life was business as usual suddenly the alarm went out. The Babylonians were coming! The Day of the LORD for Judah would come suddenly and swiftly upon His wayward rebellious people. Amos the prophet also speaks about this sudden judgement which marks the Day of the LORD (Amos 5:18-20). Zephaniah tells what it would be like for Judah. God’s appearance in this time of judgement would resemble God’s dark and fiery cloud of His presence which was seen on Mt Saini in the time of Moses signifying that God was with the Israelites. However, this day of darkness for backslidden Judah would be a time of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, a day when all hope of deliverance was gone and where the trumpets of the enemies would put fear and terror into the hearts of all in Jerusalem and in Judah..
At this time their wealth and false prophets and their idols they had worshipped could not save them from the impending doom. Even their fortified cites and citadels would not save them. They still had the temple and the worship services but these also could not save them in the end. God’s intention in sending these judgements was always to see His people repent and turn back to Him. Even at the very last moment if they did repent and put away their idols, and even though their enemies were at the very gates of the city itself, the LORD would intervene and drive them away! Let’s now continue…
(Vs.17-18) “I will bring distress on the people and they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their entrails like filth. “Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the LORD’s wrath. In the fire of his jealousy the whole world will be consumed, for He will make a sudden end of all who live in the earth.”
While we see God’s judgement on the people of Judah it telescopes to the end of the age when not only Israel will be hard pressed by their enemies but the whole world will be reeling under the judgements of God. The day of the LORD not only includes the judgements of God but also points to the Second Coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus. Zephaniah now focuses on what will happen to Israel on the day of the LORD when the Babylonians invade Judah and Jerusalem. The LORD comes as a warrior against His own people to bring distress on them, to make them feel hopeless in view of having them turn back to Him in their extremity, even if He has to bring about a holocaust. The prophecy here is very descriptive. God is a holy God and cannot condone sin and rebellion whether it is in His own people or in the unsaved pagan world. The reason for the severity of His judgement is that His people had sinned against His holiness. When His holiness had been desecrated He responded with jealous anger.
The jealousy of God is that attribute of His character that defines Him as the source of all and everything that exists, the only one worthy of man’s loyalty, worship, love, and obedience. He is jealous of His rights as the King of the Universe which He as the Eternal Triune God created. Because of their idolatry the people of Judah had disregarded Him as their one and only true God and had sought glory and wealth for themselves and embraced the pagan lifestyles and idolatry of their pagan neighbours, even though they were still attending their religious services in the temple at Jerusalem. This is a startling almost universal trend today within western Christendom.
God’s judgement of the world begins with this oracle or prophecy (1:2-3) and resurfaces and concludes when the prophet once again speaks of the judgement of the whole world at the end of this present age. The political world, the business world, the domestic world, the military world, the rich and the poor, the generals, the mighty men, the salves, the politicians and those who are free including the religious world with its ecumenism and interfaith alliances will all be affected by this judgement which will conclude with the Second Coming of the Messiah Himself, our Lord Jesus (Revelation 6:12-17).
d) A Call to Repentance (2:1-3)
(Vs.1-3) “Gather together, gather together, O shameful nation, before the appointed time arrives and that day sweeps on like chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD comes upon you, before the Day of the LORD’s wrath comes upon you. “Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, you who do what He commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the Day of the LORD’s anger.”
Repentance will always be offered before retribution comes. Repentance always comes first before seasons of spiritual refreshing come from the presence of the LORD (Acts 3:20). Repentance always comes first! God would rather have mercy on men and women rather than judge them because He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). Especially He wants to have mercy when His own people have spiritually backslidden into the world. Here in Judah He calls for the Israelites to come together again as a nation to come before Him with a repentant heart and with a willingness to seek Him again with all of their being and to throw away their idols. God calls them “a shameful nation” and to prepare themselves to be swept away in His judgement like chaff before the wind, a judgement that will consume them like fire or blow them away like the wind. Judah must do something before the terrible Day of the LORD comes upon them. The Day of the LORD in the Bible is never one of peace and prosperity but an expression of His wrath. His warning to them was repetitious in order to engage them, to arrest their attention to seek Him so that they might be spared His judgement. Those who were godless had been accused of not seeking Him (1:6) and the judgement would not pass by them.
For the godly who did not fall into idolatry, and there is always a faithful remnant in a time of judgement, whether that judgement falls upon the world or upon His people who have backslidden spiritually. In these last days as we see the world coming under the judgement of God and the global apostasy spreading like wildfire through Christendom and even by and large in Israel, there is still a faithful remnant sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption, that, although in the world, they are kept spiritually secure by the Spirit of God even in the midst of judgement.
This was the case of the Israelites in Egypt when the judgements of God started to fall. They were protected by the blood of the lamb when they applied its shed blood to the tops and sides frames of their houses. God passed over them when He saw the blood on their doorframes (Exodus 12:13). When the wrath of God came upon the Egyptians the Israelites were out of Egypt and on their way to the Promised Land. They had experienced tribulation in this world but did not experience God’s wrath.
The same is true for us as the Body of Messiah as we see the close of this present age approaching with an increased rapidity. We are destined for tribulations in this world but not for wrath, because we are justified before God and sheltered by the blood of Messiah from the wrath of God (1 Thessalonians 1:10; 5:9) (Romans 5:9). When the wrath of God is poured out just prior to the return of the Lord Jesus we will be taken out of the world. We will be seen coming out of the Great Tribulation (Revelation 7:14).
For those who humbly sought the LORD in Judah and who desired to do what He commanded them to do, and sought righteousness from God received through faith (Habakkuk 2:4), and sought to be empowered by His humility, would be sheltered by Him in the day of His judgement. This will be true for all those in this present age who do what those faithful Israelites did in Judah. We will not be judged along with the rest of the world because our sin and judgement was laid upon the Lord Jesus at the cross.
However, we are also called by God to be faithful to what we believe. In these last of the last days we need to be continuously seeking the LORD in every area of our daily lives, walking in step moment by moment with the Holy Spirit by faith and with a willing and obedient heart as we continue to live in this wicked world with an apostate Christendom that is heading for judgement and ultimately for God’s wrath.
Today God does protect His people but not always physically, but always spiritually. Those who have been sealed with the Holy Spirit may be persecuted by Satan in this world, but he cannot touch their spiritually regenerated inner spirit even though he afflicts their souls with temptation, persecution and with difficult circumstances, trials and tests of every kind. God says to us through the prophet Isaiah, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you” (Isaiah 43:2).
